[rhian13]

Hello everyone.

Plots coming along - just like to ask, my Sutton broad beans are doing OK, but the aquadulce beans only had a few flowers at the base, some of them set, but most of them haven't flowered at all, will they flower towards the top? they look half the size they should be.....I hope there will be a crop.

They were all spring sown & planted out the same time, there's some blackfly on a couple. I have used an organic spray and given them all a seaweed feed & am hoping for the best 

[Ice]

According to Doc Hessayon the most likely cause is too much nitrogen in the soil.

[rhian13]

Thanks for the reply Ice

oh dear, I hoped the seaweed feed would help 

the bed hadn't been planted by us with anything before as it was an overgrown plot, maybe our plot is rich in nitrogen - we do seem to have twice as many weeds & nettles as both our neighbours!!

[slow_worm]

my autumn sown beans produced a crop and my EXPRESS variety (Spring sown) looked about to give loads of flowers - but  I was away from plot for 3 weeks in May... and the black fly cometh and destroyed all the blooms hence no crop!

[Quetzal]

typically what proportion of the flowers turn into broad beans? Alternatively, how many broad beans should i expect to get per truss? My Wikitiems set a lot of flowers, but we seem to oly have at most 2 pods on any truss, and often trusses with no pods at all. Is this usual? We've had some blackfly and it seems some chocolate spot, too...

[rhian13]

the dreaded blackfly and the ants that farm them - maybe they got my flowers before I noticed? but the plants seem mostly bug free. so far. the Suttons are Ok, they're in the same bed & look normal. The Aquadulce weren't too happy last week, I wondered if I'd sown them too late...but I am suspecting my soil too.

I used that organic 'glue type' concentrate spray on the blackfly affected plants, but if I left them for a day I imagine there would have been hordes of blackfly!!

When I grew beans at home, most flowers seemed to set and we had a bumper crop - this time I may only have dwarf beans. 

[Kristen]

"the aquadulce beans only had a few flowers at the base"

Aquadulce are for Autumn sowing - don't know if you did that? and if you didn't whether they mind being sown in the Spring!