Kitchen Garden Forum

Dear Mike, i certainly do agree with your comments, so i now start the February sowings off in three inch pots in the greenhouse.

Good evening Mike, I set four rows of broad beans last february and i was very pleased with the crop, they were John Bunyans Exhibition, i will be doing the same this year

Mine were Witkiem, OC, and all i got was an abundant cropof blackfly. I think my soil had too much clay in proportion to manure/compost. I may well try again, but not this coming spring.

Hi newbie question,have started peas and broad beans in an unheated greenhouse,do they need to be hardened off before I plant them out?

I normally plant out from cold greenhouse to cloche, partly because I am exposed and it lets them get started without wind. If they were going straight out I would harden then off but I suppose Southampton is rather milder than here.

Moning Larrylove, taking into consideration where you live, and that they are hardy varieties of pea and broad bean?, i would just check that there are no hard frosts predicted for the next few days, then they should be fine to plant.

Thanks for the advice,it's been pretty mild last few days so think i'll take a chance.

I had completely forgotten i had promised to keep you posted on my Broad Beans.
As expected the shoots with flowers were killed off by the 3 different snowfalls we had. However they all produced secondary shoots which look fairly vigourous.
The beans that weren't flowering back then now are.