[brianc]

Hi all.
       My broad beans have now finished, I want to save some beans to sow next year
       my question is do I dry them out on the vine or do I pod them and dry them out that way ?
                            Thankyou.

[Annen]

Dry them on the plant if you can, I am doing that this year.
Last year it was quite wet so I dried them in the pod in the greenhouse and they worked ok this year

[dugless]

As Annen says If the weather is dry leave them on the plant till they go black, if it gets wet take them off and dry in the pods somewhere warm and dry, make sure there is space between them. the advantage is you pick out the  biggest and best ones.  l do it every year not had a failure  yet.

[beesrus]

I pick the well formed pods on plants  that are just going over. With the Feb/March sown beans, that was a couple of weeks ago. I don't leave them on the plants to die back as that results in a bed unused for another few weeks unnecessarily. They dry perfectly happily at home for next year sowing purposes, once fully formed. They don't need to die with their boots on.
As others have said, in a wet year pods are picked early, and still function as nature intended next year.