Broad Beans

Hello chums

My Broad Beans are doing quite well, Masterpiece Longpod, I think they are. Anyway, I normally cut them off at around 3' 6" or so. Thing is, there's still a lot of flowers at the top, with more to follow. If I were to leave them to get to say 5', does the law of diminishing returns kick in? What do you do?

 

I pinch the tops out when the blackfly arrive and infest them, and leave them growing until then

 

Well, after everything the past winter could throw at them, followed by a very late cold spring, my autumn sown Aquadulce Claudia broad beans have come through it all and are now ready for picking.

Sown direct outdoors in early November, they began to appear around the turn of the year. Admittedly there were some losses during the subsequent months, but enough have survived to produce what appears to be a reasonable crop.

They're only about a fortnight later than normal too.

 

Rather foolishly I planted a mixture of broad beans at the start of the year, some are just about ready & some have just set - but I cant remember which are which..


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I think you'll be ok. I (like many others, I suspect) like to get them in early as they are quite hardy, and they are usually the first meaningful crop. Not only that, once they're finished, it gives the opportunity to get another crop in

 

I wonder if early planting is also popular to get them to a decent size before the blackfly arrives?

 

Well, just to demonstrate the difference between spring this year and that of last year, I just checked back on this thread.

22nd June 2013

Compare that with this year. Mine are ready for picking now, a full month earlier than last year!
Same variety, same sowing time (early November), same garden.
I don't keep records, but I'm pretty sure this is the earliest I've ever had them ready for picking. The earliest I can remember before is around the end of May/beginning of June.

 

I'm not having much luck with my broad beans this year. They seem to have flowered but no beans are appearing. I might rip them out and plant other crops which are ready to go in in their place and try again next year. But does anyone know why this might be happening?

 

Nothing pollinating them? (Seems unlikely as it has been warm)

 

Suttons stand, at Chelsea yesterday, was covered in magnificent veg plants (actually I find every stand in the Flower Tent UTTERLY DEPRESSING in that regard) ...

... anyways, they were basically flogging packets of seeds. Not much humour amongst the serving staff, particularly when I asked "If I just add water will they grow to look like those <PointingFingerAndArm!> "

 

I have been on holiday for a week and my broad beans have doubled in size (so have all the weeds). I have opened one today and the beans are about the size of a 5 pence piece. Are these big enough to start harvesting?

Rusty