Pea'd off

[I'm doing this now!]

Evenin' folks,
Today's update is a "vent" following failing crops. I started some old peas off in guttering in the green house quite e few weeks back now and these all failed bar 3 peas which are now about 2 inch tall. Not bad from a batch of many hundreds of home grown 2 year old peas. Anyhow i resigned to those failing a few weeks ago and so planted some Hurst and Kelvedon wonder in the old veg bed. I also planted many other seeds on the same day including beetroot, carrots, chard, spinach, parsnip and leeks. I have not seen any emerging seedlings aside from spinach. I decided to check on the peas and found them gone, aside from a couple of inches of rotten peas from each 10 foot row. I dug up both rows and could find no sign of any others. I presume they have all rotten away except for the couple that I found. The Kelvedon were from Wilko and the Hurst were Mr Fothergill. I have never had a pea failure before and am wondering if anyone else has "failed" as well. The below images show the 2 x rows and the only remnants of said peas.

Unsure as to why no other seedlings are showing either. This plot has been good for the last 3 decades and was hoping to have many things coming up already. Been some failures in the greenhouses too including Gardeners delight, all failed, French beans and chilli's. I usually get a few failures but this year is just cranky.
Anyone else experiencing this?

[ChingfordHarry]

If there were no peas (apart from the few rotten ones) I'd suspect mice.

Last year I soaked my peas and dusted with extra hot chili powder before sowing, and that seemed to deter mice (unfortunately the molluscs did for them later after they started growing...).

[I'm doing this now!]

I'm ruling out the rodents Harry. There was no soil disturbance at all until i poked around today. I've been looking at all the rows everyday since sowing and aside from a cat scrape 10 feet away a few days ago, nothing else. I have some weed seeds coming through and i've deliberately not hoed the plot so i don't disturb my sowings.
One of my images shows a blob with a couple of mushed rotten peas. That is all that remained of the 2 row sowing. The only thing I can think of is the ground being wet but the entire crop vanishing is beyond me. I have carrots to the right of them and chard to the left. no show on those yet either. I had placed my last remaining black currant bush next to the peas as well, temporarily, and that is in leaf, so i don't think there's anything wrong with the soil.

[I'm doing this now!]

Today is another scorcher and the greenhouses are like ovens so its a good idea to have a ton of Cotswold chippings delivered (not). I've re-sown some peas and miraculously both rows of carrots have partially emerged overnight. I think they overheard my threat to start again. Potted on some money maker toms and the sole survivor of Gardeners delight.
Greenhouse radishes are coming along a treat and the spring onions are slowly getting there.
Hopefully this hot spell will kick off the other seedlings whilst i juggle keeping the greenhouses in order with all the other stuff that's coming up.

[I'm doing this now!]

Managed to plumb in / connect the 3 IBC's yesterday too and just need to figure a way of hosing from them into the greenhouses

[I'm doing this now!]

Tech issues prevent me uploading images. I re-sowed 2 rows of peas as above and have been monitoring their progress. Nothing.....So i dug some of the row up again. All vanished in the test area so i dug both rows completely. Managed to find less than a handful of each variety. The couple of "Hurst" that I found appeared to be slightly pink in colour and rotten. The "Kelvedon" were also very rotten. I did notice that one of the rotting Kelvedon had worm things on it and i think they are baby centipedes.
My son has managed to get 1 image via email so hopefully it will be below.

Could these be what are devouring my peas? The rotting pea appears to also have a white fibrous matter on it as well.

[Jungle Jane]

They look like Blaniulus guttulatus: Here’s a link about them below,it says part of a healthy gardens eco system & they eat rotting plant waste,I’d start the peas in pots & then plant out. It says they have weak mouth parts so often don’t initiate the damage. The white in your photo I wonder if it was all rotting,it has been cold at night.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/millipedes

[JoaoLeaftide]

That's really frustrating, especially when everything else in the same bed is coming through fine. The millipede thing is interesting, Jungle Jane's probably right that they're feeding on what was already rotting rather than causing it. If the soil was cold and wet when you sowed them that would do it on its own. Might be worth starting the next batch in modules and planting out once they've got a bit of root on them, at least then you know they're viable before they go in the ground.

[I'm doing this now!]

Thanks for the replies so far folks.

[Andraste]

I second the advice on pot sowing.

I had awful trouble with peas & beans failing/rotting last year which is an issue I hadn't had before but I never did make a definite decision on what caused it: I presoaked (which I'd never bothered with before) before but unsoaked also failed, blamed the compost for being too wet, the weather for being too cold, wondered if the seed stock was to blame etc.

I'm not growing peas this year but with my beans I didn't presoak, just chitted the seed (put between damp kitchen roll in a takeaway tub to start germinating) to make sure they were viable before transferring them into compost as soon as they started sprouting. This seems to be the best approach for me & it saves me staring at the top of the soil to see if anything's come up yet or having to dig around to see what the seed are doing.

Your radish look smashing btw

[burnie]

I always start peas off in modules in the greenhouse the same as any other seeds, I reckon I am around 80 to 90% germination that way, same with bean seeds, folk seem to think because they are large seeds they don't need any care and attention.

[Andraste]

I start mine that way too burnie (indoors early on or straight into the blow away depending on weather around the time).

We've established the ground on our plot is basically clay & too wet for direct sowing of almost everything, especially as we aren't able to visit every day. The old guard on the site have confirmed that even with daily visits direct sowing of peas/beans is most often unsuccessful/disappointing whether due to rotting, drying out, mice/rats/birds, snap weather changes etc. so it's not just us.

I find I have much more control of temp & moisture at home in the initial stages - after they're big enough & ready for planting out they're able to either fend for themselves or put up with less than daily attention.

[Penellype]

Another fan of modules here. I sow 2 or 3 seeds to a module and plant them out when they are about 3 inches high. If you sow them in a greenhouse, put some sort of cover over them to deter mice.

I get loads of millipedes here - they will eat anything damaged - potatoes, beetroot, carrots, courgettes, brassica stems. I doubt they were the original cause. The fact that you have white threads around the seeds implies they have gone mouldy, in which case they could be dead seed. Try chitting a few on some damp kitchen paper for a few days (soak for a few hours first) to see if they will actually grow.

[It never rains..it pours]

Slugs are what eat my peas. Use to do gutter system but became too much work for large lengths. Now organic slug pellets 2 weeks pre planting and cover with clear plastic so rain doesn't wash them away .Then when plant some pellets in the drill row and on surface, then cover with clear plastic again. End result is got 90% of a complete rows this year. Imagine gaps were slugs before eating pellets.
I did also pre-soak the peas to try and reduce time they were slug susceptible