I have bought some "Meteor" early peas for sowing now. I have read that I need to dig a trench in order to sow them. The instructions on the back of the packet just say to sow 1" deep in a 6" wide drill.
My soil is sandy and easy to work. Where I intend to pant I had potatoes growing last year.
Do I have to go to all of the effort of digging a deep trench? I intend to move the site of the peas to another location rather than using a permanent planting area.
Any advice/experiences would be very welcome !!!
My soil is quite heavy so a winter sowing is out for me. In a light soil that's free draining you should do OK. Ideally some well rotted manure added from now would be ideal for a spring sowing but the fact that you are following spuds should mean that there is plenty of manure in there from what you put on prior to planting seed spuds....(didn't you!)
If not then your crop would benefit from an application of a low nitrigon fertilizer before you sow.
Thanks for the reminder LG, I have some meteor peas, and I should get them in ASAP.
There will be no need for you to worry about digging a new trench, the ground will be good enough for your peas, l planted all my spring cabb on this years potato ground, just raked it over and they are doing fine.
A few weeks ago I planted my Peas, 'Pilot' and 'Douce Provence' directly in the ground where the potatoes had been. Now they are a couple of inches high. I did cover them with fleece just to keep them cosy. ;D
I dug a small trench, just a few inches, scattered the seeds, then covered with soil. It seemed to have worked. I intend to keep them covered with fleece as long as possible and stake them with pea sticks for support. I just hope we don't get the harsh winter that the papers are predicting.
Lily
My peas are currently sat in 4cm high sections of toilet roll inner on the patio table in my back garden - have never got peas to germinate successfully on the lottie.
Autumn Planted Peas = Fat Mice For Winter ::)
The_Snail
There is a large black and white slightly pycho cat that seems to live up our lottie...... so Autumn planted Peas =Fat mice for winter=plenty of food for scarey moggy!
Thanks for all your advice ... my back thanks you also !!!
Think I will make a shallow trench and when germinated, cover with fleece or hoe made plastic bottle cloches.