BROAD BEANS

Need to know the best time to plant?

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Compo
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OK, I have just put in my winter broad beans, Aquadulce in a six inch wide two inch deep row, and a few handfuls of poultry pellets. last year the mice had a ball, so was thinking of putting fleece over with stones to pin down, but guess the blighters would get under...........my other option was to plant some undercover in peat pots and stick them in the holes where the mice have feasted.....any ideas folks??

compo
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richard p
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id definatly start some in pots, ive given up scattering mice and bird food direct n the soil :D
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Chantal
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I have some heritage beans and have started them off in pots today. Mice have eaten the lot when planted direct.
Chantal

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Piglet
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I grew Aquadulce Claudia last autumn and three double rows ended up as one double row mainly due to wind damage. The 3 week advantage in the first beans being available was negated by the lower yields compared to beans sowed during March.

I am trying Wikem Vroma this year as Chez (who is 10 minutes away)has had great success with them.

Dont rely on autumn sown beans as your main crop.
Kindest Regards, Piglet

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Compo
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Thanks, I always sow a second and third crop in spring, but as with all winter crops, success I feel is always a bit hit and miss. Our local farmers wholesalers sells half a kilo of seed for 1.20 so one is limited to whatever they have, this year it is aquadulce.


Cheers again

Compo
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Allan
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I generally start my beans in pots then when I plant them , as semi-mature planrs,they are not dependent on the original bean seed I remove it by a little twist of the fingers which removes the motivation for mice to attack the plant. Take no notice of a certain party who objects in principle to this technique.
The alternative which is appropriate to direct sowing is to put bottom- and top-less 1-litre drinks bottles over each individual plant with about 4 inches buried and remove it in time for the plant to grow normally.
I am sure that either of these methods will solve the problem.
Allan
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Johnboy
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I am the certain party who objects to the method but not simply on principle but with good horticultural science behind me.
May I explain thus:
The word that Allan fails to mention is the Cotyledons and there are two of them.
From the onset of germination the cotyledons provide all the food to create the necessary growth right up until the plants have a root structure that is able to draw nutrients from the soil. To remove those prematurely is to say the least foolhardy.
I further explain by the use of the following analogy:
The Cotyledons provide the equivalent to Colostrum to the growing embryo and after that the breast milk so important to the growing plant. Any mothers reading this may well understand my meaning. By removing the Cotyledons it is like ceasing the breast milk after a few weeks and feeding the plant on solids that it may well not be able to digest properly. The plant may well survive but will you get the plants that you may have had had you not interfered with nature.
I have grown Broad Beans for well over half a century and of course I used to get trouble with Mice but the advent of the plastic pot changed the method of production and the little buggers could still pinch the entire seed so I grow mine in a cage made from Expanded Metal Lath and have guards of the same material for when they are planted out down the row. For about 30 years now I have had no mice trouble whatsoever.
JB.
Allan
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Who mentioned prematurely, you don't read properly.Yes they do survive. By the time they are planted out the original beans are totally redundant and the plants give as good a crop as ever.
Regarding the rest you can do as you think fit but it is far cheaper and just as effective to put drinks bottles over them. Compo wanted to plant the beans direct outside and not raise them in pots, personally I would raise them in pots as it suits my way of working but it is his privilege to do as he thinks fit and not what someone else dictates.
One must come to the conclusion that you are just an interfering busybody who won't accept progressive innovation, out to be top dog and totally averse to accepting other peoples ideas, especially mine. I would not have given the advice that I did if it was flawed.
Allan
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JB / Allan

You chaps have been warned about throwing old turnips at each other before, and as yet I haven't had to step in, but if I do have to, there'll be tears before bedtime ;)

Keep the personal comments to low PM-based mutterings please and try to not let your personal differences intrude on every thread where you both like to comment.

Thank you

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Compo
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Here KG Admin, it completely spoils the thread and if I had time to remove the beans from the shoots I expect I would have the cleanest plot this side of the black stump (naval phrase even though I do not know where the black stump is!!!)

I have asked many times for these two not to spat on here, it is TERMINALLY BORING....as said earlier do it in the PM please....

Compo
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richard p
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hi compo , i allways thought beyond the black stump referred to the australian outback, was it the title of a book?
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seedling
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Well said Compo
There is a time and a place for eveything and this isnt it!
Seedling
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richard p wrote:hi compo , i allways thought beyond the black stump referred to the australian outback, was it the title of a book?


Yes, by Nevil Shute, one of our great unsung engineers, who wrote many superb novels.
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richard p
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hi, been on google, it apears one of the early surveys of australia used a black stump at the edge of civilisation as one of its reference landmarks, so anything beyond the comfort zone or in the barren wastes is "beyond the black stump".
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Geoff
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But are over winter Broad Beans worth eating? As I understand it they are all the grey type and after you have eaten green ones like Masterpiece you'll never go back.
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