Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: thomasb on April 28, 2005, 22:31:17
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Hi,
I am having problems with mice digging up and eating my peas I sowed 2 weeks ago. I sowed my early peas in modules and planted them out and they are fine....However, I sowed my next batch of peas directly into the ground and the mice are having a field day. I am finding half eaten peas stored in my cold frame 5 metres from where there were sown. Where are the peas are s riddled in small holes. Other allotment olders have also complained that their peas and beams are been taken my mice too.
Have anyone ideas on howto protect the next set of peas I will sow in a weeks time.
Thomas
PS... I though I was covered by protecting my peas with netted wire from pegions that live in a clump of trees close by....
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A couple of the older gents at our allotments reckon you should soak peas in paraffin before planting to keep the mice off. Haven't tried it myself but they swear by it apparently... :)
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A herbalist recommended pepermint oil as a good mouse deterent
Phil
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Chillie pepper.
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rhubarb leaves or rhubarb leaf tea.
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What's the rhubarb tea recipe. My peas are doomed.
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I saw this recipe on a US Forum about a year ago.
It had been concocted by a lady to combat bugs and beasties on crops to great effect it would seem. It was being widely used throughout the USA by forum members who raved about its success so much so they were experimenting on its effect with larger pests i.e. rabbits etc.(husbands/partners excluded ladies ;)) so it might just work on mice
I have (or should I say the Governor) has tried it at home and it does appear to work...worth a try.
Have fun
Derek
Recipe:
1 pint of hot peppers/cayenne Pepper
1 bulb of garlic
2 tbs dish soap
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 5 gallon bucket and 4 gallons of water
cheese cloth
Puree the peppers and garlic then add a little water and puree more.
Add pepper mix to water and cover. Let it sit over night. Strain through cheesecloth into a 2 gallon garden sprayer. Add soap and oil.
Spray plants, leaves, stems and around the trunks on the ground.
DO NOT Spray in the heat of the day or when the plants are in direct sun as it can burn the plants.
Must be reapplied after rain or watering.
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What's the rhubarb tea recipe. My peas are doomed.
Rhubarb (Rheum rhaponticum).
Perennial potager plant.
Active ingredients. Oxalic acid as salt of calcium.
Action. Insectifuge against aphids, caterpillars, and other larvae. Repulsive to herbivores.
Preparation. In cold maceration, use 1 lb. of chopped leaves in 3 quarts of water; allow to soak 24 hours before filtering. Use full strength. This is a great way to use rhubarb leaves as you eat the stalks.
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For the mice reason, I always grow my peas and beans in modules now, then plant out after germination. This avoids any misses in the rows as well.
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i had the same problem with broad beans. the last batch i put some cat hair in with each bean and they didn't get eaten. there has to be one advantage to having 3 longhaired cats shedding hair all the time...
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I put sprigs of Holly bush around my peas and the mice haven't touched them! ;D
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Mice munched through nearly all of my earlies and all of my sugar snaps! >:( I tried netting but they went under! Little bleeders!! On our site the chaps soak in paraffin.
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Thanks all,
When some of you spoke of paraffin are you taking of paraffin fuel that I expect you go to a hardware shop for or is it paraffin oil that you get from a chemist?
Thomas
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And is it Organic? ???
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I believe it is the fuel, from the hardware. Don't know about organic Roy, and I thought it would have inhibited germination, but the chap on our plot has a lovely row of un-nibbled peas growing.
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I put fleece over mine this year and weighted the sides down with soil, so there was no way of the mice getting to them.
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Started mine off in guttering, mouse got in the greenhouse and ate them, then got a 2nd lot growing, not a prob (Had trapped the previous diner) good looking big healthy plants, took them up the plot, planted them, went back yesterday and the *T^^$^%$") slugs have had em! Makes a girl not want to be organic at times! :-\
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Lmao doris_Pinks :D
Sounds like one on my happenings that does. Protect and beat one pest for them to be eaten by another!
Why not try little mini mice land mines ;D
Seriously I would sow ya peas in the ground then put wire chicken mesh over the ground surface and allow the peas to grow through the chicken mesh. Its stops the mice from burrowing after the seeds.
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hi my husband and i have just started an lotty and we had a very bad crop of pea this year as we are new to all this could mice be the problem, as i was digging and a mouse came from the soil i was digging. our peas where very patchy and nothing to write home about :'( :'(
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Start them off in guttering in the g'house, plant off when 3-4" high. Mice like pea peas, not pea shoots :)
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I had same problem with poor showing of peas, but I decided to try sprouting some seed before planting them, and I think that worked pretty well.
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I had virtually no crop but that was down to the drought. I put them under cloches, and got excellent germination, and no flea beetle damage. Other crops which weren't cloched had major damage when they slowed down during the drought.
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a gardener on our plots, puts holly leaves in the row among the peas, he said the mice dont like it when they prickle there noses
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Or, as we did this year without intent (they were intended for pea shoots) sow in a tray & then slice into lengths & plant. Worked fine.
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Fully agree, Supersprout. I also found that if I germinated broad beans and peas in damp kitchen paper and a plastic bag in the airing cupboard, and sowed them as soon as the root began to appear, the mice left them alone. According to some, the taste of a germinated legume is not as pleasant as one before it germinates. This is slightly less trouble than growing them into plants in guttering, then transplanting, though I have tried that too. All around me on plot one last year, neighbours had rows of neat little holes across their plots where the mice had removed their beans.
Having said that, I have just sown ungerminated broad beans in my new plot where I don't think (touch wood) that the mice have yet discovered allotments to be a source of food, as there are so few of us on a big site and no-one else grows broad beans.
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some great ideas here already but if you don't like the idea of having to buy guttering then any module seed tray will do - I use the ones that have 15 square and deepish sowing holes to them and put approx 5 peas into each
the alternative is not to sow at this time of year cos this is when the mice will be eager to find food and sowing in spring often catches up with autumn sown
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They also like stored potatoes, sunflower seedheads and so on... I very inhumanely got over thirty of the little so and so's last winter but we haven't started the offensive yet as they are still out in the warm...
::)
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Mine were very active in the shed, though there's been no sign of rats yet. They're still in the compost bins outside. The mice had some of my seeds that I was saving so their funerals were held shortly after.
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Digging out my compost recently I exposed a mouse nest. I felt very cruel, but as there was nothing else I could do, I put the babies into a hedge to die peacefully (I hope).
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I put baby rats on the potatoes last spring. If I'd known they were there they'd still have come to an untimely end.