This is the only pea that made it this year. I have them growing now in my greenhouse with the tomatoes, something that was probably a mistake. The idea was the peas would be a cover crop, that would fix nitrogen before the tomatoes were planted, but the timing didn’t work out. Anyway, everything is doing okay in the greenhouse, but the tomatoes are getting a little overwhelmed by the peas. The peas are almost finished.
I’m growing these for seeds, because my stock of these seeds was getting a little old and it was time to grow it out again.
My other peas I tried growing outside, and they didn’t make it. I’m not sure why exactly. I usually direct seed my peas, and in spite of other people reporting problems with the seeds rotting in the cold wet ground, I don’t usually have that problem. Maybe this is a problem with the new garden.
Many of the seeds did actually germinate, but the plants didn’t survive.
There might have been something wrong with the ground in that part of the garden, but I’m not sure what.
Anyway, I’ll try again in the fall or next year and see what happens. Perhaps I’ll try them in the winter in the greenhouse.
Oh wow, Patrick. Everything looks wonderful right now! Your garden is really growing.
Both the Afghani and Babbington’s leeks look fascinating. This is my first year growing alliums at all (garlic and Egyptian onions), and I love them. They sure are teaching me a lot.
I’m curious to hear more about both leeks as they establish themselves in your garden.
Hope the mention in the sidebar of ESTHER IN THE GARDEN is ok.
If not, let me know.
Esther
You don’t give us a clue as to what might have gone wrong. Was there a withered corpse? Or was the scene of the crime bereft of clues? You allude to slug problems (copper rings), could they have eaten the emerging seedlings? I have taken to starting almost everything (exception beets & carrots) in root trainers. That way I know they’ve germinated and once they have a set or two of true leaves there’s a chance they’ll survive a stealth attack of nocturnal molluscs.
Hi Misshathorn,
In my last garden in Friesland, peas just always grew so easily, and I never really needed to think about them. Perhaps I was just too confident this time, and too careless.
The ground was a little on the weedy side, and also a bit compacted. The seeds were also a few years old, but I think they should have still been good.
I planted four different kinds in rows, a little late, in early April. Right after I planted them there were heavy rains, including some flooding in my garden, so maybe rotting of seeds was an issue. After the heavy rains, there was a bit of a heat wave with temperatures near 30.
One row didn’t show any signs of germination, and the other rows had very spotty germination. I did a lot of weeding, but I wasn’t completely in control of the situation, in part because I was trying to avoid pulling out the young plants with the weeds.
The plants from the seeds that did germinate never established themselves. You can tell once peas and beans start fixing nitrogen, because they start growing more aggressively, and I don’t think these ever did. It’s possible this part of the garden was lacking in the necessary bacteria, but I don’t really suspect that of being an issue because the previous gardener grew peas and beans and I have been able to establish peas and beans in other parts of the garden.
I don’t yet have a big slug problem in the garden, but since this garden is not too far away from my other garden and there were slugs there, I assume the slugs will appear eventually.
It’s very possible there is something wrong with this part of the garden. The previous gardener did a lot of strange things in other places, and for example maybe he put chemical fertilizer or weed killer there.
Before I try next time I think I need to germination test the seeds, try a different spot in the garden and perhaps start them indoors in root trainers.
I think you were the one who recommended inoculant to me. I’m wondering if this would help? My dad thinks I’m silly to always use it now, peas, beans, favas, everything.
The wet conditions sound perfect for some sort of virus or just “damping off,” where seeds either don’t germinate at all, or young seedlings just keel over, as it sounds like yours did. Maybe it was all that rain… My gardening mentor, Eric, recommends starting peas indoors, which I guess would all but eliminate this problem. How’s the drainage in your garden? (I’m getting very nervous now about my peas…)
–kate
I grew peas for the first time this year. They certainly are a lot of fuss for not a lot of production. Still, they are pretty.
Robin at Bumblebee
Robin:
Thanks for leaving the 999th comment on this blog. That makes this the 1000th!
It always takes a lot of work to prepare for growing peas, like setting up a trellis and so on. On the other hand, I’ve often seen peas thrive in the face of neglect and have often have very heavy yields. Have you tried using the inoculant Kathy suggested? This sometimes helps, especially the first year or when growing on land that has never had peas or beans on it before.
Kathy:
Maybe I should have used it. Thanks for the suggestion.
ManicGardener:
Thanks for stopping by!
I am at sea level, and the land is drained by a series of canals and dikes. Normally the drainage is outstanding. However when very heavy rains come, it can leave everything under water. This is what happened a bit this year when planting the peas.
The water level however is held about a foot underground, which even though well drained, leaves the ground damp almost all the time. I suspect for peas, this could cause rotting problems with the seeds.
I can always improve the drainage by using a raised bed, and maybe I’ll try that next year. There’s also always starting indoors.