BROAD BEAN MYSTERY

[ROD 'MR CHILLI' HOLMES]

Hi all,
I have just purchased my Broad Beans, for my second planting due roughly at the end of the month.
Variety: WITKEIM
Now, the fellow that I got them from has told me to soak them in Paraffin for 20 minutes prior to planting.
Have any of you heard of this before, or do you do it, and why ??
Mr Chilli is puzzled

Regards to you all

[Chantal]

It's supposed to put the mice off, that could be why they're suggesting it.

[oldherbaceous]

Hello Mr.C
Years ago all the big gardens used to damp pea and broard bean seed in paraffin, then dust them with red lead to prevent attacks by birds and mice.
This is not something i would want to do now know.
Since this will be a spring sowing they should be fine.It is normally the autumn sowings that the mice go for.
Kind regards Old herbaceous.

We will always get some sort of weather.

[fen not fen]

My spring sown broad beans have all been scoffed, but the ones I sowed in the autumn were left alone (little varmints were probably stuffing themselves on my beetroot!). I have heard of folk dipping them in parafin to deter the mice, and of pre sprouting them. I think I will sow them in modules in my (so far) mouse free shed.

[Johnboy]

I feel that soaking in Paraffin is an execise in wasting fuel. The only way you can protect from Mice is with wire guards even when sowning in modules in the tunnel /greenhouse. A mouse will take a Broad Bean/Peas out of a pot and the annoying thing is that they can do this without apparently even disturbing the surface. Some years ago I suffered from them but I now sown in cages made of Expanded Metal Lath which is available from Builders Merchants in sheet form. You will need Tin Snips or an Angle Grinder to cut it should you so wish.
Squirrels can do much the same as Mice but the cages precludes them as well.

[Allan]

Put cutoff drinks bottles over each plant and push them in 2-3 inches. Alternatively, and Johnboy disagrees with me on this, raise in pots and when you plant, assuming they are reasonable size plants, remove the now unnecessary remnants of the bean seed, that's what the mice are after.
For expanded metal you can substitute the 3' x2' mesh panels sold in DIY stores, cheaper to get a roll of it from a petshop or horticultural sundriesman who sell it for animal cages, it cuts with old scissors.

[oldherbaceous]

fen not fen.
I noticed that the mice had your spring broad beans and not your winter ones,mine were the opposite way round. I think they must spend the winter in bedfordshire then move up to Lincolnshire in the spring .
Kind regards Old herbaceous.

It will either rain or get dark.[/img]