To sow or not to sow?

[William Rose]

In the Vegetable Gardner's Bible, it cautions against starting peas and, beans indoors. Anyone have a clue as to why that is? Until the last few years, I've always purchased beans and peas as starter plants. They weren't sown. My desire to put in starter plants rather than seeds is based on my experience with roaming gangs of evil-doing gastropods and their cute little friends, the rolly pollies, devouring all my little buddies with cell walls at night. Things have improved this year but the reflex remains.

The book also cautions against trellising beans where peas have just been. I only have so much trellis, garden, and Sun. Any ideas? Anyone? Anyone?

- Bill Cloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

[Omelet]

I've always trellised beans...

Why is it bad?

[cloud dreamer]

It's not the trellising...it's doing it for beans where peas had just been. I'm guessing there's a disease risk between the two closely related guys....like not planting tomatoes where potatoes have just been (and vice versa).

..

Zone 5b in Canada's Far East.

[Omelet]

Oh, sorry... I did not read it right.

I have grown peas and beans side by side with no problems, but maybe I was just lucky.

I have read about the nightshade family thing not mixing, but I never grow spuds as we don't eat them. I do want to try Yams this year tho'. I understand those are in the morning glory family.

[William Rose]

I suspect if you do all the things the gardening books tell you not to do, your garden will suffer from it. On the other hand if you do most of them right, and you gaff a few, you may not notice the difference in the results. I keep planting my crops in the same place because of the Sun. The sunniest spot goes to the corn, next sunniest to the peppers, next sunniest to the tomatoes cucumbers, and the melons, then the lettuce and roots and lastly to the Swiss chard. There is no possibility of rotating them because of their individual needs.

I did have to move my basil from the lettuce patch because of fulsarium wilt (or some such) but that is the only real problem I've had with the terrain. The basil seems much happier in pots of the stairs anyway.

When mid-June rolls around, out go the peas and in go the beans.

- Bill Cloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

[Puckdropper]

cloud dreamer wrote in news: [e-mail]:

One suggestion I have is beans and peas both like to add nitrogen to the soil, and nitrogen makes for green leafy plants. You might get more plant than fruit by planting beans and peas in the same spots year after year.

This is just my guess.

Puckdropper

[Omelet]

I've done the same. I just try to renew the soil as needed with fresh topsoil, compost, etc.

My Basil does best in pots too, in the greenhouse. I actually managed to winter some over last year.

[Omelet]

Or add more bone meal to the soil to balance it out???

Worked for me for the bulb (flower) garden,. :-)

[R M. Watkin]

Hi All, I have allways started beans and peas inside the green house with no problem. you can start them in a length of plastic gutter and slide them out of the gutter in to a prepared trench, or you can start them in pots, but the gutter is better. Hope this helps you.

Richard M. Watkin.

[Usenet2007]

No, the issue isn't about having them growing near each other at the same time. Rather, it is about doing a new crop, after the old one is finished.

With tomatoes/potatoes (and maybe beans/peas) there is a disease organism that gets into the soil. So, if you keep planting, say, tomatoes in the same spot each year, the disease may build up until it attacks the plants.

So, the answer is to put that item in a different spot each year. This lets the previous spot rest, and the disease organism in the soil there eventually dies off.

This (soon-ending) season's tomato area will be restocked with spinach, broccoli, etc. And next spring's tomatoes will go in a different place.