Topic: help with peas please.

[pookienoodle]

I planted some douce provence peas in a propagator on my bedroom windowsill,they are all doing nicely and my 3 year old is loving watching them grow.
 My question is as the weather has been so terrible when and how should I plant them out?my lottie has clay soil.
do I use a coldframe? cloche? netting? fleece?
never overwintered anything before so this is new to me.
my location is a south wales costal town if that is relevant.
any advice welcome. :)

[saddad]

Has the soil been worked? It will need to be reasonably fine for the peas.
You should be ok on the South Wales (Coast). I would have thought netting was a must against pigeons... they would probably appreciate some protection so if you can spare the "frame" space I would bung them in there with some nett over the top to keep the birds out...

[pookienoodle]

Thanks saddad
I have one small bed worked,a cold frame and some debris netting :-[
the lotties not really ready to go yet but my son really wanted to plant peas!
I don't want them to die on me now as he is quite attached.

[tomatoada]

My peas Feltham First are in a mini green house.  I hope to plant them out under a mini polytunnel as soon as we have a dry day.   As saddad says the soil needs to be well dug and fine.  My polytunnel is made of arches from plumbers piping and cheap polythene from Wilcos.  I might put fleece over as well this time.   I hope we have some early peas both of us.   Does this help?

[cleo]

My concern would be that your soil is getting a bit cold by now and peas from a propagator would get an awful shock if planted out.

I would either cloche the soil for them and wait a few days (meanwhile take the young plants out of the current home) before planting    or --just harvest them for their young shoots-they do taste nice!!

And then next season start a little bit earlier and have somewhere ready to get planted up around mid-late October.

It`s the clay that concerns me---once it gets cold and wet at this time it never really warms up again until the spring

[pookienoodle]

My concern would be that your soil is getting a bit cold by now and peas from a propagator would get an awful shock if planted out.
I would either cloche the soil for them and wait a few days (meanwhile take the young plants out of the current home) before planting    or --just harvest them for their young shoots-they do taste nice!!

And then next season start a little bit earlier and have somewhere ready to get planted up around mid-late October.

It`s the clay that concerns me---once it gets cold and wet at this time it never really warms up again until the spring

thanks
the prepared bed has a double layer of cardboard over it,will this have helped?
the shoots are in a cheap plastic propagator in  my bedroom which although sunny has no heating,will popping them in the coldframe  still in the module tray help them acclimatise?

[cleo]

Yes to all that and good luck :)

But I still say next year bring everything foreward two to three weeks.

I still remember when  I started-and this old chap said "First year is for learning,second year is for growing"

[pookienoodle]

Yes to all that and good luck :)

But I still say next year bring everything foreward two to three weeks.

I still remember when  I started-and this old chap said "First year is for learning,second year is for growing"

thanks that sounds like good advice.

[calendula]

one never wants to disappoint kids when they show an interest in growing plants or food and all advice given so far is good, but I would add it is hard to know how much quicker you will get peas to be honest especially when planting out soon as the 'hardening' off will have to be done carefully and slowly to make sure you get them through the winter - but you can always eat the pea tips, excellent in salads