Peas

Latest Articles

Peas
Page 1, 2 Next

Downsizer Forum Index -> Grow Your Own

Author

Message

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 05 3:34 pm Post subject: Peas

If, like me, you find that pea seedlings sometimes get taken very quickly by garden pests, you might want to consider sowing them indoors. However, peas really don't like being transplanted, it's important that you don't disturb their tap root.

Try filling kitchen roll tubes with compost, water them well, stack them tight into a trough and grow your peas in there. When you want to plant out, plant the whole tube without disturbing the root.

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 05 4:41 pm Post subject:
Cab - thats a 9 inch biodegradeable rootrainer... by the time you are using that depth, surely the topgrowth will be fiendishly entangled - esp if the tubes are packed close together. (Or is there a cunning plan I'm unaware of?) I'd guess you're suggesting cutting the tubes - in two or three?

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 05 4:50 pm Post subject:

dougal wrote:

Cab - thats a 9 inch biodegradeable rootrainer... by the time you are using that depth, surely the topgrowth will be fiendishly entangled - esp if the tubes are packed close together. (Or is there a cunning plan I'm unaware of?)
I'd guess you're suggesting cutting the tubes - in two or three?

I'm not suggesting that you wait till the root makes it all the way down to the bottom; I'm sure you'd get away with cutting, say, the bottom third off the tube. Toiler roll tubes tend to be a little too short.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 05 8:06 pm Post subject:
Has anyone tried using the Sarah Raven's peas in a piece of guttering? The idea is that you fill a piece of guttering with soil, plant seeds and germinate. Then in a little trench slide the whole thing into it.

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Fri Feb 18, 05 6:37 pm Post subject:
Treac: my old cha['s trying the 'peas in a gutter' idea: we'll let you know how it goes.

Nanny

Joined: 17 Feb 2005
Posts: 4520
Location: carms in wales

Posted: Fri Feb 18, 05 7:53 pm Post subject: peas

i have done peas in guttering for a coupel of years and i have to say it does work well.............the only thing you have to remember is to give them a good water the evening before the morning you plant them out. otherwise you can't slide them off the end of the gutter.

is does work quite well though.i have suspended 2 or 3 pipes one above the other in the greenhouse with success.

hello by the way................got my own 'pooter now so don't have to wait to be at work to join in.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Fri Feb 18, 05 8:02 pm Post subject:
I think we'll also try a row in a piece of gutter as well this year.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Fri Feb 18, 05 10:01 pm Post subject:
Thanks for that Nanny...it's difficult when you consider that we pair with our limited experience, are about the most dedicated growers/cooks we know (in real life, not here )

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Fri Feb 18, 05 11:34 pm Post subject:
Hm...So its not too early for peas then?.....The gutter idea.....How do you do this?....surely the gutter would be too shallow to support the pea plants?..Someone enlighten me, please?

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 05 8:51 am Post subject:

You sow the seeds in a length of guttering or half drainpipe, in some compost/soil etc. Put it somewhere semi sheltered to encourage germination.

When the seedlings are well up and looking strong, you clear out a row in your veg patch that is as near as you can get to the size and shape of your drainpipe.

Then you slide out the whole row in to the row in the veg patch - no pricking out or planting up or any such nonsense.

Voila, ready made veg patch, with seedlings grown protected from mice etc, possibly a little earlier than you would manage sowing straight in the ground, giving you a little more time to get your veg patch prepared.

I'm not sure of the exact compost you would use, sowing densities etc. If Nanny is about today perhaps she'll give more details, but if you're desperate to get going (have we got any drainpipe spare Treacodactyl???

) you might have a look on Google or better still the Telegraph, for "Sarah Raven", peas, and drainpipe (hmmm - if you do it on Google turn off the adult search first

). It's not like she invented it but she's very big on it and has done it a few times on Gardener's World and I'm sure also in her Telegraph columns.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 05 11:00 am Post subject:
bung them in loo rolls - takes up a lot less space, and you can sow in succession. (This is me hedging all my bets in case one lot fails - at least if i succession sow it will only be a little lot!)

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 05 11:32 am Post subject:
We first learned of the drainpipe trick from the great Geoff but have only just got round to it. They're coming up in the polytunnel now. Prehaps some fleece is in order tonight, though.

selfsufficientish

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 364
Location: Bristol

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 05 2:12 pm Post subject:

Another thing you can try is newspaper pots similar to the toilet roll idea really, only the paper rots down quicker than cardboard.

Incidently many herbs do not like to transpanted either, which would have been nice to have know before I planted my corriander last time. It bolted an went to seed in a matter of weeks. Parsley is another one ledgend had it that if you transplanted parsley bad luck would befall your household for the next year.

heres how to make newspaper pots https://www.selfsufficientish.com/newspaperpots.htm

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 05 4:58 pm Post subject:
Another parsley legend is that it only grows in a house where the woman wears the trousers, but that can't be true because I've never succeeded with it. Funnily enough, though, the old chap says it's definitely true

Nanny

Joined: 17 Feb 2005
Posts: 4520
Location: carms in wales

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 05 5:49 pm Post subject: peas

i have done the toilet roll thing and the gutter thing both equally well but the gutter thing i find easier because you draw the hoe down the length of the row to the right depth and then just slide the whole lot in at once and they are all in the right place, just a bit of tidying up

the down side is having several long pieces of guttering in the green house but i have always found that they germinate fairly quickly so it isn't too inconvenient...............i try to do successional sowings but don't always get to it, just using compost that i pick up from a garden center but always peat free....my own compost isn't good enough frankly and i just dig that in to the plots

i have given up trying to do things too early so won't put them in the greenhouse until sometime in march

by the way i use those victorian climbing peas from www.victoriana.ws and have had success, lots and lots of peas and i grow them like i would sweet peas or runnner beans

it works for me...........

	Downsizer Forum Index -> Grow Your Own	All times are GMT Page 1, 2 Next
Page 1 of 2

View Latest Posts