[mandycharlie]

I decided to plant my lovely peas in the ground, prepared a trench, dug in some well rotted manure, watered the guttering before planting, left time for it so soak...

and they would not shift out of the guttering..

in my head, I had a little dream, that they would just sliiiidddee out and plop into their position.

no such luck, giving them a gentle shove at one end only resulted in those peas being pushed up to the next..

teenage son was just looking at me and laughing..

in the end i had to loosten them in much the same way you do a cake in a tin and plop them out so they all fell nearly on their heads...

I rescued them, but their looking quite sad.

sticking to me pots in the future..

[lucywil]

make it look easy on the tv don't they? i planted some in fibre pots and when i planted them out i sowed some direct and they have nearly caught up with the pot grown ones so i think next year i will just sow direct.

[Sam K.]

Last year allot of peas seeds were eaten by mice this year :cry: , guttering was the answer. A row was scooped out the same depth as the guttering, placed the pre watered gutting with 2” seedlings into the trench and tipped this up to start easing them out……

The whole length of seedlings slid out in one go. A 1.2m rows worth in a small pile :cry:  :cry: .

I was a little more careful with the other two lengths which were eased out a bit at a time, this seemed to work well.

That all said and done the rows planted in the bed have all come up well (I don’t have room for 21m of guttering)

I agree with lucywil with good selection of variety for earlier sowings why bother.

Sam

[purplebat]

Last year allot of peas seeds were eaten by mice this year :cry: ,Sam

we soak ours in paraffin, to stop the mice doing this; out of about 50 seeds sown direct, only about 5 haven't come up

[Sam K.]

Thanks for the tip purplebat. Is this a quick dip or an over night soak?

[Aunt Sally]

I kept a spare piece of guttering and used this to "persuade" the growing peas out by sliding it under them.  Worked a treat.  Never had any luck with paraffin but have also sown some direct, with mouse traps along the row and chicken wire over to stop birds getting trapped   :o

[purplebat]

Thanks for the tip purplebat. Is this a quick dip or an over night soak?

quick dip if you use neat paraffin, or overnight well diluted

[Lily]

I planted 1/2 of my mangetout in the greenhouse and 1/2 in the ground. Thinking that I would have enough left after the casualties of "war". Well I am INUNDATED with mangetout. They have all grown strong and I am now running out of space.
Beginner's luck...

[moz]

Ive never used the pipe method but if I have to "persuade" soil to come out of a pot I often find its better to do it when it is dry, at least then it has some rigidity and "body" about it. I used to moisten plug plants before popping them out but found that if you do this when they are dry its often easier as the soil has already cotracted back from the sides of the pot a bit.

Then again even dry the pipe may have held on for dear life !

Cheers

[Ann]

I rescued them, but their looking quite sad.

I had a similar problem with mine on Saturday but today they have started to show signs of perking up a bit.

[WG.]

no such luck, giving them a gentle shove at one end only resulted in those peas being pushed up to the next..

Best to take them out about a foot at a time.  I think I posted earlier that you can actually sow with gaps especially for this purpose.  

[Aunt Sally]

I'didn't have a problem (see above)

Let's look at this from another point of view.  When I make a cake for Worzel I line the cake tin with some greaseproof paper so that the cake comes out easily.  

I think next time I will try lining the gutters with some polythene, got to be worth a try  :idea:

[richyrich7]

Don't you pull the guttering away from the seedlings, not push the seedlings out ?

[Aunt Sally]

I loosened them by slipping a spare piece of guttering under the compost, positioned them in the shallow trench and slid the guttering out.  

I'm sure the polythere liner would work though,  think I'll set one up to try  

[mandycharlie]

Don't you pull the guttering away from the seedlings, not push the seedlings out ?

ooh interesting thought, so you would get a good grip of the root system and slide it out using that...

If someone in the next couple of weeks could try that system I would be most oblidged..