According to the Official Farmer Don calendar, today is pea planting day. (Actually last Saturday was, but the weather did not co-operate as it was too wet). The weather is terrific. The sun is out and it must be around 60 or so. While the ground is not as dry was I might find ideal, it is dry enough to poke a hole and drop a pea into.
I put the three varieties of seed peas into three separate glasses of water of Thursday night to soak. They were still good and firm when planted today. Soaking the peas helps them germinate. In years past I inoculated the peas and beans I planted with rhizobia bacteria prior to planting them. This helped the plants in forming the nodes on the roots which produce nitrogen. But since I have now planted either peas or beans in every bed now, and have used the inoculant in every bed, the rhizobia bacteria should already be present in the soil now. The inoculant is a powder and one wets the seeds and then drops them in the powder before planting them.
I am planting three varieties of peas this year. Early Frosty (which I grew last year), Alaska, and Super Sugar Snap Peas. The first two are traditional peas, which must be removed from the shells before eating, unless you eat them very young before the shells become stringy and tough. And even then, if you want to eat them in the shell, sugar snap peas are the better choice because you can allow them to grow much larger before the shell gets tough.
I have tripled the space allowed for peas as well, so I should have plenty to can this spring. I planted the peas in two rows, about six inches apart, on either side of the deer netting I use as trellis. Each variety got 10' of double rows. I hope to get two dozen pints to can from this.
We are now starting to consume more of last years canned veggies. We haven't canned enough of anything to make it a full year yet. For one, I had no idea how many pints of anything we used. I have been paying closer attention to our consumption rates and have tried to expand the plantings of the things we eat so as to have enough to can for a year. We tend to eat more corn and green beans than anything else. I canned a good amount of beans last year but no corn. I tried growing an heirloom variety of corn last year, Stowell's Evergreen, and while the taste was good, the yield was not. This year I am planting a block of Silver Queen, a hybrid that I have grown in the past with success. Sweet corn needs to have close eye kept on it when it's time to ripen. I few days too many on the stalk can be the difference between the best corn ever, and just another ear of corn. It should be eaten or canned as soon after picking as possible because the sugar starts to turn to starch the minute it is picked.
I put the three varieties of seed peas into three separate glasses of water of Thursday night to soak. They were still good and firm when planted today. Soaking the peas helps them germinate. In years past I inoculated the peas and beans I planted with rhizobia bacteria prior to planting them. This helped the plants in forming the nodes on the roots which produce nitrogen. But since I have now planted either peas or beans in every bed now, and have used the inoculant in every bed, the rhizobia bacteria should already be present in the soil now. The inoculant is a powder and one wets the seeds and then drops them in the powder before planting them.
I am planting three varieties of peas this year. Early Frosty (which I grew last year), Alaska, and Super Sugar Snap Peas. The first two are traditional peas, which must be removed from the shells before eating, unless you eat them very young before the shells become stringy and tough. And even then, if you want to eat them in the shell, sugar snap peas are the better choice because you can allow them to grow much larger before the shell gets tough.
I have tripled the space allowed for peas as well, so I should have plenty to can this spring. I planted the peas in two rows, about six inches apart, on either side of the deer netting I use as trellis. Each variety got 10' of double rows. I hope to get two dozen pints to can from this.
We are now starting to consume more of last years canned veggies. We haven't canned enough of anything to make it a full year yet. For one, I had no idea how many pints of anything we used. I have been paying closer attention to our consumption rates and have tried to expand the plantings of the things we eat so as to have enough to can for a year. We tend to eat more corn and green beans than anything else. I canned a good amount of beans last year but no corn. I tried growing an heirloom variety of corn last year, Stowell's Evergreen, and while the taste was good, the yield was not. This year I am planting a block of Silver Queen, a hybrid that I have grown in the past with success. Sweet corn needs to have close eye kept on it when it's time to ripen. I few days too many on the stalk can be the difference between the best corn ever, and just another ear of corn. It should be eaten or canned as soon after picking as possible because the sugar starts to turn to starch the minute it is picked.
No comments:
Post a Comment