[Njal]

My broad beans are now about 12cm high and growing rapidly.

What age/size should they be before I plant them out?

It's still pretty cold and windy, I was thinking of hardening them off in an unheated greenhouse first - good idea or not?

[zazen999]

Broadies are perfectly hardy. Get 'em out now. 

[Aunt Sally]

... but harden them off first !

[Celtic Eagle]

Week in the greenhouse just to stop sudden shoch then get 'em planted they will probably need canes cos of the hieght and softish stems.

[Njal]

Great stuff I will start hardening off now.

I will use canes cos the allotment site is extremely windy!

I'll still be worried about them with support.

[Salmo]

Stick them outside in the daytime and only bring them in at night if there is frost forecast. When you plant them out put them in good and deep, right up the their lowest leaves.

[dougsta]

Hope the mice leave them alone - mine have been chewed off at ground level

[Salmo]

Mice do not chew off beans. They are only interested in digging up the seed. Possibly birds? Pheasants or crows most likely. Pigeons do not eat them. Are there beak like marks i.e. straight edge cuts and/or V shaped. Look for bird droppings and scratchings in the soil.

[dougsta]

Interesting, thanks for info
Could be birds I suppose but they don't look the same as the rips I saw in my spring cabbage before I netted those.
Had a good close look for scratches and dropping but nothing ovious
Will have a closer look
Thanks

[Stripey_cat]

Rabbits or slugs?

[Salmo]

Rabbits do not like broad beans. If it is slugs they will leave a slime trail as a clue and the damaged areas will have ragged edges that have been rasped rather than bitten.

[Stripey_cat]

Nibbled can look pretty slug-like, and vice versa.  Overnight rain can wash away the trails, too (the time I lost an entire lettuce bed there was no evidence except for the grazing slugs).  And my pet rabbit as a teenager used to beg for the bean-haulms when we pulled them up at in July (although I guess they were drying off by then, so possibly more hay-like).  I'll buy that they may not be a preferred snack for most, but if there isn't anything much else around, they'll eat almost anything!

[dougsta]

Rabbits are definitely not getting in
No sign of slug trails or even the little critters themselves
Pheasants are the prime suspect at the moment