Broadies started already...

[HeyWayne]

Whilst on the plot yestermorn I was doing some minor clearing up and harvesting (see blog), and I noticed that there were two little sets of broad bean leaves growing out of teh ground - they nearly got hoed, but my keen eye spotted them!

Anyway, they're obviously doing as nature intended and growing where beans had dropped from the previous crop.

Should I:

a) Move them
b) Leave them
3) Other

[zazen999]

Leave them.

[piskieinboots]

Yep leave 'em and then eat 'em when they is all growed up

[HeyWayne]

Will they last the frosts though?

[di]

Aye!!! .

[Two_Sheds]

I have a couple too, HeyWayne. Broadies are frost hardy, but they don't like gales. I lost all the young soft autumn foliage to winter winds.
I would advise pruning them back in late October to about 4" high. The roots will grow on just fine, and the plants will race away in spring.

[ginger ninger]

I've planted some broad beans so I can have an early crop next season and I do as T.S said, cut them back to about 4" to 6" whan they start to grow again you get a kind of bean bush, which means lots & lots of "Beans"......But not of the little gourges man variety you & lady wayne have got

[HeyWayne]

The reason I asked about moving them is that they will be growing where I had broad beans this year - meaning no rotation...

[zazen999]

The reason I asked about moving them is that they will be growing where I had broad beans this year - meaning no rotation...

Heavens above!

Did you have problems with last year's broadies then?

[HeyWayne]

Heavens above!

Did you have problems with last year's broadies then?

No, but I thought it was good practise to grow them elsewhere the following year?

[zazen999]

If you are following crop rotation, then put next year's in the new place - but you can leave the self sown ones where they are, if you have had no problems.

Mucks with your head doesn't it!!!

[HeyWayne]

Mucks with your head doesn't it!!!

Don't even get me started on potatoes growing in random places...

[snohare]

As long as you dig up the roots that they have put down, you can shift them easily enough surely ?
Personally having had so much hassle with volunteer tatties, I wouldn't leave anything like that in place, it just mucks up the planting plan the following year and competes with the plants you are trying to grow, to the detriment of your crop yield.
As far as disease problems are concerned, one or two plants are not likely to make a problem, it is basically dependent on what level you have and what density of vulnerable species. Ditto for nutrients.

[zazen999]

But very little is going to grow in that bed this year, and whatever you put in next will just be a baby when it goes in - by the time it gets big enough then the broadies will be finished.....

Even if you put brassicas or onions in there; the broadies grow up and out of the way.....and there's only a couple......