Topic: Sweet peas

[manicscousers]

the bloomin' mice have snuck up my sweetcorn to a top shelf and eaten some of my newly sown sweet pea seed, they've even left the skins on the top of the pot  :(
anyway, beware, anyone whos planting these  :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Are those wood mice? I have both those and house mice, and the wood mice are far better climbers.

[manicscousers]

no idea, Robert, it's in the polytunnel, didn't see the mice, just the result  ;D

[Digeroo]

We sometimes get them in the house, the wretched things run up and down inside the dryliners on the walls.

A real menace they love courgette seeds.  I use a watering can to catch them.  I bung up the spout and put a mouse ladder up to the top and cover 98% of the hole at the top and then put something really tempting in the bottom (chocolate and breakfast muesli).  They can jump out of a bucket but can not jump out through a tiny hole.

Is there still time to sow some more?

.

[grawrc]

I hope so! I haven't sowed mine yet!!! :-[ :-[

[manicscousers]

I've done half now and I'm going to try the others in spring, they're a swap from Flo, I've had a look, they've only had half  ::)

[GrannieAnnie]

We sometimes get them in the house, the wretched things run up and down inside the dryliners on the walls.

A real menace they love courgette seeds.  I use a watering can to catch them.  I bung up the spout and put a mouse ladder up to the top and cover 98% of the hole at the top and then put something really tempting in the bottom (chocolate and breakfast muesli).  They can jump out of a bucket but can not jump out through a tiny hole

What on earth is a mouse ladder?   I'll have to try this one.

[shirlton]

I put mine to chit yesterday and the pots are ready and waiting for them

[manicscousers]

I put mine to chit yesterday and the pots are ready and waiting for them

the seeds or the mice  ;D

[Digeroo]

What on earth is a mouse ladder?  

Anything a mouse will climb up.  In the house we use a pile of books, outside a stalk of sweetcorn or a ramp of wood, they cannot climb the face of the watering can.

It was a technique we learned when we had the class hamster home for the weekend many years ago now.  Like everyone else we lost it in the house, but luckily our children had already been told the solution.  For hamsters you can use a bucket they are too fat to jump that high.  But having caught some mice I watched them simply jump out.

I put mine to chit yesterday

Great I will get onto this. I never seem to remember the right moment to plant SPs at this time of year.

[Trevor_D]

Thanks for the reminder.

Done broad beans, and sowed some calabrese & cauliflower yesterday, but forgot the sweet peas.

[shirlton]

Both manics. I had enough in the Spring when the little buggers ate all the sweetcorn that I had sown for us and the daughter >:(

[grawrc]

I put mine to chit yesterday and the pots are ready and waiting for them

Do you do them like peas on damp kitchen towelling or do you cut off a bit of the skin (I've read that somewhere)?

Thanks for the reminder.

Done broad beans, and sowed some calabrese & cauliflower yesterday, but forgot the sweet peas.

I didn't know you could sow calabrese and cauliflower now Trevor. What sort?

[Trevor_D]

You probably wouldn't get away with it in Scotland, grawc, but it's an idea I pinched from Wisley years ago.

Instead of - well, as well as - sowing calabrese in May and eating it in October, they did the exact opposite. Sow under glass in mid-October; prick into 3" pots and leave to over-winter in a cold frame; late winter, pot on to encourage them into growth; then plant them out under cloches as early as you dare (late Feb/early March). Then you'll be eating them in May, when there's not much else around.

I've used Tiara for the last couple of years, because it's fairly hardy anyway.

The cauliflower is Mayflower, which you can sow in October here in the balmy south. Same method.

[grawrc]

Thanks Trevor. I think I'll give it a go. I've got nothing to lose but a few seed and it would be great to have in May.

[grawrc]

Can anyone help with my sweet pea question? I've chitted the seed on damp kitchen towelling and sowed the ones that have swollen and sprouted. I'm left with a few that seem to have done neither. Does that mean the seed is unviable or it needs a bit of help (making a small slit in the outer skin)?

[laurieuk]

Unless the seed is very dark and hard I no longer chit at all, I sow ten seeds in a 5 inch pot water tem once and then no more until they have germinated. I have 100 o/o germination this year. I sow on October 8th each year.

[shirlton]

I bought some seeds this year cos I fancied a change. They all sprouted within a couple of days on damp tissue except the anniversary which took a week. Reason being they were 2 year old seed that had got harder.

[grannyjanny]

Hi Shirl. When you chit your s/peas do you put it in a plastic bag on the the damp paper?

[shirlton]

No I just put them on plastic lids with wet kitchen towel above and below but I suppose you could put them in a bag as long as you don't leave them to get mould on them