Aquadulce Claudia Broad Bean

[Marb67]

Hopefully the pods will form before the flea beetles arrive as they do every year as they were started in November. If this works I will always grow winter varieties.

[Marb67]

The plants are very healthy and tall with a lot of flowers now. Should I pinch the tops to get more lower pods even though I never have have had black fly ?

[Scarlet]

I only pinch out the tip IF I get black fly, my autumn sown ones don't often get them.and if they do it's usually after I've harvested most of the beans.I would leave them alone.
Perhaps wait and see what the other grapes think?

[sparrow100]

I pinch them off if I fancy eating them. They taste lovely steamed and with a bit of pepper and butter. (everything's better with butter)

[Marb67]

Ok I will leave them alone :-)

[Marb67]

They are very tall and supposed to produce an abundance of beans but as the flowers are starting to go over I cant see much evidence of an abundance of pods where the flowers have fallen. Surely pitch ng out the tops will give more energy in the pods ? Some of the flower stalks at the bottom of the plants have lost their pod forming bits.

[rustylady]

Beans are very tiny when first set Marb, so be patient - they may be there already and just need to swell

[sparrow100]

It also depends which type of bees have had the nectar. I forget which is which, but I have watched some bees bite through the flower base to get at the nectar, rather than probing through the flower - those flowers aren't pollinated so will fall off.

My Claudias are now at about 4-5ft tall and I have had to pinch out the tops because of a massive tide of black aphids. It looks like lots of beans have set though. As Rustylady says, they are tiny to begin with.

I've been picking them for about 2 weeks now, but I am a lot further south than you and sowed in October.

[Marb67]

I can honestly say I have never had blackfly on broad beans. I will always sow in Autumn from now on to avoid flea beatle damage. A great head start.

[Marb67]

Well the plants are very tall, too tall in the wind so nipped tips out of some as beans are small and sparse in number. Sadly, the old old problem that I have always had with b beans is showing. Small, oval pin prick holes starting at the top of the plant and showing on some leaves. This usually has the effect on the beans with mishapen, poor quality. As the weather is so cold the beans are slow to form so i hope it doesnt get the better of them. I hoped an Autumn sowing variety would have avoided this with an early crop.

[Marb67]

I must say I have never had a crop as good as this with any B Bean plants sown in Spring. Are they ready to pick yet ? Again, this site has turned my image the wrong way :-(

[veggiechicken]

Looking good
I pick my Broadies at finger size and eat the pods with the beans (as you would with runner beans). Hopefully, this keeps them flowering for longer as, once the big beans form, the plant thinks it has done its job and can die back. Just my theory, so feel free to ignore me

[Marb67]

Again, the image I uploaded has degraded in quality. I did upload it at full resolution. This site does strange things to image uploads. Well there are no more flowers forming on any ofthe plants. How can you eat the pods with the furyness inside ?

[veggiechicken]

The young pods aren't furry and the beans don't have tough skins. Try one and see

[Marb67]

Ok, so I am harvesting big pods from the bottom but the beans inside are so weedy Is it really worth the huge space the plants take up ?