Broad beans looking after them .

[Ivanhoe]

With the good weather and regular watering and liquid feed application I have now noticed that my Broad beans have now got the begginings of pods forming .
My question to anyone is what can I do to help them along as this is my first attempt growing them and don't want to lose them .
I heard lots of water and even more support with string and canes stretched between helps .
Has anyone any other tips for me would be appreciated .

[nickdub]

They don't need a huge amount of water - just enough to prevent them wilting and some support like string and/or twigs to keep them from flopping down - apart from that all that is necessary is patience and good weather :-) - keep an eye out for black-fly on the tips of the plants.

BTW I've been cooking mine pods and all in a steamer, saves a bit of work and the beans seem tastier.

[ESBkevin]

If you get blackfly in the tips, you can nip out the tips because the beans form below that and the plant can concentrate growth there. Also you can spray a solution of dish soap on them once or twice a week to discourage the blackfly and not harm the plant.
Otherwise they are quite easy to grow. We plant them in a block reasonably close together and a double string about 6" and 18" above the surface supported on sticks/canes goes around the outside. The density supports the internal plants effectivly.

Good luck.

[Bad Boy Club]

Out of a row of 25 plants I have I had blackfly on 3 of them, I sprayed all my plants with soapy water as a precaution & pinched out the top of the worst one affected.

All plants are strong & I water them twice weekly in this extreme weather. They are in very poor soil as they were a quick 'side project' to see how they would fair, I'd felled a row of 9 conifer trees & just pushed the seeds into the ground inbetween the stumps I have supported them all with canes which helped in the strong winds we had here

The plant I pinched the top off has some good sized beans already forming & is now way ahead of the rest.

I will pinch out the others as soon as they've formed more flowers to encourage pod formation, they did go in quite late.

They seem resilient so far at least ...