In article ,
Jill Bell wrote:
On 10/07/2010 17:22, moghouse wrote:
On Jul 10, 1:22 pm, Jill wrote:
On 10/07/2010 12:49, ~Brian~ wrote: I seem to be losing an extraordinary amount of flowers from my plants this
year. I would expect some to drop with high winds, but these just seem to be
dropping off for no apparent reason (that I can see).
Has anyone any idea what could be causing this?? appreciate any advice!

I've been told it's down to lack of water.

Suggest it may be a lack of bees to pollinate them - that's what I've
put it down to on mine - same thing with the broad beans, very poor
crop.
Maybe I shouldn't have planted the Cerinthe next to the beans - they're
covered in bees. Could it be that it's too much of a distraction? :-)

No. Unless you are in the far north, it's water. They don't set
in dry conditions, though you can alleviate that by watering them
daily. My experience of that is that it helps only a bit.

I have had one (1) from a dozen plants, and none of my other beans
have set except for 2-3 borlotti.

Depending on when they were planted, the bee answer might be correct
for the broad beans, but even they don't set well in dry conditions.
That's the reason that I have a poor crop of them - I had enough
bees (though not an excess).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.