Parsnips and peas

I mentioned in a previous post that this year we were going to pre-germinate our parsnips but rather than then sowing the seed into toilet rolls, they would go straight into the ground so as not to cause the root tip any damage, resulting in forked roots. Well, above is the result, Three seeds were sown at each station and either two or all three seeds have made it above ground. Hopefully this winter we will have straight roots rather than ones that look like an octopus.

Today I planted out a batch of purple podded peas, a quality heritage variety. They were sown in standard 4" pots, three seeds to a pot.

As you can see from the fabulous root structure, there is absolutely no need to sow them in root trainers, toilet rolls, guttering or any other vertibule, a bog standard pot will do the job as well as anything. Of course, our maincrop peas, due to the large amount of seed involved, are sown direct into the ground making things even easier, but for small, or early sowings, pots will do fine.