I made a little sweet pea bed this spring. It is a little too dry and they have struggled, but I'm still hoping for flowers. The seeds were ordered from two different companies, and one package definitely had smaller seeds. I started them early as I did the garden peas. The smaller seeds had fern like foliage, and the flowers opened a couple days ago. Last week a visiting friend told me that she thought it wasn't a sweet pea at all, but an invasive plant in the pea family called Vetch. Some reading shows that it is used as a green manure crop, but also highly invasive. I think that they may be right that it is Vetch. I'm attaching some photos if anyone is familiar with the plant? My plan is to remove it, but I'm unsure of disposal, of if I will have to dig it out. I don't want to damage my beloved sweet peas. I'm not sure how it spreads, or if I could let it flower and then remove it. I'm still exploring that. I called the seed company to tell them that their "sweet pea" seeds were not sweet peas at all, but I have yet to have a reply. Is anyone familar with this plant?
Mel, we have both had a look at your photo, and agree that the plant is one of the vetches. Probably wood vetch. If those were in my garden, I would very carefully cut the stems of the vetch at the base so that they would die off, and remove the flowers so they can't seed. This way if they have wrapped themselves around the sweet peas at least you won't get damage to those.
Thanks Tetters. That's great advice. I really appreciate you guys looking into my question. I'll take care of that today
Absolutely agree it is a common vetch, and goes pretty crazy because it spreads by seed. It’s in the bean family, so you’ll notice a flattened bean pod as it matures. Try to remove it before it goes to seed to keep it from spreading. But this winter annual weed is valuable to some, as it is often used as a cover crop and being a legume, it is forage for livestock and wildlife. Luckily, it can easily be removed by hand.
