Soaking pea seed in paraffin to deter mice

bigdavenorcott · « **on:** February 27, 2016, 08:01 »

The last two years I've had my peas eaten in the ground before they've even had chance to sprout - literally one or two surviving out of several hundred.

Googling comes up with a lot of 'my grandad used to soak peas in paraffin for 24 hours and that puts the mice off' type posts, but I haven't found any more up to date info from people who actually do it.

To remedy that I'm going to try to investigate this semi-scientifically this year!

My first concern is whether doing this would affect germination, so that's what I'm checking first.

bigdavenorcott · « **Reply #1 on:** February 27, 2016, 08:19 »

I took two groups of 3 pea seeds (Exzellenz), soaked one group for 24 hours in paraffin (actually Kerosene / heating oil, but chemically more or less identical), and left the other group untouched as a control.

There's no missing why this might put mice off eating the peas - it stinks.

I then set both groups of seed up semi-submerged on cotton wool as in the pics (my kids did the labels!)

bigdavenorcott · « **Reply #2 on:** February 27, 2016, 08:27 »

The first thing i noticed - which alarmed me somewhat - was that the soaked peas were bleached to a pale brown, with all the green gone

bigdavenorcott · « **Reply #3 on:** February 27, 2016, 08:31 »

Day 2: both sets are plumping up nicely and absorbing water. I *had* worried that the paraffin would effectively waterproof the seeds, but that seems to have been unfounded.

bigdavenorcott · « **Reply #4 on:** February 27, 2016, 08:34 »

Day 3: both sets good and swollen

bigdavenorcott · « **Reply #5 on:** February 27, 2016, 08:45 »

Day 4: SPROUTING! Both sets have one pea starting to sprout. Looking promising

bigdavenorcott · « **Reply #6 on:** February 27, 2016, 09:29 »

Still a good whiff of hydrocarbons off the soaked ones too - it'd definitely put *me* off eating them. Let's hope mice are similarly discouraged.

This is up to date now - will report back with progress on sprouting, and then on mouse damage results when I plant my real crop out.

bigdavenorcott · « **Reply #7 on:** February 29, 2016, 10:05 »

Day 5: Two sprouters in the paraffin camp vs one (enthusiastic) one in the control group

bigdavenorcott · « **Reply #8 on:** February 29, 2016, 10:10 »

Day 6: all the paraffin group are now sprouting - still only one in the control group so far.

This is far too small a sample size to say whether the paraffin soaking actually improves germination, but I think we can be satisfied that it's certainly not hindering it!

I'll do another update in a day or two, but this is enough for me to go ahead and soak my actual seeds before sowing, which I'm planning to do Wednesday (2nd March). If I can bear it I'll plant a 'control' crop of unsoaked seeds too, although I know from bitter experience that these will be eaten within days.

gremlin · « **Reply #9 on:** February 29, 2016, 20:13 »

Thanks for doing this experiment. I may give it a try on my plot.

Salmo · « **Reply #10 on:** February 29, 2016, 23:15 »

Quote from: bigdavenorcott on February 29, 2016, 10:10

Day 6: all the paraffin group are now sprouting - still only one in the control group so far.

This is far too small a sample size to say whether the paraffin soaking actually improves germination, but I think we can be satisfied that it's certainly not hindering it!

I'll do another update in a day or two, but this is enough for me to go ahead and soak my actual seeds before sowing, which I'm planning to do Wednesday (2nd March). If I can bear it I'll plant a 'control' crop of unsoaked seeds too, although I know from bitter experience that these will be eaten within days.

Early peas and beans are often eaten by mice. According to some work a few years ago once the weather warms up mice are more interested in procreation than eating and leave them alone. You must admire them the way they will go along the row just digging a neat hole where each seed is. They probably find them by smell but it could be worth planting them at irregular intervals to fool them. Perhaps that should be your next experiment?

bigdavenorcott · « **Reply #11 on:** March 01, 2016, 08:28 »

Quote from: Salmo on February 29, 2016, 23:15

Quote from: bigdavenorcott on February 29, 2016, 10:10
Day 6: all the paraffin group are now sprouting - still only one in the control group so far.

This is far too smallr a sample size to say whether the paraffin soaking actually improves germination, but I think we can be satisfied that it's certainly not hindering it!

I'll do another update in a day or two, but this is enough for me to go ahead and soak my actual seeds before sowing, which I'm planning to do Wednesday (2nd March). If I can bear it I'll plant a 'control' crop of unsoaked seeds too, although I know from bitter experience that these will be eaten within days.

Early peas and beans are often eaten by mice. According to some work a few years ago once the weather warms up mice are more interested in procreation than eating and leave them alone. You must admire them the way they will go along the row just digging a neat hole where each seed is. They probably find them by smell but it could be worth planting them at irregular intervals to fool them. Perhaps that should be your next experiment?

To be honest if the paraffin works I'm not planning on further experimentation! I just want to be able to grow early peas, and there didn't seem to be anything convincing in the current literature to show whether paraffin soaking was a good or bad idea. I'm pretty sure they don't do it by measuring distance between peas though

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Soaking pea seed in paraffin to deter mice

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Soaking pea seed in paraffin to deter mice

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