Pea problems

[Iceni]

Well I picked just over 1.5 lbs of mange tout last night and I have been picking every day - this crop survived the continuous cold weather under a cloche and have been fantastic for the last two weeks and are still in flower.

I planted my first row of Kelvedon Wonder and watched as in days the mulot burrowed along the row and ate about 30% of them and then the field mice started digging up the rest - so I covered the row with fleece and have about 30% germination - OK so I know the problem here. I then potted up some peas (as I normally do) and when they were through planted them out with some pea sticks which still had leaves on to shade them - guess what - they have bolted, 6 inches high with flowers and embryo peas. They did not suffer any dry spells and the ground around them was still damp last night as they are shaded.

Next lot ready to be transplanted and I don't want them to bolt as well. I know you should not really transplant peas but to be honest, if we want to eat any peas this year this seems the only way to get a row and it worked fine last year. Any suggestions.

I also have some paraffin to soak the next lot of direct planted peas in - lets see if that helps.

Not my year this year. I had really bad germination of my first lot of haricot vert and having tested the germination it is the beans. OH has just been sent out to buy some more. Had the same with a packet of courgette seeds last year from the UK - not one germinated out of the whole packet but had almost 100% germination with the rest.

OH laughs as I take each eaten pea and each rotten bean as a personal slight on my gardening skills.

[Ty Korrigan]

Ah! I'm not alone then! I am a former student of a horticultural college yet here my seeds just refuse to germinate! I have found they rot in the ground or are eaten my rodents. I have germinated 25 out of 80 sweetcorn 10 out of hundreds of artichokes and am at a loss why my pyrethrum daisies haven't shown! Runner beans have not happened for me although in my friends garden near Rennes they have shot up!

[Ian Hoare<br>All the best<br>Ian<br>La Souvigne Corrèze<br>http:www.souvigne.com]

hi Di,

Peas and broad beans are funny old things. They don't like it when it gets really hot. I don't think there's much you can do about it except to plant early and hope. I've never ever had any success planting late.

[Linnorton]

You would be much better off planting seeds in pots first, peat pots are good but cheaper to buy in the UK than here. Sweetcorn is better in a deep plastic pot because doesn't really like root disturbance.  After year with a double allotment in the UK and a very large potager here, we just don't bother to sow straight into the ground anymore, there is always something waiting to eat the seed.  Even lettuces and chinese cabbage are started in modules and put out when they are strong because flea beetles ruin them otherwise.   

[Iceni]

After 80% failure with sweetcorn we tried a US variety which a friend brought over - from 100% germination to picking in under 80 days and they are the two colour variety - sugar and butter are I think the 'slang' term. We have more this year and are planting for them and us. I don't bother planting till June as they mature so quickly.

Yes, there seem to be varmints everywhere who want to eat what I plant.

[Iceni]

[quote]hi Di,Peas and broad beans are funny old things. They don't like it when it gets really hot. I don't think there's much you can do about it except to plant early and hope. I've never ever had any succ...[/quote]

Hi Ian, we cannot plant early here, our field floods easily (which is great in the summer) but means that we cannot plant till late - and this year our neighbours again did not plant their potatoes till May. We have to come to terms with the land we work on but at the moment it is causing me headaches.

The strawberries taste better than the ones I grew in the UK though .

[Ian Hoare<br>All the best<br>Ian<br>La Souvigne Corrèze<br>http:www.souvigne.com]

Hi again Di,

Yeuch, not much grows in waterlogged soil. Makes for sour soil as well even when it's not waterlogged. I can only repeat, however, that we have never, ever had success with late sowings of peas, (or broad beans sown in February either, for that matter), no matter what wee've tried. We have managed to get better germination with quite a number of unexpected seeds by sowing in a warmed germinator in peat pots and then moving outside (parsnips, purple sprouting brocolli to name but two). But we've always found that no matter how we treat them, peas rush up and give us nothing, or get all sorts of fungus diseases if planted late.

In general, our experience here, for what it's worth, is that you have to work _with_ what you've got in terms of climate and soil. You CAN modify the soil a bit - you could hypothetically put in land drains, for example and lighten the soil by marling, and you could possibly put in some kind of shading, but I suspect that the returns you'd get for that level of investment of time and energy is hardly viable, other than in terms of satisfaction!

Our problem at the moment is trying to work out how to stop a deer from nibbling the tops off our new asparagus plants.

[cosqueville]

Our problem at the moment is trying to work out how to stop a deer from nibbling the tops off our new asparagus plants.

We find a .22 rifle is quite effective.

[Iceni]

The ground is not waterlogged, it is very strange, we have springs that 'pop up' all over the field and then go away when it gets dryer. This does mean that in a wet spring (like the last two) you cannot get onto the land until quite late (all our neighbours have the same problem) but once it dries up it is fine. The soil is very good and the only 'claggy' patch has had a bin of compost on it and we will keep doing this until it is as good as the rest. We have two very big raised beds which we tend to use in the spring when we cannot get onto the main beds. Our peas overwintered very well on last years new bed which had potatoes in the first year.

I also use the 'pocket' method of planting which is on most French seed packets for peas and beans (and also some maize). I then plant the pockets half spaced, so if they all come up, I just pull half out of each pocket. I think with French beans it is 5 to a pocket and peas 6. I also plant peas 6 to a pot and treat them as a pocket. It is much cooler today so I will plant out the peas I have in pots either tonight or tomorrow. They are the last lot I will try until October when I will plant overwintering peas. Broadbeans are a lost cause as far as I am concerned.

I have seen French beans planted in July for an October crop but not managed to get germination here to do this. We just have to persevere. We have our 2 year old asparagus forest doing well and cannot wait until next year when we get to eat it. Artichokes did not withstand last winter so no point in planting any more of those.

This land will also not support onion sets, spring onions or onions from seed except the 'green onions' and shallots. We did try to ignore our neighbours but they were right, they won't grow. Leeks grow well though so we will have to have summer leeks as well as autumn and winter. I think I actually prefer them to onions in the winter. We follow the adage of doing what our neighbours do and no-one here or on the allotments in the nearest small town plant until April or May, till then they do nothing except try to get their potatoes in if the weather lets them. Thank goodness for courgettes, peppers, and tomatoes, if they did not grow the way they do I think I might give up.