The peas are dead, long live the peas

Pea seedling with long root

I noticed today that many of the pea seedlings in paper pots had long roots sticking out, no doubt groping around looking for soil to grow in. I decided to plant them out straight away, as the roots would probably dry out, entwine, or get damaged some other way if I left them for a couple of weeks as originally planned.

Since there was still no sign of life from the Meteor peas in bed one, I hoed over that area, and planted the pots directly into the soil. For the ones with roots coming out of the bottom, I dug a hole with a trowel in the normal way, then made a hole for the root at the bottom of it with a pencil.

The paper pots took up one of the two rows of climbing-mesh in bed one, and I planted more Greenshaft and Early Onwards seeds directly into the soil. I'm not sure peas need or benefit from going into pots first. The autumn sowing of Meteor came up OK, and weren't eaten by mice, they just didn't survive the winter.