Broad beans

[NetZeroZealot]

My crop this year has been terrible.

Very few pods and many of them empty.

is it me? the weather? lack of pollinators?

I have been growing them for 18 years and never had such a bad year.

Lack of water?

I agree, lack of water

I plant mine in November, and apart from being held back by snow & frost, were doing quite well. However they were over a month late, with fewer pods an fewer/smaller beans in each pod. I think the cold & wet spell, followed by heat and near drought are to blame.

Mine are stunted, covered in black fly and almost podless. Normally we manage a good crop.

Too cold, then too dry and too hot 🙁

Morrisons do good frozen ones.

Mine are stunted too.

Hosepipe ban is not helping either. I'm struggling to water all my veg regularly due to my veg plot being up some steps and at the back of the garden.

Same problems as last year.

It's disheartening.

Glad I'm not the only one.

I did water them, although perhaps not as much as I have in previous years.

No blackly this year, oddly.

Why would the pods be empty? Never had this before.

Empty pods could be a lack of pollinators

A quick google tells me its probably because they weren't pollinated.

If so we're all fucked. Not enough insects = not enough food.

I was staying with relatives in Norfolk a couple of weeks ago. We harvested their broad bean crop and then shelled them. There were 3 or 4 fat beans in each pod so no problem with their crop.

Mine looked great but then gave up overnight. The beans I had were fine but they didn't go on nearly as long as they normally do.

I think it's lack of water here (Hampshire). I've decided that only newly planted things and very special things are getting watered.

I dug some potatoes yesterday from the same bed as the beans and the soil was completely dry to at least a spade's depth. Fortunately for some reason I planted enough potatoes to feed the 5000 so a very much reduced yield should still be enough.

My broad beans are stunted and were covered in blackfly. Ladybirds were very late to the party but they've turned up now and the blackfly are gone. Pods now developing but probably too late for many beans.

Peas were the same, but runner and French beans ok so far

Runner beans have difficulty with pollination if they’re dehydrated - either the pollen or the stigma isn’t sticky enough. Maybe the same applis to runner beans

Last year our broad beans were awful, no pods to speak of and eaten by slugs. We always grew The Sutton, then this year I got some seeds in the sale from Wilkos called Bunyards Exhibition for about 20p I think. They have done really well; tall, lots of pods so I think I’ll grow them again next year. Blackfly are definitely around but not too bad yet. I’ve also seen lots of ladybirds this year so hopefully they’re doing their job!