GREEN PEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 October 1939, Page 3

GREEN PEAS

GIVE GENEROUS TREATMENT. Generous treatment is required to induce green peas to give of their best. They love a deep soil, so that the area shoukPhave been trenched if possible, or at the least, deeply dug and well enriched with manure. Plenty of humus should be in the soil, as few plants suffer so quickly and so intensely from dry conditions, as do peas. Good drainage is another essential. Sour and stagnant soil results in poor returns. The best early crops are produced on warm light soils. The later kinds enjoy a stronger medium. Make the drills for the seeds wide and flat-bottomed. For the dwarf kinds, the drills can be from two Jo three feet apart —the greater distance is the better —and three inches deep. On shallow soils, if well enriched, a depth of two inches will suffice. The seeds of the early varieties may be sown rather thickly, for mortality among the seedlings is invariably high, certainly more so than later on when growing conditions are better. Peas are lovers of potash, and this may be provided in the form of wood ash. A liberal quantity may be sprinkled the seeds before filling in the drills. Another method of growing peas, and one which will never fail in a dry season, is to dig trenches running north and south, about the width of a spade and eight inches deep. Place the fifle top soil on one side of the trench and the lower soil on the other. Now loosen the bottom of the trench with a fork and then place upon it four inches of well rotted manure, that is, four inches after’ the manure has been trodden down. Two inches of soil should be placed on the manure and after the peas have been evenly sown, they may be covered with the remaining soil. All peas should be sown in open, exposed, sunny situations, except the earliest kinds, which are all the better for some protection from cold wrnda. In dry weather peas should be watered copiously. As soon as the pods form, one or two soakings of weak liquid manure will improve the size of the pods and weight of crop. A mulch of decayed manure will conserve moisture and act as a stimulant.