sweet pea's

[Pixie 162]

Today I was shocked to see pea pods growing on my sweet peas ( yes I know, clue is in the name... I just thought they were a flower ) and I'm wondering if you can eat the peas/pea pods or are they just 'for show'?

[VWGolf 21]

Yes, sweet peas belong to the pea family and have pods containing seeds. I wouldn't recommend you eating them, although they are small and it would take a lot to make a meal!

[MELTONSTILTON 452]

ALL sweet peas were poisonous to eat.

[Pixie 162]

Thank you for clearing that up, they could of been the sort you cook in the pod's, you never know! At least I won't feel like I'm wasting them as I chop them off.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Let them ripen and harvest them for next years flower garden! Once dried, they are dark brown in colour, put them in a plastic bag, seal them, mark the bag what they are plus the date and keep them in the bottom of the fridge.

[MELTONSTILTON 452]

I may have saved your life Pixie. Am I a hero

[StephenFord 866]

'Esa nero

[Pixie 162]

Let them ripen and harvest them for next years flower garden! Once dried, they are dark brown in colour, put them in a plastic bag, seal them, mark the bag what they are plus the date and keep them in the bottom of the fridge.

Will they keep for a year at the bottom of the fridge?

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

I store all my seed bought and also collected in plastic bags that are sealed in the bottom drawer of the fridge...I have seed that's more than two years old and still germinates. The trick is to keep it dry, hence the sealed plastic bags.

A late friend of mine stored his in sealed cans in the freezer.

[Pixie 162]

Never heard about keeping them in the fridge but I'll sure to do so, not asif they will take up much room! Do I leave the pod's to dry out or take the seeds out to dry or do they go strait into theb fridge?

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Just make sure they are completely dried before putting them in a plastic bag, or they will go mouldy.

I dry and bag peas, corn, beans and other seeds for the following year.

With veggies it's best to get heirloom, what you got is what you're going to get, hybrids in veggies produce some odd results from their seed...

As a kid I used to love my Grans tomatoes, she used to grow them in a greenhouse, so less chance of bee's pollinating them, so she used a piece of old fur to pollinate all the flowers on the vines. She'd open a couple of fruits up, and scrape the seed onto a small plate and dry them for next years crop.

[Pixie 162]

Might do that with my tomato's this year! I grow em every year but allways buy the seeds!

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

If they are hybrids, forget it, they could well grow into two inch weaklings!!! Look for "Heirloom" type seeds in all veggie seeds, it will be printed on the packet whether it's "hybrid" or "heirloom".

Check seed suppliers on the internet, use the search criteria..."heirloom vegetable seed suppliers"..

There are many varieties of heirloom tomatoes etc available.

[Compo 10,328]

I have stuck to two types of tomato this year.

1: Bog standard Alicante

2. Shirley F1

Surprisingly, the Alicante at £1.79p/50 seeds are doing far better than the F1 Shirley at £3.79 per 8 seeds!