Peas and Sweet Peas - what am I doing wrong?

peaceandfreedom

Hi fellow gardeners.

I grow a lot of plants from seed and am mostly successful but I seem to do very badly with peas and sweet peas. This happens every year and I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

With sweet peas, I sowed two packets, with three seeds each in 3-inch pots. I put some of these in a propagator and some not. Less than half germinated overall, and the propagator did not do better than the unheated ones.

With peas I sowed 20 each of mange tout and sugar snap peas. These were left in my unheated greenhouse. Only 1 mange tout has germinated and 3 sugar snaps. These were sown in a fairly large-module seed tray.

All of the seeds were sown in seed and cutting compost. I have no idea why I do so badly with peas and sweet peas but there must be something I'm doing wrong. Any ideas?

peter_the_piper

How deep were they sown? Were they new seeds? Did you cover them, I'm thinking mice here? We sow pots of sweet peas into normal pot and bedding and usually get 10 out of twelve, fill pot to normal height, place seeds into top of mix, press the compost flat gently and cover with about 5mm fine compost. Water well, place in bright spot and cover with glass. Don't sow peas but they should work the same way.

peaceandfreedom

peter_the_piper wrote: »

How deep were they sown? Were they new seeds? Did you cover them, I'm thinking mice here? We sow pots of sweet peas into normal pot and bedding and usually get 10 out of twelve, fill pot to normal height, place seeds into top of mix, press the compost flat gently and cover with about 5mm fine compost. Water well, place in bright spot and cover with glass. Don't sow peas but they should work the same way.

Yes, they were in covered trays, even the ones not in a propagator. Also, the sweet peas were all indoors initially and I am confident we don't have mice where they were.

The seeds were in two new packets but I bought them at the end of last summer when they were going cheap in the garden centre. They were stored in the dark garage over winter and were within their sow-by date. I've a feeling that none of the seeds from one packet germinated but my labelling went a bit awry so not 100% sure about that.

I'm wondering if I sow them too deep, as that seems to be the main difference between what I did and what you do.

peter_the_piper

Were they stored in a sealed tin or just on the shelf, if on the shelf they could have have become damp and pretty much dead.We store all our seeds indoors, last winter was so wet that seeds would have deteriorated very quickly in an outside shed.

peaceandfreedom

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Were they stored in a sealed tin or just on the shelf, if on the shelf they could have have become damp and pretty much dead.We store all our seeds indoors, last winter was so wet that seeds would have deteriorated very quickly in an outside shed.

They were in a wooden box in our garage, which is a very dark garage but not damp (it is attached to the house).

I suppose the seeds could have deteriorated but I seem to have similar problems every year with sweet peas and peas, it's very odd.

elsien

Maybe your unheated greenhouse isn't warm enough to get them going. I find mangetout one of the easiest, although I'm not great with other seeds. One or two in a cardboard loo roll inner on a warm windows sill, then out into a cooler spot once they've got going. They always seem to do well starting them off indoors.

peaceandfreedom

elsien wrote: »

Maybe your unheated greenhouse isn't warm enough to get them going. I find mangetout one of the easiest, although I'm not great with other seeds. One or two in a cardboard loo roll inner on a warm windows sill, then out into a cooler spot once they've got going. They always seem to do well starting them off indoors.

Thanks, I will try that - the peas are in the unheated greenhouse so it's worth moving them indoors. Come to think of it, I suppose mice could have got at those though I didn't see any signs of disturbance.

Will try that with the peas and report back.

peter_the_piper

My sweet peas are grown in a greenhouse with a min temp of 10C where we raise all our bedding, daytime does rise a lot though as the house is insulated and this tends to slow down the ventilation. Defo check mice, they are crafty critters. Peanuts work well in a trap if you don't mind this sort of thing.

PlymouthMaid

I normally soak my peas/sweet peas overnight in water as it seems to help them take off. Mine were soaked and sown in an outdoor mini greenhouse and I have had most come up this year. I find they do better sown outside as they make sturdier plants than when straining towards the window indoors.

trollopscarletwoman

I normally start my sweet peas off in root trainers or loo rolls.

I also soak them but in a recent Gardeners World Monty Don said theres no need to do so.

PlymouthMaid

That is interesting. Just something I have always done but I guess they spend an extra day in the soil taking up moisture.