Peas...

 While looking for information on something else I discovered that pea seeds don't have the same longevity as tomato seeds.  In fact 3 years is about what most folks say... and looking at my pea seeds from the swap I realized I really needed to test the germination and get to growing them.   I have 3 types.  Dark Seeded Early Perfection from 2016,  Thomas Laxton from 2017 and Salmon Flowered Crown Pea from 2018.  

I let my peas soak over night then moved them to damp paper towels to see how many would germinate.  My loser was Salmon Flowered Crown Pea with only 4 of the 20 seeds germinating. :( Of course this was the variety I wanted to raise the most.   Dark Seeded Early Perfection had 7 of 11 seeds germinate. Thomas Laxton blew me away.  All eleven of the seeds I had germinated! Looks like I need a bigger pea patch... 

I still need to go though my beans and see if there are any that really need grown out but mostly I am looking at fresh seeds that have properties I want to put into my bean collection.  Like a fast, tasty, productive dry bean...  

First potting up day for this year...

 And I am pleased with most of my numbers...  Normal procedure for me is to plant 3 pellets with 2 to 3 seeds per pellet.  Move the seedlings to a cup soon after they show signs of growing a real leaf...  

This year I am not sure what I was thinking but Big Hill was planted in 6 pellets as was Micro Tom Gold.... and then there was Lucinda OMG I don't know what I was thinking but I planted 12 pellets with the seeds for this variety and have ended up with a large number of these to hand out...  Lucky me these may go as a novelty as they are carrot leafed and very distinctive.  Also very distinctive is the bright green of the Cherokee Tiger Black.  This one also was planted in 6 pellets and I ended up with 9 plants.  

Sadly there were a few failures...  Melon Ball only gave me one seedling out of the 6 seeds planted.  Large Barred Boar has not come up at all but I will give it a bit more time... and some varieties I really wanted to plant got misplaced and started very late