Hi All,
I am going to re-try going peas having not tried it in a few years and my brain is a little vague on the whole business.
I am aware that for beans you can dig a trench and back fill with veg waste and shredded paper cover with soil plant your beans on the soil back fill and bobs your uncle but is it the same for Peas???
Cam
Yes I did that last year, well, not quite so scientifically, I just buried a heap of waste below the pea rows and planted into the soil over the top of that. They did quite well, although last spring was too dry here and the peas did suffer from that.
I'm nowhere near as technical as all that. I just sowed them a couple of 2cm deep, covered with soil and watered. They did just fine last year - didn't know I was meant to do anything else! ??? ???
Never trenched them myself, but it won't do any harm. Why not do a length of trench and the rest of the row withot trenching, then compare the results. We could all do with some 'evidence' to help decide which ideas are better
Well i did it with the beans last year and it helped :)
Cleaned out the office last week and have a load of shredded paper hehe :)
I put up a net, slightly off the ground
Cultivated the soil underneath
Flattened soil and zigzagged peas pushing in with finger
Covered with compost and flattened again
Pulled net down to the soil
:D
I had to net my peas against pigeons last year... they made a real mess of the early dwarf types, this year I won't give them the chance.... will also use the prunings from my assorted bushes at home as pea sticks... going to stand them in a bucket of preservative first though... don't want a crop of bushes....
As Cam said, you CAN do it, but it's not a necessity. It makes sense though, it will keep moisture under them. I haven't done it with this year's peas as I was short of time. but they have been manured instead ;)
I doubt whether peas would make much use of it, since they're smaller plants with roots in proportion. It wouldn't do any harm, but why do the work unnecessarily?
I use netting like kev,but start the peas off in modules in the greenhouse.
Had bad results growing direct from seed myself so this method works well for me.I throw a few seeds in while planting out for luck.
Last year was a bumper crop
I start early peas in the poly- they are now planted out with rasp prunings for support. main crops are still in the gutter coz I haven't sorted their patch. I dig in some half made compost for them and as I plant out I sow a row dirrect for succession. Main issue is to see they are well puddled in. If you are in a wet area extra water retention tricks probably don't mater but over here in the far east they make a huge difference so I do try to add what I can to all the crops.peas beans squash etc. etc..