Kitchen Garden Forum

does anyone have any advice on the practice of soaking pea seeds in parafin to make them un-attractive to mice.

I've often read of this as a deterrent but don't know whether it works and don't much like the idea of soaking seeds in such a noxious substance. However, soaking them in a very hot chilli sauce might prove a deterrent!

Our cats keep mice at bay!

Hi Nature Babe,
The mice will always beat a cat where peas are concerned because mice a totally relentless.
I grow masses of peas each year and have been growing then in 7cm sq. pots for the last few years because I had difficulties with the gutter method. This coming year I am going back to using guttering and have just made two new protected units with the guttering only 34" long.
There are 5 lengths per unit and the guttering is the square line type which is wider and deeper than the half round type with an aviary wire
hinged lid.
Mice are after the cellulose in the peas and when grown in guttering or pots this cellulose is almost expended when you plant out so the loss to mice is practically nil. Pigeons are the ones to watch for a few weeks so my peas are always netted for a few weeks but when they are about 12" high I remove the nets and they then seem to not so attractive to the pigeons or anything else and grow on quite happily. This last year not even any pea moth.
JB.

I tried the paraffin some years ago, David, and the mice still ate the peas. I now start the peas off in seed trays (just to get them sprouted and with short roots) and broad beans in roottrainers (until they are about 6 inches tall) and then plant them out. That seems to keep the mice off. However, even then, occasionally a mouse will take the sprouted broad bean off the plant and thereby nibble through the actual plant, but that doesn't happen very often.

Like Monika I plant in root trainers, well.... loo roll cardboard, then plant out when roots begin to grow through the card, the card decomposes in the soil, and no prob with mice.

Hi Natures Babe,
I plant in triple rows at 18 peas (approx) to the foot in 30ft rows and have tried several configurations with 7cm sq pots but guttering is going to be the easier method for me. To use loo rolls would be impossible for me but if it works for you that's great.
The more ways we find, and put on the forum, gives other gardeners a list of probable methods and they can then choose the method that suits them but if the list is not there this is where the problem lies. So this is why it is important for people to let us know how they manage.
JB.

I have made up a protective cover about 4 ft long with 6 in sides, of fine metal netting(used in the building trade for attaching mortar to brickwork), and this seems to keep them off if you sow in 4 ft rows. Once the peas and beans are six inches high, I do a successional sowing of another 4 ft row.

Johnboy wrote:Hi Natures Babe,
I plant in triple rows at 18 peas (approx) to the foot in 30ft rows and have tried several configurations with 7cm sq pots but guttering is going to be the easier method for me. To use loo rolls would be impossible for me but if it works for you that's great.
The more ways we find, and put on the forum, gives other gardeners a list of probable methods and they can then choose the method that suits them but if the list is not there this is where the problem lies. So this is why it is important for people to let us know how they manage.
JB.

I am having difficulty with this, Johnboy.
Do you mean you grow 18 plants in a square foot ?
I had no idea it was possible to grow peas that close together.

Hi Ron,
My Peas are sown in domino fives plus one pattern in guttering with 18 seeds to the foot run of gutter.
______________________
x.....x.....x.....x.....x.....x
....x.....x.....x.....x.....x.....x
x.....x.....x.....x.....x.....x
______________________

Ron this represents a one foot planting pattern in a 4.4" gutter. X equals a Pea.
JB.

Dear Johnboy,

What do you use to support your plants as they grow?

Hi Elle,
With Peas like Hurst's Greenshaft I use Hazel pea sticks, of which I have an inexhaustible supply. But with the very tall varieties such as Alderman I have two heights of Pig netting overlapped quite a bit. I thread pieces of Hazel to accept the initial growth at the bottom of the pig netting but thereafter the pig netting suffices.
JB.

Just butting in, Elle and Johnboy, I use buddleia cuttings for all our peas. The buddleias need cutting back just at the time when I need the pea sticks, so it works out very well. At the end of the season, when the pea hauls have dried up, we just burn the lot.

Thanks guys, I can probably try growing a few more in the space I have available having seen this.

Hi Monika,
You must always use what you have available. As it happens the tall varieties very often top 6ft and Buddleia would not be strong enough even if you could get it to that height. Certainly for Hurst's Greenshaft Buddleia would work well. I just happen to have the odd 1000ft of Hazel Hedge.
JB.