[shokkyy]

Last week I sowed about 500 Alderman peas. Earlier in the week I caught 2 mice in that bed, and last night I caught one more. Then I noticed that there were neat little holes all along the pea rows, at approximately the same distance apart as I planted the peas. I have no idea how many of the peas they ate, nor whether I've got all the mice that were doing it. I've popped a new seed in everywhere I could see a hole and then covered the whole lot in some old bird netting (mass of netting rather than laid flat) in the hope that might deter any remaining mice. And I've put another trap in so there's one each side of the peas. But until they come up I won't know how bad the damage is.

I hadn't yet sown my mangetout, so I had the horrible task of sowing that lot in modules and strips and anything else I could find, because I daren't risk sowing those direct and losing those too. And when they've come up I'll have the very tedious job of planting that lot out.

Any suggestions for anything other than the netting I could do that might deter the little blighters? I don't find the idea of soaking in paraffin very appealing, and in any event the peas are in now. Last year I had a lot of problems with the mice eating all my parsnips and carrots, but they didn't touch the peas so I don't know why they've suddenly made a bee line for them this year.

[devonbarmygardener]

I've never had a pea/mouse problem.

I always grow my peas in drainpipes and put them out when they are at least an inch and 1/2 high - then I sow the next lot.

It's quite good for successional sowing too.
I have 2 short drainpipes so I do 4 or 5 lots of 2 rows successionally if that makes sense!

Emma

[azubah]

This year I pre-germinated my peas by putting them in a margerine tub mixed with damp compost for 3 days in the warm before sowing them. It has worked for me this year. Previously they have eaten the lot.

[gazza975526570]

Lost mine last year this way so now i sow in cells - it aint too bad though i wouldnt want to do 500!!!

I have done about 300 so far in different stages 100 at a time and it only took a short while for each

[shokkyy]

This year I pre-germinated my peas by putting them in a margerine tub mixed with damp compost for 3 days in the warm before sowing them. It has worked for me this year. Previously they have eaten the lot.

My peas had started shooting. The mice snipped off the shoots, left them and ate the peas.

I have a horrible feeling that if I did the drainpipe thing I'd end up smashing the lot when I tried to deftly slide them out of the drainpipe and into the ground.

[Carrot Man]

Couple of tips
Grow them in pots first or soak the peas in paraffin first

[Plot74]

I have planted mine next to a path then I used jays fluid diluted 35-1 along the path. Seems to have done the trick
John

[devonbarmygardener]

This year I pre-germinated my peas by putting them in a margerine tub mixed with damp compost for 3 days in the warm before sowing them. It has worked for me this year. Previously they have eaten the lot.

My peas had started shooting. The mice snipped off the shoots, left them and ate the peas.

I have a horrible feeling that if I did the drainpipe thing I'd end up smashing the lot when I tried to deftly slide them out of the drainpipe and into the ground.

Honestly it's so easy.
Just buy a length of drainpipe and 2 ends (the like of B&Q sell these) - the ends are kind of rubber-bound to make them stay in place.
Fill with your preferred compost and sow the peas - I've always swon them a little thickly in previous years so have gone a little thinner this year.

When ready to plant out, wiggle the end off the drainpipe and gently slide the whole lot into a pre-dug drill as wide as the drainpipe and gently press the soil gently around them.

Easy peasy.
saw Sarah raven do it once - have never looked back

[shokkyy]

Sowing them direct into the ground is a lot easier. I'd try the Jeyes thing if the peas were near a path, but sadly they're not. Maybe I could lay a thin strip of timber next to the row with Jeyes on that, kind of ring fence them.

[sunshineband]

DD covers his peas with tightly stretched and weighted down debris netting, as issues of scale make module sowing a bit silly for him.


Me, I module sow as I only grow about 15 m of peas altogether, with another 12m of dwarf french beans

[DD.]

Sunny's right.

I currently have 198' feet of peas - and more to do when we get home - under debris netting. Module sowing & guttering sowing is out.

[shokkyy]

DD - if your debris netting is stretched and weighted, presumably that means it's flat to the ground - don't the shoots get tangled up in that when they come up?

[DD.]

It's elevated by about 6" on lots of small lengths of wood. One run of debris netting will cover 3 x 32' rows.

It dips a bit in places, but there's a minimum of 3" headroom, which will do until I start putting the supports out and then throw any old netting over them to keep the pigeons off.

[shokkyy]

ok, I'll give that a try. Thanks, DD.

[bigben]

The mice go for the smell of the germinating peas - DDs method should stop them getting to the peas but I have had success in just dusting the ground with curry powder to mask the pea smell or spraying with hot chilli sauce solution onto the surface of the ground once I have backfilled my peas. Give it a try if you dont want to use netting - curry powder is fairly cheap and less harmful than paraffin.