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Grow & eat

Sowing broad beans

Posted by: Jane Moore, 22 February 2008, 11.34AM

Sowing broad beans Spring is in the air, and plants are beginning to shake off their winter dormancy. The birds and bees are making a cautious appearance, along with my fellow allotmenteers.

My neighbours Ron and Mrs Ron were hard at it last weekend - they've got three plots and tend to pick a suitable day to blitz them all at once, getting everything cleared and organised for spring planting. Another neighbour, Vic, was also on his plot, moving his broad bean plants from his greenhouse at home to a sheltered spot by the hedge to harden them off before planting them out.

We've had mixed results with broad beans. I usually sow them in autumn - trouble is that they need to get established as soon as they're planted otherwise the mice can dig them up and eat them. As well as losing a few to mice last year, the crop was also a complete washout as the hot spring dried them out and then they were attacked by blackfly.

"That's it," I said. "Never again!" But Vic's beans looked so good, even a handful of them would be worth growing. So I've relented and planted a whole load of them. I sowed two seeds to a pot and put them in the cold frame to get them going quickly, safely away from the mice!

Comments

  • BillinghamPlottter

    22 February 2008, 06.02PM

    Try to soak, your broad beans in parffin.Brfor you sow them, as the smell keeps the mice away.

  • louise

    22 February 2008, 06.23PM

    i have sown some broad beans this week, this will be my first ever try. i have never tasted them before and i'm wondering what all the fuss is about. can anybody tell me what they taste like?

  • greeny

    24 February 2008, 10.11AM

    hello,it's my firstseason, last year I helped an elderly as he was to old/sick to do it on his own, he has broad beans, he topped the flowers at a certain point to stopblack fly, it seems allour plotters do.

    I'm going for the mix grow,putting corn and sunflowers next to them, should help each of the other plants...I can't wait, still digging trenches and beds though :-(

  • greeny

    26 February 2008, 05.38AM

    the taste is wonderful. when young you can eat them raw, when "ripe" blanche them, remove the skin, don't use salt cos like with lentils it makes the skin go tough.

    try a sandwich with salami, broad beans, garlic oil, salt peper, chives on a ciabatta. classic italian anitpasto on a sandwich...great! when cooked add a spice we in holland call beanspice.. don't know the name in English, sorry but the Latin name is Satureja hortensis

  • rhubarb-rhubarb

    28 February 2008, 05.15PM

    Has anybody tried spraying black fly infestations with high concentrate of crushed garlic & water? Did it work?

    I have germinated Aquadulce Claudia in early December and Bunyards Exhibition this month, by first soaking them in water indoors for a couple of days (changing the h2o daily) until root tips appear then growing them on outdoors (near the house) 3 beans to a 5 litre pot as like greeny my plotter partner and I are still prepping beds!

  • Ria - Dorset

    28 February 2008, 09.05PM

    I grow lots of broad beans - they are really easy and lovely taste, you can eat them raw in salads or even small pods whole in a white sauce. I planted some in the autumn of 06 and was eating them last May. Delicious veg!

  • grandcolumbus

    29 February 2008, 08.53AM

    My beans were sown before Christmas and are around 3-4" tall and survived a hard frost (Bedford). This is my first season, so we'll see.

  • Canvey Paul

    02 March 2008, 11.13PM

    Broad beans, I love'em. No one else at home does. I've got two plants ready to move into the ground. Is it too early?? If I mess this up, NO bbs for me this year!!! Any assistance welcome.

  • Frances M

    04 March 2008, 02.48PM

    I've only grown maincrop potatoes before. This year I'm going to try first earlies, earlies and maincrop in larger potato bags. Do I plant them all at the same time even although they are harvested at different times?

  • stafford daz

    18 March 2008, 11.17AM

    My beans are in the ground already and so far have lived through frosts and storms, although i have kept some back in a pot. they seem to be fine, they are the seeds from last year's crop and seem to be hardy enough to put up with all weathers.

  • Sasi

    26 March 2008, 07.30PM

    Last year I sowed a batch of Aquadulce - but had very little to show for it. I blamed it on the weather and my clay soil. This year I am trying two different varieties 'sutton' and 'optica' - have just started them off in individual pots on account of the dreadful weather we've had in Yorkshire and of course my clay patch! Hope I have some beans this year at least!

  • johnboy

    23 April 2008, 03.24PM

    I've grown potatoes and runner beans succesfully for a few years but it always seemed a shame the ground lays unused for the winter,so in october ,07 I found some Suttons broad beans and I'm giving them a go. So far its looking good, some stems are a bit blackened (does this mean much), but there are plenty of flowers (black and white)so I'm looking forward to a crop of some sort. I don't believe I've eaten them before but I imagine they'll be fine in salads/stews etc. Also we are in the south east(kent) area so we had a pretty mild winter which is just as well as I planted them direct into the veg plot. All the best to everyone.

  • johnboy

    23 April 2008, 03.31PM

    Oh by the way, does anyone out there have suggestions for other crops to make use of the winter months?

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