David in Normandy wrote:
Thank you for the advice. I'm a total newbie to broad beans. I've just
planted some beans directly into the ground but have no idea how high
they will grow. According to the internet broad beans grow three to four
feet high so I've planted the beans between some pea sticks of that
height I've cut from my hazel trees. I don't know if they will be strong
enough. I always grow my runner beans up 8 foot bamboo canes all
fastened together in a long strong wigwam.

I've never needed to stake my broad beans, they grow kind of upright and
bushy, and seemt o survive all sorts of abuse by the weather. I've only
grown a significant number of them fairly recently, so I'm no expert. But
you may find the bean plants are stronger than your sticks. :-)

I've a few broad beans around 8 inches high in individual plant pots
that I germinated indoors and they've been outside the last few days
hardening off - I plan to try growing them around a bamboo wigwam. I am
assuming that broad beans twist themselves around supports the same as
runner beans?

Nope, they just grow up and out.

Another very silly question - can broad beans be eaten as green beans ie
the pods and later on just the beans shelled from the pods themselves?

I have never tried it, the pods are a lot thicker and hairy velvetty hairy)
on the inside, so it's never appealed. I don't know if you /can/, as I've
never thought to look.

If eaten as beans (seeds) can they be allowed to fully ripen and be kept
dry overwinter for use in stews etc? The name of the variety is
something like Swiss white (Suisse blanc). The beans themselves are
white and approximately the size of the beans you get in baked bean
tins, not the huge beans I've seem other people with.

I dried a load last year, but haven't got around to soaking and cooking them
this year yet. But I have assumed that it is the sensible thing to do!