Peas, Slugs, Beets and other stuff.

Just spent an hour making a string support for my peas to cling to - it's only 4 degree out there and windy. I'm frozen to the bones! Just hope the little pea tendrils will be able to cling to the string against this wind. It is nice to see a bed of bright green stuff although the greens bed is full to brimming. The slugs are devastating my beetroot so I'm going tp pull them up regardless of size later today - they are leaving everything else alone - I've never seen them attack with such ferociousness. The beets must be very sweet.

Interesting about the beetroot. The hordes are leaving mine in peace at the moment, but they are attacking my carrots like mad. Have started carrots again and again. They come up nicely and I'm happy, and then they are all gone. Again and again. Grrrrrr.... I WANT carrots! Will try again. Maybe.

Good luck with the peas in the wind!

I planted 1 punnet of snow peas just for seed collection when should , or when is the right time to harvest the seeds, after the plant dies back and the pods are brown

Thee...have to ask why have you planted the snowpeas "just for seed collection"??? don't you eat them?

Patricia

Can't say I've ever done it Thee - always picked them when the pea isn't properly showing and the pod is still flat

I'd imagine you could pick them when mature and let them dry out inside out of the weather - would have to keep aired. I'm sure others here will know than I do though.

With peas and beans I save for seed, I like to leave them on the vine as long as they can be kept dry. If it's raining, I pull them off and leave in the pods in a dry place until they are nice and crisp, preferably where the sun can dry them. I then pod them and make sure they are not moist by leaving them in a sunny spot ( make sure the birds can't get them!) I store them in brown paper bags in a cupboard over the fridge where it is nice and warm.

I sowed a heap of peas a few weeks back. They're all just little green stumps now! I'll have to sow more, probably a lot more! I've been bringing back the leopard slugs I find at work but they're released in the greens bed. I'll have to bring in more!

Peas, and all legumes for that matter, must be left on the vine as long as possible, preferably till they dry out so that the seed collected has properly matured. If it's wet, which sometimes happens here in Armidale with summer rains, they can be harvested just as the pods start to drain of colour, shelled, and left somewhere dry, not exposed to weather, to finish drying out. You can also just rip out the entire plant and hang it somewhere out of the weather to let the pods finish drying. All legume seed should be dry before storage. Test by hitting with a hammer. If the seed shatters, it's dry enough for storage. If it mashes, it needs more time to dry. Once thoroughly dry, I put my legume seeds in a jar, seal it and freeze them for a week. This kills any bugs and their eggs, things like bean weevils. I take the jar out of the freezer, leave it to come back to room temperature (overnight) before opening, then store the seeds in paper envelopes, unless they're for eating over winter (I grow my own beans, cowpeas etc for winter) in which case they go into glass jars and into the pantry!

Stecranat wrote:Thee...have to ask why have you planted the snowpeas "just for seed collection"??? don't you eat them?

Patricia

Because I forgot to pick them and they are no longer snowpeas, they are huge fat pods so I thought I'd let them go and collect the seeds

and thanks everyone for all the other advise, it has been duly noted

Apologies to the Slugs - yeah - I found the culprits to be mice - they have totally chewed off the exposed part of every single beetroot ! My crop that I was going to make lovely Borscht and stuff with has gone into the compost tumbler - I won;t even let the little buggers much on them from the heap. So Sluggo - you live to fight me another day!

Field mice are they - must be hungry or looking for an easy feed.

So long as they don't come in the house! Last year some got in and gave me absolute paranoid nights! Next to spiders I hate mice the most.

I have had cockies in plague numbers this year