Taiwan Sugar Pea Sowing

The weekend gone by was a weekend of firsts.

The first sowing of next years pea crop - Taiwan Sugar Pea - which Patrick at Bifurcated Carrots sent me.

He's already supplied me with the first ever sowing of next years crops - thirteen varieties of garlic - which I put in the ground a few weeks ago. I'll need to check the allotment next weekend to see how they are doing. Fingers crossed they'll come through the winter.

It was also the first time I put the greenhouse to use.

I've sown the seed  in a couple of lengths of gutter pipe and they will stand in the greenhouse through the winter. I'm hoping this way they'll grow on enough to plant out in February/March and maybe I'll get a crop a few weeks ahead of the seed sown direct in the ground in Spring. That's if the mice don't get to them and that's why there's a roll of wire mesh to cover the sowing.

Now maybe it's way too soon to sow now but it's a lot more interesting than tidying up the plot. If it doesn't work I can always sow again next year and anyway I'm banking that once they've germinated there's not going to be all that much growth before Februrary/March anyway.

I've kept some seed back in case I have losses and also because I want to compare the gutter sown peas against those sown direct in the ground next year. I don't know if there will be much between them but at least it gives you something to do this time of year.

Comments

[steven]

The gutter pipe as seed bed idea... utter brilliance. I KNEW I wanted to save the old gutters last year when I had them redone!

---Hi Steve - not my idea but I can't recall where I got it from. You could also sow up lettuce in gutters if you're short of space in the beds and then transplant it - just make sure to water the gutter a few hours ahead of trans planting, then you slide off the seedlings into the bed, rather like sliding a frittata off the skillet onto the plate!

John

[Sue Swift]

Glad I'm not the only one who can't resist sowing at odd times of year ... :)

[Rebsie Fairholm]

Hello John, I'm back!

Patrick kindly gave me some Taiwan Sugar peas last year and I loved them. They tasted lovely and had very unusual pink flowers. I'll be interested to see how yours get on.