[quote=Lintama;929461]
Quote:
Originally Posted by kay
How can I prevent these tiny shrivelled up broad beans next year? Is it a case of never letting the ground get dry? I had some in a raised bed and some in large tubs as I ran out of ground.
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Did you pick off the tops of the plants? It's the tender bit that the blackfly are attracted to, so nipping out the tops can help. If you do it before you have a heavy infestation, the tops are edible.
Your beans are possibly a bit late - could you try sowing them earlier? Or try one of the varieties that you sow in autumn?
How good is your soil? Does it have much humus? Anything you add in that way will help water retention.
It's not a problem I have, since I'm on clay in the north, and we haven't had a summer since 2006.
The tubs and raised beds ones are going to be more of a challenge, and yes, make sure the soil in the tubs stay moist. With beans in the ground the hope is they'll get their roots down, so it doesn't matter if the top couple of inches gets dry. That's also the reason for watering copiously and less frequently, rather than giving a little every day. It is quite instructive to dig your finger into the soil after watering - you think you've given a really good watering, then you find that the top half inch is wet and you have a layer of dust under that.
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