Kitchen Garden Forum

I read a fair bit about starting peas off early so I did an experiment on 27th Feb.
I planted a set of 35 peas and 35 mangetout directly outside under fleece.
I planted another 35 of each in John Innes No1 in guttering in an unheated greenhouse. I put some tape over the ends to keep it all in and I did NOT drill drainage holes in the guttering.
All were about 2" apart in double rows.

Within a week or 2 all but a few of the indoor ones had germinated.
It took over 5 weeks for the direct sown ones to show any sign of life.

On 28th March, when the indoor ones were 2" high I dug a shallow drill, watered the peas heavily, remove the tape, raised the gutter to 45deg then slid them out with a gentle shake directly into the drill. Nice. They are at least now 4" high and are growing up the peas nets.

Only 12 of each of the direct sown ones came up and are about 1" high.

The lesson here seems to be that starting off in gutters works brilliantly for an early sowing. I will make sure I do that again next year.

Hope people find that useful.

Haven't tried the guttering method, but always start my peas or beans off at home, then transplant them to the allotment once they're racing away.

I've never suffered from mice thievery, but I've seen enough mice up there to know they'd be interested. Also at this time of year, new plants seem to start so much quicker out of the elements. Probably later on, this might make less difference.