Garden peas

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Gwenoakes
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Garden peas

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I have grown some garden peas in an unheated greenhouse in medium sized pots and wondered when/if I could plant them outside, anyone...........please. They are about 5/6" tall now.
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lancashire lass
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Re: Garden peas

Post by lancashire lass »

Gwenoakes wrote:I have grown some garden peas in an unheated greenhouse in medium sized pots and wondered when/if I could plant them outside, anyone...........please. They are about 5/6" tall now.


:? usually broad beans are sown in autumn and garden peas are normally sown under cover / cloche from March onwards so it's a bit early to have started them just before winter. If you plant outside, they are likely to die during harsh frosts / heavy snow (if we get) or be whiplashed during windy weather (damage encourages disease) As an experiment, I think it best to leave them in the greenhouse and see if they survive - should they continue to thrive (personally I'm not hopeful but you never know), they should flower earlier (peas are self fertile so gently tap the flower heads to ensure the pollen is dispersed)
Gwenoakes
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Re: Garden peas

Post by Gwenoakes »

Thanks, LL information greatly received. Do you think I should put some of them in larger pots, or just leave as they are. They will not grow tall, as chose the dwarf ones.
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lancashire lass
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Re: Garden peas

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Gwenoakes wrote:Do you think I should put some of them in larger pots, or just leave as they are. They will not grow tall, as chose the dwarf ones.


Even dwarf plants need room for roots because if they get dry, they don't spring back up after watering and just continue to die - but if the plants are not growing, I personally would leave them undisturbed for now (keep the soil lightly damp rather than wet) and repot / gently harden them off in spring before planting out in their final positions if going outside.

For garden peas, I found plants grow more vigorously when sowed directly in their growing row from about mid-April-ish (the time of year when the soil should be warming up so will germinate quickly rather than sit in cold wet soil and rot off) My experience of sowing pea seeds in pots and planting out later have been disappointing (they've grown, flowered and produced a crop) but when compared to direct sown, I am in no doubt which is the best for me. It is also noticeable if there is stress such as a dry spell, the pot sown plants planted out don't seem to cope as well as either. When I did a pea (actually sugar snap/mangetout) trial for the RHS, we all had to follow the same sowing method so that the trial results were comparable and thereafter it is the only way (also - time-wise, it is so much easier to make a shallow trench and sow the seeds in a zig zag pattern 2 inches apart and then cover over than having to plant out just as many pot sown plants along a row) The only downside of direct sow is the risk of mice (but you could soak the seeds in paraffin first) and slugs and snails love tender new spring shoots at ground level and can be quite devastating so I have to admit I did use slug pellets to protect the newly emerging plants (once plants grow past the 2 / 3 leaf stage, slugs and snails are not so much a problem thereafter)
Gwenoakes
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Re: Garden peas

Post by Gwenoakes »

Thanks, LL.
They are all growing and I have been misting the top of the pots, so will wait, watch and see what happens. I did only sow half the pack, so have more to go in if these fail.
We have been plagued with white fly on the cabbages, so I have sprayed with diluted washing up liquid and even those that were affected quite badly have come back good, so fingers crossed.
We have loads of pigeons, slugs, snails and mice here. I must confess too that I have used poison for the mice/rats because we were beginning to be overrun. They were in the hen house, stables, feed room, bedding room and all over the place and I know from past experience they do go in lofts of houses as we had that at the other house with one dying up there and the smell was absolutely awful, so do not want that to happen again.
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Re: Garden peas

Post by Gwenoakes »

The peas have been steadily growing in my greenhouse and they now have pods developing. The pods do not look very big, but some have definitely got peas in them, so I am quite pleased.
I suppose this has come about because of the really mild winter we have had, so not much credit to me. LOL
I only looked at them the other day and almost gave up on them, had another look today and hey presto.
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lancashire lass
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Re: Garden peas

Post by lancashire lass »

)t' you should hopefully get another crop of flowers when you pick the pods. I agree about the mild winter - the petunia plants in my planter by the front door from last year are still alive (I didn't get round to tidying up the pots last autumn and normally the cold and frosts kill them off)
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