Drying Peas

[1066]

Well, the climbing peas I sowed and planted this year have been great, (pats on backs all round  :) ) that is until I went on holiday and the pigeons found them  :-X.
Anyway, I've managed to pick quite a lot, not as many as planned, but still plenty worth saving. My question is that I've read reports of people either putting them into the oven or into the freezer, once they have properly dried to make sure any bugs etc are killed off. Do you do this? Is it worth it? and how?

Thanks
1066  :)

PS These are for seed saving

[1066]

[Jayb]

I've never heard of them being put in the oven. Any idea of the temperature? I would have thought a high enough temperature to kill a bug would also this damage the chances of the seed germinating?

I have put broad beans in the freezer to deal with bean weevil. They need to be really dry to do this. You can do it with peas and other type beans too. I've not had much of a problem to be honest; just some seeds I received in a swap had little visitors in!

I left mine in for a couple of months, mainly because I forgot about them. I think a week to ten days would be fine. I remember reading to keep them in their bag or container for 24hrs after removing them from the freezer to prevent condensation.
Germination was good.

[Tee Gee]

make sure any bugs etc are killed off

Thats all very well!

You have killed the bugs, but you have not got rid of them, so wouuld they  be just another form of  " meat & veg"  ::)

Personally a visual look tells me if they are worth saving or not.

BTW What sort of bugs are we talking about?

[1066]

Thanks I did wonder about the oven! Maybe I got thing smixed up  :-X

TeeGee I think it was to deal with weavil's  :-\

[Robert_Brenchley]

48 hours in a freezer is enough to kill the nasties.

[Tee Gee]

Must be the time of night but I can't get my head around the fact that after any of these processes( which I don't dispute)  the dead bug is still in  or on the veg.

So my next question is; how do you remove it after it has been frozen or roasted or whatever?

[1066]

Great question TeeGee - does the freezing kill the bug, so it can't get up to any naughtiness? Frankly I don't know, it's just something I read about and thought I would ask, so it must be the time of morning!  ;)

So my next question is; how do you remove it after it has been frozen or roasted or whatever?

Anyone?

[Jayb]

You don't  :)

I don't know about peas as I've had no live in lurky things (well not that I noticed) but imagine it is similar.

For beans, killing (by freezing) any possible young weevils before they hatch out will prevent them eating holes in the bean seeds and being sown with next years crop. I presume if this is done shortly after harvest they are still very small and egg like.

I don't do it with my seeds, I've never found weevils a problem in seeds I've saved. Although I believe some areas in the uk they can be more troublesome. It seems a good way of preventing a pest being passed on to fellow seed savers.

I can't say I'd want to eat peas or beans if I knew they were full of extra protein, dead or alive!

[Robert_Brenchley]

Once the nasties are frozen they're dead, so you don't need to worry. Just a bit of extra fertiliser when the seeds go in.

[1066]

thanks Jayb and Robert.

I thought the main pest I was dealing with were Pigeons eating the drying pods/seeds but I can't find a single pea on the ground so it turns out my biggest pest is the fury fiend, aka mice/rats. Think I will have to pull the plants up much earlier and try to dry the pods off at home next year ........

[Ian Pearson]

Acrobat mice are also eating my drying peas. Caught one in the act the other day about six ft up off the ground!

[1066]

It's a tough business this seed saving, when you have to deal with [igeons, bugs and then the fury fiends! Haven't caught any in the act though  :o

[Robert_Brenchley]

Wood mice climb like squirrels, but I've only got a few of them around. If you've got enough to be a pest, that's real bad luck.

[1066]

I was thinking about next year  ::) and wondering if pulling the plants up a few weeks earlier and then trying to dry them hanging up at home (in the garden/shed) would work - i.e. beat the mice to the peas  :-\

[Robert_Brenchley]

You need to wait till the peas are a bit past the point where you'd normally pick them. Take as much foliage as possible, but remember the air needs to circulate or they'll rot. Hessian sacks off eBay, or supermarket hessian bags, are ideal.

[1066]

Thanks Robert, I was thinking along similar lines so it's nice to have my thoughts confirmed as it were  :)  Next year, we will have an awning in the garden, so I was thinking of utilising that for drying seeds (haven't told the OH yet........)