Got a tranplant question

[michaeljohnson]

With any kind of peas or beans -especially runner beans, it is always best to start them indoors in pots or deep trays, ready for hardening off for planting outside, in cooler climates and zones, but one must always remember to try to time the plants to the nearest week for the first flowers to open to the same time as when the first bees start to appear on the scene, otherwise you will have a lot of unpollinated flowers and lose heaps of bags of beans with flowers dropping off,

Another thing to watch if sowing direct into the garden, especially for peas, but also beans too, that your area is not riddled with a few mice, as sure as eggs are eggs they will find them in the night and dig all of them up and carry them off to eat them and store them, a friend of mine lost three full rows of peas and beans he had sown direct, so we set traps and caught the blighter's red handed at it, they even went into his cold frame outside where he had soaked some peas in a bucket of water overnight ready for planting, and stole half of them.

[robertb]

I keep rat poison down in the shed so I don't have much trouble with mice. But I do have trouble with woodpigeons. The only time I've ever managed to get away with planting peas in the open ground was when I cloched a row. I start them in pots as I normally grow them up wigwams and that doesn't really go with cloching. Once they're up they usually stay unmolested, but last year they hammered them all, then no sooner had I got rid of the flying rats than we had the worst floods on the site in living memory. That damaged the roots to the point where I just about got enough seed to plant this year, though a lot of it is shrivelled and dodgy-looking, and nothing to eat. The only one I've planted so far is the Salmon-Flowered, and it was quite a relief to see that it was growing roots yesterday.

[cornishwoman]

I got flooded out last spring also,drowned beans peas and toms,miserable spring, hope its better this year.

[bluelacedredhead]

I've used a few soup cans this year to transplant seedlings. I think when planting into the garden I might have to cut the bottom off the can and push the plant out gently? But I'll see what works best when that time arrives

Another thing I used today, based on the concept of paper pots or toilet tissue rolls was a cardboard juice can with metal removable base.

I suppose now that I'm only a few weeks from planting outdoors that I could make some paper pots. I just found when I used them for longer than a few weeks, I had problems with fungus or the paper pots actually disintegrating into a mushy pile from watering.

[ceara]

The year we moved to Gaspe we planted bush bean seeds outside on June 1.

Later in June, we went to visit someone nearby and I noticed his beans were a lot bigger than ours. So I asked him when he started the seeds. He said in the middle of June and that it's local lore to not put bean seeds out until after the full moon in June, because then it's almost always guaranteed to not get a frost.

I don't know how that would translate to other zones, but up here, that little rule does help a lot and we've been following it ever since for beans.

[bluelacedredhead]

Apr 12, 2010 8:34:35 GMT -5 ceara said:

The year we moved to Gaspe we planted bush bean seeds outside on June 1.

Later in June, we went to visit someone nearby and I noticed his beans were a lot bigger than ours. So I asked him when he started the seeds. He said in the middle of June and that it's local lore to not put bean seeds out until after the full moon in June, because then it's almost always guaranteed to not get a frost.

I don't know how that would translate to other zones, but up here, that little rule does help a lot and we've been following it ever since for beans.

Ceara,
The First Quarter planting date for 2010 is Sunday, June 13th. It's in the sign of Cancer, which is very Fruitful and considered the Most Productive of all signs.

www.ommas-aarden.net/perp_lunar_garden.htm