:-(
row of broad beans, planted last October (was there really any point in
overwintering like that?) has empty pods. Little black dots where the beans
ought to be. There were one or two pods earlier in the year with one or two
beans, but nothing since.

anyone tell me what's gone wrong? Is there a witch nearby?

tia

Jon

"Oxymel of Squill" wrote in message
news.net...
: :-(
: row of broad beans, planted last October (was there really any point in
: overwintering like that?) has empty pods. Little black dots where the
beans
: ought to be. There were one or two pods earlier in the year with one or
two
: beans, but nothing since.
:
: anyone tell me what's gone wrong? Is there a witch nearby?
:
: tia
:
: Jon
:
There is every point, they are usually early and full of beans. Not sure
what happened to yours, how odd

In article .net,
Oxymel of Squill wrote:
:-(
row of broad beans, planted last October (was there really any point in
overwintering like that?) has empty pods. Little black dots where the beans
ought to be. There were one or two pods earlier in the year with one or two
beans, but nothing since.

anyone tell me what's gone wrong? Is there a witch nearby?

No, the Wicked Witch of the West was in Scotland and has now returned
to the USA to plot more evil. While he has left his British familiar
here, the latter seems to have no powers of his own (for either good
or evil).

In my experience, overwintering broad beans is a pretty futile activity,
as at best it produces a crop a fortnight earlier, and it is as likely
to simply waste seed and space. But some people seem to get it to
work.

My early ones have been a disaster, and I didn't sow them THAT early.
The problem has been the utterly miserable spring, which both caused
a lot to rot after germination and before developing a stem and caused
very poor setting (lack of bees). In fact, I have seen almost no bees
this year, and most of those have been honey bees (and it is the bumble
bees that pollinate broad beans). This will be due to the very long,
wet, warm winter - with no change when it came to 'spring'.

If we get a few more winters/springs this bad, it is going to cause
ecological chaos. In 30 years of gardening here, I have never seen a
year where there have been insignificant numbers of both honey bees
and bumble bees right up until July.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:

/never has-beans/

anyone tell me what's gone wrong? Is there a witch nearby?

No, the Wicked Witch of the West was in Scotland and has now returned
to the USA to plot more evil. While he has left his British familiar
here, the latter seems to have no powers of his own (for either good
or evil).

That's the Wicked Warlock, Shirley?

In my experience, overwintering broad beans is a pretty futile activity,
as at best it produces a crop a fortnight earlier, and it is as likely
to simply waste seed and space. But some people seem to get it to
work.

The idea is also to harden them against blackfly infestation.

My early ones have been a disaster, and I didn't sow them THAT early.
The problem has been the utterly miserable spring, which both caused
a lot to rot after germination and before developing a stem and caused
very poor setting (lack of bees). In fact, I have seen almost no bees
this year, and most of those have been honey bees (and it is the bumble
bees that pollinate broad beans). This will be due to the very long,
wet, warm winter - with no change when it came to 'spring'.

ATM I'm harvesting carrier bags of escaped fodder beans, a slightly
smaller relative, and they have done extremely well in the verge
alongside last year's field.

If we get a few more winters/springs this bad, it is going to cause
ecological chaos. In 30 years of gardening here, I have never seen a
year where there have been insignificant numbers of both honey bees
and bumble bees right up until July.

Plenty of bumble bees here in this bit of Norfolk, and from the earliest
times too. However, I haven't seen a honey bee here for several years.

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:

In article .net,
Oxymel of Squill wrote:
:-(
row of broad beans, planted last October (was there really any point in
overwintering like that?) has empty pods. Little black dots where the
beans
ought to be. There were one or two pods earlier in the year with one
or two
beans, but nothing since.

anyone tell me what's gone wrong? Is there a witch nearby?

In my experience, overwintering broad beans is a pretty futile activity,
as at best it produces a crop a fortnight earlier, and it is as likely
to simply waste seed and space. But some people seem to get it to
work.

My early ones have been a disaster, and I didn't sow them THAT early.
The problem has been the utterly miserable spring, which both caused
a lot to rot after germination and before developing a stem and caused
very poor setting (lack of bees).

I sowed both overwintering broad beans and early ones not so far further
north, just in S. Lincs. Both have done OK but the overwintering ones
have been far better, with a really heavy crop. The stems have gradually
gone completely black but late enough not to affect the yield. I haven't
had a failure yet with overwintering except for losing every single seed
to mice/voles one year - a very neat double row of deep holes appeared
where the seeds had been. I've had good strong plants which have
over-wintered well since using roottrainers.

Janet G

In article ,
Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:
The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:

/never has-beans/

anyone tell me what's gone wrong? Is there a witch nearby?

No, the Wicked Witch of the West was in Scotland and has now returned
to the USA to plot more evil. While he has left his British familiar
here, the latter seems to have no powers of his own (for either good
or evil).

That's the Wicked Warlock, Shirley?

No, the idea that witches are female originated with the Victorians,
along with the idea that one shouldn't split infinitives. I have
no truck with such modern dogmatism.

In my experience, overwintering broad beans is a pretty futile activity,
as at best it produces a crop a fortnight earlier, and it is as likely
to simply waste seed and space. But some people seem to get it to
work.

The idea is also to harden them against blackfly infestation.

Boggle. Mine never get attacked until they are a foot or more high,
and you can't overwinter ones of more than a few inches high, at
least if the winter includes any significant frost.

ATM I'm harvesting carrier bags of escaped fodder beans, a slightly
smaller relative, and they have done extremely well in the verge
alongside last year's field.

...

Plenty of bumble bees here in this bit of Norfolk, and from the earliest
times too. However, I haven't seen a honey bee here for several years.

The two things you report are probably correlated!


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:

/snip/

No, the Wicked Witch of the West was in Scotland and has now returned
to the USA to plot more evil. While he has left his British familiar
here, the latter seems to have no powers of his own (for either good
or evil).

That's the Wicked Warlock, Shirley?

No, the idea that witches are female originated with the Victorians,
along with the idea that one shouldn't split infinitives. I have
no truck with such modern dogmatism.

Bitchmatism?

In my experience, overwintering broad beans is a pretty futile activity,
as at best it produces a crop a fortnight earlier, and it is as likely
to simply waste seed and space. But some people seem to get it to
work.

The idea is also to harden them against blackfly infestation.

Boggle. Mine never get attacked until they are a foot or more high,
and you can't overwinter ones of more than a few inches high, at
least if the winter includes any significant frost.

It's overwintering the seedlings that does it. They don't have to reach
any altitude...

Mu holly is infested with blackfly - well, was: I gave it a squirt.

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

In article , (Nick
Maclaren) wrote:

In my experience, overwintering broad beans is a pretty futile
activity, as at best it produces a crop a fortnight earlier, and it is
as likely to simply waste seed and space. But some people seem to get
it to work.

Yes, it works for me but I'm about 100 miles W of you. My BB season is
very short. Cropping mid-June to mid-July from November, February -
April sowings. I've tried sowing later still but get serious blackfly -
and they were pretty miserable plants anyway.

I see "local grown" broad beans in shops in September and wonder how
they do it. Maybe my garden is too hot and dry.

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com
A useful bit of gardening software at http://www.netservs.com/garden/

In article , (Nick
Maclaren) wrote:

The idea is also to harden them against blackfly infestation.

Boggle. Mine never get attacked until they are a foot or more high,

I think the idea is that over-wintered plants, being a bit further
advanced, suffer LESS. Here, blackfly arrive around the beginning of
June and get steadily worse.

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com
A useful bit of gardening software at http://www.netservs.com/garden/

In article ,
(Janet Galpin) wrote:

I haven't had a failure yet with overwintering except for losing
every single seed to mice/voles one year - a very neat double row of
deep holes appeared where the seeds had been.

I had some trouble like that but noticed that although a lot of seeds
were dug out, they were left on the surface. I got it into my head that
it was birds not rodents and covered as much as I could with some 2"
steel mesh. That stopped the disturbance (where the mesh was). It seems
unlikely that rodents would have had any trouble with 2" mesh?

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com
A useful bit of gardening software at http://www.netservs.com/garden/

In article ,
(Jaques d'Alltrades) wrote:

ATM I'm harvesting carrier bags of escaped fodder beans, a slightly
smaller relative, and they have done extremely well in the verge
alongside last year's field.

Yes, I've grown "Field Beans". They are very hardy, productive and
reasonable tasting. Having tried several BB varieties in recently, my
plan for next year is 50% "Red Epicure" for flavour and 50% Field Beans
for tough productivity.

Another thing about Field Beans, they are narrower plants than more
refined varieties so you can pack them in more. Say about 6" apart. And
the pods are usually still pointing upwards when they're ready. They are
ready when rock hard and slightly shiny.

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com
A useful bit of gardening software at http://www.netservs.com/garden/

In article ,
Steve Harris wrote:
In article , (Nick
Maclaren) wrote:

The idea is also to harden them against blackfly infestation.

Boggle. Mine never get attacked until they are a foot or more high,

I think the idea is that over-wintered plants, being a bit further
advanced, suffer LESS. Here, blackfly arrive around the beginning of
June and get steadily worse.

Considering that taller plants are slightly more likely to get attacked,
it seems fairly implausible.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

The message
from (Steve Harris) contains these words:
In article ,
(Jaques d'Alltrades) wrote:

ATM I'm harvesting carrier bags of escaped fodder beans, a slightly
smaller relative, and they have done extremely well in the verge
alongside last year's field.

Yes, I've grown "Field Beans". They are very hardy, productive and
reasonable tasting. Having tried several BB varieties in recently, my
plan for next year is 50% "Red Epicure" for flavour and 50% Field Beans
for tough productivity.

I've got very little room in my garden - unless I devastate the hedges
and the woody things. (And I like the winter viburnum, the cotoneasters,
the 'ivy tree', the clematis, the Japanese quince, the barberry, etc,
etc. The only area I could put down to vegetables is shaded from
mid-afternoon on by a row of Lombardy poplars, and in any case, that's
where the garage and workshop will be eventually.

Another thing about Field Beans, they are narrower plants than more
refined varieties so you can pack them in more. Say about 6" apart. And
the pods are usually still pointing upwards when they're ready. They are
ready when rock hard and slightly shiny.

Because I have so little room I plant them 6" apart, as you say. (IRTA
6' originally and boggled!) The scent of the flowers is divine, if a bit
overpowering, and makes the spring very smelly indeed, what with a local
lime tree and brace of big lilacs in the hedge which flower in series...

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:
In article ,
Steve Harris wrote:
In article , (Nick
Maclaren) wrote:

The idea is also to harden them against blackfly infestation.

Boggle. Mine never get attacked until they are a foot or more high,

I think the idea is that over-wintered plants, being a bit further
advanced, suffer LESS. Here, blackfly arrive around the beginning of
June and get steadily worse.

Considering that taller plants are slightly more likely to get attacked,
it seems fairly implausible.

It may do, but it is generally considered a 'given' fact.

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

In article , (Nick
Maclaren) wrote:

Considering that taller plants are slightly more likely to get
attacked, it seems fairly implausible.

I think more tender, juicy plants are vulnerable, although the "best"
bits may be near the top. Having topped my BBs, the few blackfly I have
gather some way down.

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com
A useful bit of gardening software at http://www.netservs.com/garden/