[vegmandan]

All the Gardening books seem to suggest sowing peas about 2 inches deep outside.

Does anyone really think it's necessary to sow so deeply,especially as at this time of year the soil is so cold and wet and they're going to be slow to germinate,so are more likely to rot at this depth.

Let's face it you don't sow sweet peas anywhere near as deeply,so why the depth ?

Would they be any worse off sown at an inch deep ?

What do you reckon??

[Aunt Sally]

The peas I sow in gutters for transplanting probably go about an inch deep, but the ones I sow directly into the ground go into a shallow wide drill which could be up to two inces deep.

[Kanute]

I sow direct, spade width trench, 3" deep.  The Peas are soaked in parafin for half an hour to deture mice.  Does not effect taste.  Shallow drills are an open invite to the bird population of your area.

[gobs]

Shallow drills are OK to me between 1-2 inch depths I sow, I never ever measured, you see.

Soaking them in any horrible substance are not OK with me and there is no need they don't seem to do any  use either, in places where there is actually trouble.

[Eristic]

This year I sowed my early peas direct and deeper than usual, some 3-4" deep then cased with 2-3" of manure on top. Result has been extremely good germination with no raiding losses to date.

My thinking is this:
The moisture content of the soil is likely to be the same at 1" and 6" depth, the soil temperature may even be warmer at a lower level than the frost-exposed surface. At more than about 3" depth, they are out of reach of the worst predators which are birds. (Mice usually get the blame but I think it is mostly birds). A pea has no trouble pushing its way up through this amount of soil and only becomes vulnerable after breaking surface.

As for sweet peas, the same would probably hold true for those as well although we usually sow these in pots under controlled conditions. Sweet peas are also much smaller with only about a third or quarter of the mass of a garden pea.

That's my 2p worth

[Aidy]

Agreed with the above, having read an article on field peas they found a sowing depth of 70mm gave good protection from mice and had very successfull germination rates, so mine have gone 3 inch min.