[Lincolnshire Floyd]

If I know mice I doubt they'd hang around long enough to let you actually observe them eating your peas so it's just misguided guesswork. Birds attacking the young shoots and uprooting them maybe like they do sprouting onions mistaking them for worms, but mice? Nah

[shoozie]

If I know mice I doubt they'd hang around long enough to let you actually observe them eating your peas so it's just misguided guesswork. Birds attacking the young shoots and uprooting them maybe like they do sprouting onions mistaking them for worms, but mice? Nah

I've not yet met a bird that tunnels from underground into a netted bed and eats the actual pea.

 Let's leave it at that as this debate isn't helping the original poster with the problem of their peas not germinating, so let's keep it on topic thanks  . Would be good if you would introduce yourself in the welcome thread and maybe start your own thread about peas and rodents/ birds etc?   

[JayG]

No disrespect to dugless but the theory that mice eat peas is a myth. I was told this by a professional adviser to pea growers that had been all over the world advising on pea growing.

Any chance that your friend could be persuaded to provide a statement on the subject for the benefit of forum members?

We're always open to questioning any traditional gardening belief or custom which may turn out to be outdated or just plain wrong, but not without proper evidence to back up any challenge.

[seaside]

Well, something left little holes in the compost  and no peas in my gutters that I had planted 3 days previously, back at the end of February.
Given that the pea gutters were in a closed greenhouse, bar the odd very small entry point at the base, I can't think what else nobbled them.
I have since successfully done the home chitting thing and then into modules with nearly 100% success to 2 inches high. But they are still stubbornly refusing to take off fully now they are planted outside under nets. Come on, warm up a bit... possible threat of sleet/snow over Dartmoor.

[Pimento]

Mice eat peas, birds eat peas. Slugs eat almost everything. On allotments like mine, light-fingered humans tend to account for a share, too.  My method is to plant enough so that everyone gets a bit of what they need... And hopefully there's enough to go round.

Pim

[DD.]

I needn't bother netting mine against mice then.

I'll just ignore the advice from the RHS and Garden Organic about taking precautions against them. The advice on sowing peas and protecting against mice go hand in hand according to them them. Has no one every told them they're wrong?

On second thoughts, I'd better leave the nets on, as something small occasionally gets under them and digs the peas up. I'd better blame something else. Maybe we have very tiny elephants on our plot! 

[DD.]

DD I never get bored of seeing that pic it's amazing. Can I ask do you get enough peas to see you through the year.

No way - you have to get them home first! 

[dugless]

I have noticed some of the peas in the packet are green and some are brown, I wonder if it is the brown ones that do not germinate leaving gaps.

[dugless]

DD I never get bored of seeing that pic it's amazing. Can I ask do you get enough peas to see you through the year.

No way - you have to get them home first! 

but do you eat them or do they go walkies

[DD.]

They go walkies, but not far, only a matter of inches! 

[Beetroot queen]

They go walkies, but not far, only a matter of inches! 

My Florence's favourite song

Percy the pea pod growing by the wall
Basking in the sunshine like a big green ball
Along came Florence with her mouth open wide
Percy the pea pod popped inside
Down down down down the red lane
We won't see Percy pea ever again
And all that Florence said was ha ha ha
I like Percy peas, please give me some more. 

The original is tomatoes but Florence isnt able to eat toms so we just tweak the words. We do Peter potato, percy peas whatever is on her plate for dinner, she adds I the ha ha ha .

I take it DD's peas go the same way as florences, down that red lane. 

[Lincolnshire Floyd]

Any chance that your friend could be persuaded to provide a statement on the subject for the benefit of forum members?
We're always open to questioning any traditional gardening belief or custom which may turn out to be outdated or just plain wrong, but not without proper evidence to back up any challenge.

Unfortunately he died a few years ago so I'll ask him later. However in your defence he was an adviser to commercial pea growers and was maybe talking on a field scale where the problem with voles is less likely to pose a problem or at  least not be a major concern. At garden level maybe the vole causes more havoc. I've never seen a vole eating my peas though I have caught the little b's nibbling my stored potatoes. I've also have a suspicion that they are walking off with my hazel nuts and having a quiet munch in the corner of the shed where they don't even bother to clean up the shell mess afterwards, but they could be mice instead. I don't have squirrels or mice so my suspicion is it's the voles but they leave my peas alone so I have no evidence to suggest my old mate was wrong but then evidence works both ways doesn't it? I'll put a mouse trap down and see if I can catch whatever it is that causes the odd gaps in my pea rows but my guess is that it's just inconsistent germination. And yes, some of the old traditional beliefs can be a bit wonky to say the least but I have found most of them to be wise councel, if I can remember them that is.


Edit - corrected quoted text for the 3rd time! Lincolnshire Floyd, if you have anything you wish to add to your post please make a new reply rather than editing this one!

[JayG]

I have noticed some of the peas in the packet are green and some are brown, I wonder if it is the brown ones that do not germinate leaving gaps.

I've noticed that with my saved sugarsnap peas (don't remember them being different colours before I dried them but that doesn't mean they weren't!)

Because they were saved seed I pre-germinated them for a couple of days - they all seemed to germinate and as far as I can tell they are all growing on outside now. 

[DD.]

Try picking the green ones out of these!

The colours do vary somewhat.

[dugless]

None of them look like the Brown ones in my packet perhaps brown is wrong they are more of a straw colour anyway they look dead.