Topic: Sowing peas

[Jeannine]

 I have mice, etc

I can't do the guttering trick as I have no place to put it

Sowing direct I will lose most of me seed

So, sowing in pots seems the answer and putting plants out late.

any idaes as to what size I can get away with, jiffy pellets maybe, or smallest pots that will do..help generally !!

XX Jeannine

[goodlife]

I start mine in 3" pots and put around 5-8 peas per pot. when I plant those in ground I leave 2-3" space between 'pot'. I think Jiffy's will restrict the roots too much.
Have you got GH..could you hang long piece of guttering or long plank or wood from wires inside the GH and place shorter pieces of guttering with planted peas on top that long piece. I found that is almost only way to keep the bleeder away from my peas.

[galina]

I have mice, etc

I can't do the guttering trick as I have no place to put it

Sowing direct I will lose most of me seed

So, sowing in pots seems the answer and putting plants out late.

any idaes as to what size I can get away with, jiffy pellets maybe, or smallest pots that will do..help generally !!

XX Jeannine

I grow indoors to a couple of inches tall and transplant in groups of 3-5 and fit a bottle cloche over each group.  Tedious yes, but this is the only way to protect them from mice.  Once they start growing through the top of the bottles, they are not so much at risk.

The up-side is that I have been planting out very early now for several years and with the bottles I have not had losses but got a long pea harvesting season and no maggots.  Took a nice photos for my friends in the USA of my cloched 'snowpeas', covered by an inch of snow. ;D  No problem, they can stand quite a bit of frost.

[saddad]

I'd have to resort to a non-humane trap...  :-X

[green lily]

I lost all my ground sown peas :( [bar one!] but those in guttering on a bench and those in an old freezer box survived and I planted them out yesterday.
The culprit of the pea eating was a rat from under the compost. I used bait in the end and we [ ie my grandson] wrapped it well and put it in the bin. We seem ok now until the sparrows find the peas and eat the leaves..... ::)
I find guttering stabilises between the slats of the bench pretty well but of course it can be hung from a bar - but then you bang your head :-\

[Jeannine]

The guttering is what I have always done in the past but it is impossible with my set up now.

I will do the 5-6 seeds in each  pot thingy, thank you

Actually I have half a case of 4" peat pots which I didn't like last year for transplants so I might get away with those.

Ta

XX Jeannine

[antipodes]

funniest thing, despite the ravaging voles, they never seem to touch peas??? But I have started them off cloched or fleeced, maybe that does it?

[galina]

funniest thing, despite the ravaging voles, they never seem to touch peas??? But I have started them off cloched or fleeced, maybe that does it?

Sowing outdoors even under cloches I lose the lot.  Planting out works better,  I learned to make sure that the remnant of seed pea attached to the plants is buried too.  This is the most attractive bit to mice/voles. 

But as far as possible I bottle cloche the lot now.  Even with hiding the seed pea remnant I used to get losses under ordinary cloches.  Once they cotton on, it seems they tell all their friends  >:(  and within days problems start.  As the plants get taller, the seed pea remnant disappears and the plants are safe until later in the year when they start eating the lower pods.  This is why I have stopped growing short varieties.  You'd think with brushy pea sticks to support plants they would not get to low pods, but they do. 

I have hopes that our problem diminishes soon, because we have recently acquired tawny owls in the near vicinity. 

[gavinjconway]

Hi Jeannine... Have you thought of the "soak in paraffin" option to deter the blighters? I am a newbie and will try it as under my Damson tree there was same old corro roof sheeting and underneath was a ton of Damson stones been stored by mice.. So we must have them around so will take no chances and soak them for a few mins before planting..

[Jeannine]

Hi, no I would not do the paraffin thing, actually we are not allowed tio use anything at all that is not organic, our gardens are very strict on that.

We do also have a vole problem which I had forgotten about.

It is a bird santuary too and I truly think some of ther birds watch us plant, wave bye, then dog seeds up.

Then we have the rabbits,bobcats and coyotes, even a cougar was seen once,makes me wonder sometimes how we get a harvest at all.

We don't back on to forest as many of our gardens do though otherwise we would get the deer and bears too.

Lets be thankful for small blessings eh?

I will cloche and I have quite a few wall of waters too which might help with some things.

XX Jeannine

[artichoke]

COUGAR???!!?   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mountain_lion.jpg

Wow! That puts our badgers and foxes in the shade  ::)

[gavinjconway]

COUGAR???!!?   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mountain_lion.jpg

Wow! That puts our badgers and foxes in the shade  ::)

And my mice!!

[Nigel B]

Jeannine.
Maple Ridge! That's where I stayed back in nineteen-eightysomething.  ;D
Where's The Witch pub? I think that's what it was called... Hmmm

Plastic bottles for me. As many pops as I can get our grandchild to drink!  ;)

[Aden Roller]

Tedious but it works:

I make lots of small paper pots from old newspapers and sow the peas two to a pot. It uses less compost than 3" pots and allows me to plant out with regular 3" spacings.

The paper pots can be as tall as you like. Simply cut strips from an opened out newspaper (an inch wider than the depth of the finished pot) wrap around a cylinder (wooden pot maker tool or similar) fold in the end and squash flat (not the whole thing!!  :D).

Finally fill with compost, plonk in the seed/s and water.

Place the lot in a seed tray to make it easier to transport and water them.

Works for all sorts of seeds. The paper pot rots away once transplanted so no root disturbance.

A rather long winded video showing paper pot making but larger ones than I make. "How to make a paper pot"

[Jeannine]

Nigel, the pub in Mapleridge is called The Witch of Endor, it was built in 77 by friends of mine (part of my morning coffee group in the days when I was bone idle in a checked apron).; The owner lived in the same street as me in Mapleridge and abiut 8 of us met for coffee every morning.

The Witch of Endor name was a used as it was a British Ship and the pub was to be a Britsh style pub.It is on Dewdney Trunk Road.

Mapleridge is where I have lived most of the years I have been in Canada, although not right now, I am about 12 minutes drive from there right now but go there often as my grandaughter lives there. It was the first place I lived too so I am very fond of it. It has changed very much now but the Witch is still there.

XX Jeannine

[Jeannine]

Aden, thank you, I do have a paper pot maker which I could use for that.

XX Jeannine

[bluecar]

Hello Aden.

Thank you for the tip. Roughly what diameter and height do you use (before folding/squashing)?

Do you have to join the end to the main pot by glue or sellotape although sellotape I guess doesn't rot down.

Regards

Bluecar

[artichoke]

About paper pots:

I never block up the bottom end, which saves time and effort. All the pots are placed empty into a plastic box and then filled with compost. By the time the seedlings are ready to plant out, their roots are holding on to the compost, so very little falls out when the pot is placed in its hole.

A quick way of making them is to roll a sheet of newspaper into a long cylinder, staple both ends, then cut into shorter lengths adding staples as you go, 2 staples per pot. I suppose my allotment is full of rusty staples, but I never see them.

[elhuerto]

I've used toilet roll holders for peas, leeks and sweetcorn and they work a treat as long as the top of the holder is buried when planting to stop is drying out.

[Kleftiwallah]

If you have acces to gorse bushes,  gather a quantity of trimmings and lay these in the pea trench, plant your peas and then more gorse clippings above, so the peas are protected from the mice's tender noses by prickely gorse.    Cheers,    Tony.