Kitchen Garden Forum

I picked my broad beans yesterday and was surprised to see quite a lot of 'chocolate coloured' marks on the leaves - I looked it up in my trusty Pocket Vegetable expert and low and behold there is such as thing as 'Chocolate spot' What causes this - the leaves got a bit lacerated around a month ago during a freak 'ice shower' ( it was like getting rained on by an ice crusher - very weird)The mature pods are OK but the later ones had undeveloped brown beans in them.

Hello Sue

Chocolate Spot is a fungal disease that likes warm wet weather, so no surprise that your beans have it. Too dense cropping also encourages it. The spores over winter in the soil and infected plant material, so ideally it’s best to burn affected parts etc.

We grew autumn sown broad beans for many years and used to supply a chain of vegetable shops but a couple of years ago their quality assurance rejected a batch of beans due to a few having slight chocolate spot so we have reduced the amount we grow and only supply local outlets. As long as the bean seeds are ok then they are ok. We have always tended to sow our beans densely so have expected some infection.

I would like to recommend a fungicide but this would no doubt touch a raw nerve with some - so I won’t. However between you and me there used to be a product called ‘crop saver’ that was available to gardeners. Nevertheless you I’m sure like me would never consider spraying anything if it can be avoided. Myself, I have never sprayed a bean in my life, except with water.

Other preventions are to correct any potash and phosphate deficiencies and ensure good drainage if possible.

All the best

Barney

Thanks for that Barney, I did plant too close I have a few more plants than I needed and I couldnt bring myself to throw them away and stuck them in the gaps - silly me. I've never had it before and I have no other veg gardeners for miles. It was cheap seed, maybe you get what you pay for.