Over-wintering broad beans destroyed

[petefj]

I put in four rows of over-wintering broad beans, and they all germinated and looked really good.  I went up to the allotment yesterday in between the rain and had a look at them, and the whole lot have been destroyed.  I think by field mice because the growing stalk has been bitten through leaving the growing tip on the soil next to it.   The beans were netted against pigeon, but of course that wouldn't stop field mice and the allotment site is surrounded by fields.

The whole damned lot!  I am so furious, god help any mouse I come across in the next day or so. 

Peter

[grawrc]

Ouch! That happened to me too a couple of years back so now I do the autumn broad beans and peas in root trainers and only plant them out when they're a few inches high.

Doesn't stop the slugs mind!

[Digeroo]

Commiserations.  Wore that Tshirt last year.  So many things like broad beans.  Voles, squirrels, muntjac.  Have you tried plastic bottles?

[aj]

Same happened to all the peas sown in my greenhouse.

At the plot though - the Golden Sweet mange tout that I sowed around the same time, is now cropping.

[chriscross1966]

Yeah lost a load of mine  to mice once.... that combined with just how fast Express is to get to crop is why I'll not bother with overwintering them again.... Express will be going up against Witkiem Manita this year having beaten The Sutton hollow last year....

chrisc

[Robert_Brenchley]

Typical. It's always a gamble with these. The best I've done is get about half of what I planted thrugh in a mild winter.

[green lily]

Yep I've lost my peas I sowed in the poly. Now its pots and rootrainers until the seeds have been used up by the plant. Start again in Feb.....

[ipt8]

I find its just as good to start them in the spring in pots early in the polytunnel and I get good results with no mice problems.
Kings seeds do a recomended early one for this which was brilliant for me, and for the first time ever I did not get any black fly, probably because everyone else on the allotment tried winter planting and lost them to mice

[Robert_Brenchley]

I might have one of mine left - at least, it was alive last time I looked - but never mind. I'll be planting a lot more in a couple of weeks. I find mild damp weather is really hard on them.

[shirlton]

We didn't plant any aquadulce overwintering this year due to losing them over the winter for the past 2 years.

[green lily]

Mine are Sutton sown in Nov in some old [very old] rootrainers. With this cold snap likely to last a bit think I better move them on to some bigger yogourt pots before I pop them out.. Mind you I shall cover them well when its warm enough for me to play outdoors..

[Vinlander]

Mine are Sutton sown in Nov in some old [very old] rootrainers.

I think rootrainers are much too fiddly to use for anything you plant less than 100mm apart - I find it much easier to use fruit juice bricks with both long thin sides cut out - these fit 5 to a standard seed tray so you have more than 1.5m of row in each tray.

The extra soil 90mm deep means peas or beans can be grown to 250 or 300mm tall without cramping their style - at this size the seed is nearly exhausted and much less attractive to mice.

Because they are bottomless it is easy to lift them off after putting the plants in the row and you can even leave them in place.

I put 10 broad beans per brick and expect to lose a few, and leave a good space between bricks so I end up with a normal spacing on average.

It's even better for peas - especially tall varieties planted early in shelter - mice find peas irresistible in this hungry time of year.

Cheers.

[green lily]

sounds a good plan but first you have to have the juice containers...
my peas in the containers ie gutterinf and plastic tub in the poly are fine.   the ones in the ground are mice dinner. ..          
 finally i've laid the bait for the little darlings or i'll get nothing going.....

[Vinlander]

I find using guttering is a recipe for weak plants - I wouldn't use it again unless I was transplanting before they reach 50mm tall and at this point the seeds are still attractive to mice.

6 pint milk containers 'topped and tailed' yield a good bottomless 'brick' but they are a bit thicker so you only get 4 to a standard tray - but they are especially good for beans.

Cheers.

[Aden Roller]

My broadbeans will go into 3" pots or (if I can find some) pretty big cells.

I find it much easier to plonk them out when the weather improves than fuss with over wintering ones. Tried that with 50/50 results - some years OK and others...why bother!!

Good luck everyone...

                ......... snowing now!!

[chriscross1966]

My broadbeans will go into 3" pots or (if I can find some) pretty big cells.

I find it much easier to plonk them out when the weather improves than fuss with over wintering ones. Tried that with 50/50 results - some years OK and others...why bother!!

Good luck everyone...

                ......... snowing now!!

There's a 15-cell tray, they're almost as big as a 3" pot or you can get a 6-cell half-tray (12 cells to a tray) that is really handy for BB's as far as I'm concerned cos it's two trays to a row....

[Robert_Brenchley]

I find it much easier to plonk them out when the weather improves than fuss with over wintering ones. Tried that with 50/50 results - some years OK and others...why bother!!

My only reason is that I want tough plants. I'm crossing a heap of varieties, and I don't want to end up with a tender strain. Best way to avoid that is to overwinter some when I can and breed the survivors back in.

[Aden Roller]

I find it much easier to plonk them out when the weather improves than fuss with over wintering ones. Tried that with 50/50 results - some years OK and others...why bother!!

My only reason is that I want tough plants. I'm crossing a heap of varieties, and I don't want to end up with a tender strain. Best way to avoid that is to overwinter some when I can and breed the survivors back in.

Sounds very interesting as well as ambitious... Here's wishing you luck.

Personally, mostly due to lack of time, I plonk the nearest to hand (almost in date) seeds into whatever compost is left in the bag from last year and hope for the best. It usually works (he says with fingers crossed!!) 

[Aden Roller]

My broadbeans will go into 3" pots or (if I can find some) pretty big cells.

I find it much easier to plonk them out when the weather improves than fuss with over wintering ones. Tried that with 50/50 results - some years OK and others...why bother!!

Good luck everyone...

                ......... snowing now!!

There's a 15-cell tray, they're almost as big as a 3" pot or you can get a 6-cell half-tray (12 cells to a tray) that is really handy for BB's as far as I'm concerned cos it's two trays to a row....

Strange that you should mention these 6 to a half tray cells - that's exactly what I ended up using this year as I discovered them in my dad's greenhouse. They look brillilant - easier to handle too.

[chriscross1966]

Yeah I've got tons, generally cos I tend to want a lot of my tender plants in "half-dozens"... things like toms and peppers, I'll grow the six best of each variety (and I will grow a lot of varieties), if there's strong seedlings beyond that they tend to end up in mixed packs.... they'll be the ones I give friends as I expect I'll want 30 or so tomato plants for the GH adn another dozen in the polytunnel, 30 pepper plants (at least) and probably a dozen chillis, plus mabe a pile of the big ones (Numex) up at the polytunnel.... If you've got the propagation space (I've got two 12-foot long shelves in teh GH and might put up some more cos I have spare brackets then the bigger modules are a boon as you can get a lot of plants in