Kitchen Garden Forum

can anyone offer me a suggestion as to what has caused some of the developing pods on my broad beans to go black? These were overwintered Aquadulce Claudia, kept under a tunnel cloche for most of the winter and growing away apparently in fine condition; my first thought was that possibly frost might have got to the pods since the first plant I noticed the damage on was at the end of the row, yet some plants right in the centre of the row are also suffering in the same way while others nearer the ends are so far apparently unaffected - any suggestions?

A calcium deficiency can be the cause - pods deformed, wilted and blackened; seeds fail to develop.

If it helps, my neighbour's broad beans have black fringes to some of their leaves. I assumed it was frost and that he'd planted out ones that hadn't hardened enough to cope with the frosts from the last 2 weeks.

Hi folks. I'm wondering, could it have anything to do with the dry conditions ?

sorry, I didn't explain clearly enough; the pods are developing just fine, not deformed or wilting; they were fed with blood fish and bone on planting and have had a feed of chicken manure pellets in the last month and have been watered. The leaves are not in the slightest way affected.