Broad Beans with nothing in them!

Hi, I've tried some broad beans this year for the first time. Things looked really good, beans developed well. I've now got a double row of plants, about 5 foot high with loads of beans on.

The problem I can't understand is the beans are very large and fat but when I open them, some are great (big, fat and tasty), but a lot have either very small beans, no beans at all (just brown looking seeds) and some even have 1 or 2 really big beans and then the rest of the pod just seeds.

As I said some of the pods are 6 - 8 inches long, really fat - but absolutely nothing in them. An exact same pod next to it, on same plant could have 6 - 8 really big beans in it.

Any ideas as I'm totally lost. I love the taste of fresh broad beans but am considering whether it wort the time and space for so little yield. I have row of peas next to them and they have performed really bean.

Regards
Kev

 

They were not pollinated that,s the reason.

 

:hehe: Got beans on the brain, Kev?

Yeah - they haven't been pollinated. Shame but it happens. I had quite a few this year too. But happily to good ones outnumbered the empty ones.

 

My broad beans were rubbish this year - practically nil crop.
I'm not that mad about them anyway so I'm giving the ground over to something better.

 

mine were a bit iffy this year too

loopy

 

I had a good crop of Bunyards exhibition but pollinated them with a paint brush. This year I saw plenty of Bees but the dry spell just messed it all up. My Aquadulce Claudia were great too but I really had to put the work in this year to make sure they were pollinated