[Lardman]

Some time ago on my travels I bumped into an article about planting poached egg plants with your beans to attract the hover flies and keep the black fly down.

I thought Id try it this year - Im about to harvest the beans (what little there are) and as yet I've not seen even a flower bud on the PEP.  They were started off in modules about 3 weeks before the beans were directly sown.  I think I should have started them earlier - but how much earlier.

Anyone do this already ?

[Aidy]

been there done it, still digging the damn poached egg plants up, and it didnt really have any major impact on the scummy fly. Looked very pretty tho 

[Lardman]

As Im a function over form type of person I'll file it under nice idea but don't bother. 

[compostqueen]

I grow my broad beans in manurey soil and let the weeds grow up and around the beans.   As long as the soil is fertile the beans aren't robbed of nutrients by the weeds. My beans seem to get left alone     I did this after seeing the brains behind Riverford Organics (can't recall his name) talking about how they manage to grow fields full of broad beans organically. I'm just doing the same thing on a smaller scale. It's worked for me and I have to say the bed of beans looks lush and green, no soil visible, the weeds don't look a mess either. I have sow thistles and some groundsel that's popped up between the plants.  I am harvesting the beans now and they are pest free and clean

[sunshineband]

That's an intersting idea CC -- never heard of that before.

I have mine in completely weed free soil, having worked really hard to do this, and there is no black fly in sight.

Maybe weeds are not an issue for beans    Would certainly save some work 

[Quetzal]

This is the second year that I've had what seems like a disappointing rate of conversion from flower to pod on the broad beans, so I have been thinking about trying to plant some companion flowers next time around. I was wondering what might flower early enough to have an effect.

Are there any common suggestions?

[compostqueen]

I use weeds as the companion plants but I suppose calendula would look lovely and they attract beneficial insects such as hoverflies 

[sunshineband]

I supose anything that attracts bees early in the year would do the job.


You can sow calendual in the autumn at the same time as the beans, so it might be in flower in time to help