Lesser of two weevils

All weevils are insects but not all insects are weevil...  some are actually helpful (ugh).  And to be clear with that last pun - weevils are NOT helpful...

What is helpful is Johnny Seeds - the folks we placed the majority of our seed order with this year.  We had ordered 1# of Sugar Snap Peas...  the super crunchy eat the pod an all delights that start producing plump green pea pods in late June and go for about 3 weeks. (And they freeze really well too - because we just had some with rice and one of our chickens done on the grill with a homemade sweet and sour sauce).

At any point - many of the seeds we bought this year were organic seeds.  For me that's not overly exciting or important - but hey - that what they were.  Anyhow, back to the story here...  we got our pound of seeds and put them in the pile for planting in April...  then, this weekend, we got a big envelope from Johnny Seeds and a letter.

They were informing us that our seeds might be infected with pea weevils since there is no good organic control for them.  They then gave crystal clear instructions on what to do to kill the weevils and keep the seeds viable (place in a 0 degree F freezer for 7 days).  BUT, their letter continued on, since many people don't have that type of freezer - they sent along a pound of an alternate pea - Sugar Sprint - very similar grows a little faster.

For us - this is a windfall of seed and a chance to try out another variety of snap peas...  Kelli has access to a deep freeze that we need and the peas (with weevils) are in there now.  How awesome is that!

We usually pick the Sugar Snap over any of the other cultivars because we have just found that they produce more peas that are sweeter than any of the hybrids we have tried before...  that said - we will certainly try the extra seed we received.

Fundamentally Johnny Seeds may cost a little more packet for packet to some of the other suppliers out there - but year after year they have provided the best customer service I have EVER encountered...  they are always on top of a situation BEFORE it becomes a situation.  So the lesson could be - you get the quality you pay for...  but I prefer the hidden lesson...  you know...  the one about the lesser of two weevils...

Comments

[Jeph]

Oh wow - this is really interesting. AND really great service from Johnny's! I think this was maybe my first year ordering from them, and I actually placed a fair amount of my first round of seed orders with them (pluuuus I might've done a follow up order! Heh...). I don't recall who I got my sugar snap seeds from - either Johnny's or Territorial, but I know I didn't intentionally go organic with the seeds. Here's hoping mine don't have critters. I haven't gotten a follow up package like you did.

PS I always think weevils are kinda cute!

[Andy]

We don't always use organic seeds (or I should say don't deliberately select organic seeds) - but when the cultivar you want is only available that way - that's how you have to go!
Last year I ran a trail of Sugar Snap, Super Sugar Snap and another I forget off the top of my head... I also ran each of them with and without innoculant.
End result - more peas and sweeter peas on regular old Sugar Snap... even with all it's "prone to disease" genetics...

P.S. - Weevils are NOT cute... go wash your mouth out!

[Jeph]

So what did you find with the innoculant vs no innoculant test? I've picked up two small packs of innoculant to use this year...I just have to remember to use it!

[Andy]

Great question - What I saw was... ohh - wait - watch for an upcoming post! :D

[Jeph]

Tease!

[Planting peas -should you use]

[...] what am I going to do this year with my data and insight?  Well – if you read here – I’m going to do a face-off between two different untreated seeds and see how things [...]