Magic beans?

[compostpopeParticipant]

Hi Charles.

I planted Imperial Green Longpods in my new no-dig bed on 7th March and a fortnight later there’s no sign of them. A week ago I uncovered one to find that it had germinated but scratching around in the compost yesterday they seem to have totally disappeared!!

Any thoughts? I’ll re-sow but don’t want the same thing happening again….

[bluebellParticipant]

Im guessing that there are a lot of very hungry small mamals and birds out there at the monment and if they have dissappeared I would suspect they ended up as someones lunch.

[Matthew CampbellMember]

After planting the beans try topping off with a little bit of grated garlic to mask the scent, alternately you could try sowing indoors to plant out later.

[compostpopeParticipant]

I could well believe they ended up on someone’s plate other than mine – I’ve noticed our red squirrel has a bit more bounce in his step than you would expect from someone whose just woken up after a 3 month nap (“full of beans” you might say), but I had also wondered if it had been too cold or if my compost was at fault…

I’ll re-sow a few indoors – have never had to bother before as outdoor sowings (admittedly a bit later) have always been successful. I will sow these in my own compost and some in compost from the garden centre and see what happens.

Thanks for the suggestion of mouse deterrent, it’s reminded me of the Great Uncle Bob’s suggestion of masking the smell of peas from mice with seaweed solution (I think paraffin was used traditionally) so I’ll try that for the re-sowing outdoors and hold off on the garlic (which sounds a bit more of a faff if you’re sowing in any quantity).

Thanks for your suggestions

Compostpope

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