"anne" wrote in message
...
I planted some broad beans for the first time this year but most of the
plants developed black patches on the leaves and looked very unhealthy
indeed. It wasn't due to frost or anything like that, so I don't know what
caused it. Anyway, I decided to leave them alone to see what happened and
to
my surprise they seemed to recover completely, put on good growth and even
flowered.

Now the flowers are withering away (sort of black and dead) with no signs
of
any beans at all. I pressume the beans appear directly under the flowers?
Should I wait longer or just give up and cut them down?

Interestingly, one of the plants in the row is absolutely covered in black
fly but I left them alone to get on with it. I expected them to infest the
other plants too but they haven't!? (I left them alone because I'd given
up
on a crop this year anyway).

Any advice?

Anne.

I nip them off when the blackfly show. Nip off the worst infected plant just
below the infestation, then nip the other plants to the same height. A
friend nips hers at waist height, but she is on the short side, this won't
work for everybody.

Steve