RIP Broad Beans

[Germinater]

I saw vegmandan use garlic water and spray it on your crops as garlic docent seem to have any pest that attack it so that's wot iv been down and have not had a problem ..just blend down a few heads of garlic in a pint of hot water leave for a few days and then filtter and when you want to use dilute with a 1to10 ratio and spray .I spray once a week or after a big down pour at the mo and not really any probe .had to search to find just one snail this evening .

[BroadRipple]

and I sympathise b/c I planted aquadulce c. obediently last winter...they grew beautifully...i pinched out tips so not as many blackfly as usual (no cunning ladybird attracting either)...all looked good...so WHY SO FEW BEANS? EH? EH? I am very annoyed. i fed them (a bit), watered, blah blah...interplanted with garlic which isn't v happy either b/c didn't get much light, and all close together, but STILL. grr.
is there any point waiting for more or are they over for now, anyone know?
(in a fit of annoyance i just pulled up my peas as a)they were mange tout not normal peas and b)they were mildewey and v unproductive. am i jumping the gun?)

[Snadger]

My broad beans became infested with black fly quite early on, whilst the flowers were still being visited by some now-rare real bees. I didn't want to harm the bees but I wanted to get rid of the black fly. I remembered hearing about a suitable treatment which I tried and the black fly were all dead in a day or so, leaving only stains on the leaves where their corpses had fallen.
Here's the recipe for the treatment. Collect (it sounds a bit off, but do it) about an ounce of tobacco from cigarette ends, simmer tobacco in about a pint of water for 20 minutes or so then let the foetid mixture sit overnight. Strain the mixture into a container the next day. Dilute the mixture to about one part in ten with water and add a drop or two of liquid soap. Spray this diluted solution directly onto the black fly, you have to take care to get the mixture right into the leaves which the black fly have caused to curl up.
After 24 hours, check your plants and spray any living fly left.
Works a very satisfying treat!

What you are spraying the plants with then is nicotine........a deadly chemical as all us ex smokers know only too well!

[Shadylane]

My broadies are covered in blackfly and the ladybirds are doing their best. Last year the broadies were overcome but by the time the runners were in full swing there were loads more ladybirds and even though they were quite badly infested, the ladybirds won in the end and we had a bumper crop of runners. If you see them about, trust in them and more will come.

[zazen999]

What you are spraying the plants with then is nicotine........a deadly chemical as all us ex smokers know only too well!

That probably kills the ladybirds as well....very sad

[taff]

someone gave me a tip about boiling up rhubarb leaves and spraying with the water. He swore by it, and I did leave some to decompose in some water, but so far, touch wood/head, I haven't needed to find out if it worked or not.

[perkin]

I lost loads of broadies last year under a hundredweight of blackfly. This year I followed a tip of planting sacrificial plants, specifically nasturtiums, amongst the bean seedlings. Result: blackfly all over the flowers and none on the beans.
Sorry I can't suggest a spray to protect your runners - have no experience of them.

[Lotsaveg]

SB Plant Invigorator is my choice as well. It really is amazingly effective stuff and totally safe for use on veg.

I bought a commercial 1ltr bottle a couple of years ago from a stand at a flower show. At a dilution rate of 2ml/l it's going to last me for at least another couple of years!!

It's also safe for ladybirds!

[Two_Sheds]

The main reason I grow autumn broadies is the blackfly. If I sow in November (never earlier) they go through winter about 4" high, putting down good roots.

They take off in March and are cropping before the blackfly appear in May

I have lots of ladybirds etc,but they still can't cope with the May explosion of blackfly, so I have to squish as I go. Even then, there are too many for me to tolerate: I pulled up the whole crop a fortnight ago to get my Frenchies in

[StephenH]

My broadies - 'Bunyard's Exhibition', planted last autumn - are doing as well as broadies ever do, but I don't think I'm going to grow them again in the future: the harvest per unit area of ground is too low. I'll grow extra peas, runners and frenchies instead.

[sljh]

Further thought reminded me that South African friend swore by spraying a strong solution of redbush tea to remove blackfly and greenfly and, well, absolutely everything really... this worked for me in the past on runner beans that weren't too inundated...

...I wonder if slugs and snails are also repelled by it.

[bethduckie]

Two Sheds, I think that might be my tactic next year- winter sown ones only. Thanks Going to try some of the tings suggested above on my runners, and do the corn thing this winter for the ladybirds to hibernate in

Thank you to everyone wh has commented I appreciate it

[Two_Sheds]

My broadies .. planted last autumn - ...I don't think I'm going to grow them again in the future: the harvest per unit area of ground is too low.

That surprises me: I get loads & loads & loads of broadies, at a time of year when little else is ready

[mothhawk]

I don't have blackfly on my autumn sown broad beans, and as I haven't grown them before I wondered if it was because when I planted early potatoes I ran out of space and shoved the last few tubers between the bean plants. The potatoes have grown up around the beans and maybe confused the blackfly?

[solway cropper]

No blackfly at all in this neck of the woods (touch wood)

Harvested my first broadies today and they were delicious.