Topic: Broadies I have lift off

[Digeroo]

My first batch of the year are just showing a little green flag about the soil surface snug in their bottle.

Second batch chitted gone in this weekend.   More bottles.

Wizard still doing ok though lost about 1/3, though those in the garden which is more sheltered are doing better.  Most not bottled.

Other varieties which all declared winter hardiness down to two single plants in bottle cloches.  Waste of time and money. 

[kGarden]

The only "so called" Winter Hardy one that I have managed to grow is Aquadulce - but even that I have given up Autumn planting and now sow on 1st January - they are ready for planting out now.

That said, I have been growing Aquadulce for years, originally Autumn planted and in a wet year many/most lost ... for the last decade, or several!, I've been doing the January-sow thing instead.  This year, in addition, I have just sowed every variety I can get my hands on for a taste test.  My thinking is that maybe Hardiness is at the expense of flavour, so next year's variety choice, and sowing timing, will be based on what the family think of the flavour of this year's trial varieties :)

[Silverleaf]

I'm experimenting, in my first year of growing broadies. Half my patch I sowed direct in November, and the other half I'll sow this week. I want to see if there really is a difference in how they grow.

Of the winter-sown plants I have now, half are Bunyard's Exhibition (cheap from Wilko) and half are a landrace of mostly smaller cold-hardy types with some bigger commercial types allowed to interbreed, that a kind fellow seedsaver in France sent me. The landrace seeds showed loads of variety in colour and size but most were smaller than Bunyard's Exhibition.

Almost all germinated, and I haven't lost a single plant of either type over the winter. Having not grown them before I'm of course not an expert, but they look fine and healthy to me with several sets of leaves. The landrace is showing variation in plants size as I expected, with the best plants bigger than Bunyard's and the smaller ones smaller.

I haven't protected mine at all. My aim is to breed a cold-hardy landrace so I only want the best plants to survive. Looks like they all have!

[caroline7758]

You're doing well- my Aquadulce sown in an unheated greenhouse on 10th January are only just peeping through!

[kGarden]

I want to see if there really is a difference in how they grow.

The theory is that the over winter ones are bigger / taller by the time that black fly arrive, the solution to which is to pinch out the tops - which is not-much-cop unless the plants are already a decent size :)  Taller plants will start cropping earlier too of course ...

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've given up trying to overwinter them. Blackfly have never been much of a problem. They're unsightly, and the occasional plant gets smothered, but they crop anyway.

[Silverleaf]

I want to see if there really is a difference in how they grow.

The theory is that the over winter ones are bigger / taller by the time that black fly arrive, the solution to which is to pinch out the tops - which is not-much-cop unless the plants are already a decent size :)  Taller plants will start cropping earlier too of course ...

Sure. I tend to rely much more on my own observations than on accepted knowledge, that's all. I'm a scientist at heart, and my tendency on hearing any kind of claim is to demand evidence. ;) I can't help it!

I hear conflicting reports. Some say overwintering is worth the effort for the reasons you suggest, and others say there's little difference or even that overwintering doesn't work because the plants die, and that spring-sown plants catch up their winter-sown brethren.

I figure the only way to know for sure what's true for my growing conditions and my seeds is to do the experiment myself, growing winter-sown and spring-sown beans side by side, controlling as many other variables as I can. If there is a clear difference it'll be obvious. I can even measure the yield from both groups.

[kGarden]

growing winter-sown and spring-sown beans side by side,

Yup, that's my approach too.  In other scenarios two separate experiments at different times might be comparable, but in the garden the weather etc. means that approach would be no better than a chocolate fire guard :) so needs to be side-by-side and same season.

I've never done it with Broad Beans (given up on Autumn sown altogether as too many failures in wet winters / all winters?!!) but going by other people on forums saying when they start picking beans I reckon my Spring sown are indeed later than Autumn sown would be (or my garden is more exposed ... :) )

[Silverleaf]

growing winter-sown and spring-sown beans side by side,

Yup, that's my approach too.  In other scenarios two separate experiments at different times might be comparable, but in the garden the weather etc. means that approach would be no better than a chocolate fire guard :) so needs to be side-by-side and same season.

I've never done it with Broad Beans (given up on Autumn sown altogether as too many failures in wet winters / all winters?!!) but going by other people on forums saying when they start picking beans I reckon my Spring sown are indeed later than Autumn sown would be (or my garden is more exposed ... :) )

I'm surprised to hear so many say they can't get them to survive over winter. Did I just get lucky? A few didn't germinate, but all that did germinate have survived fine up to now.

Never grown them before, and I don't know much about them to be honest.

[kGarden]

I'm surprised to hear so many say they can't get them to survive over winter. Did I just get lucky? A few didn't germinate, but all that did germinate have survived fine up to now.

If you have heavy, wet, cold clay soil in winter then you did well :) Some winters I did well too ... not enough to make me want to Autumn-sow any more though. Never had a problem with germination (assuming that mice didn't steal them :( ) it was just surviving a wet winter that was the problem.

[Silverleaf]

I'm surprised to hear so many say they can't get them to survive over winter. Did I just get lucky? A few didn't germinate, but all that did germinate have survived fine up to now.

If you have heavy, wet, cold clay soil in winter then you did well :) Some winters I did well too ... not enough to make me want to Autumn-sow any more though. Never had a problem with germination (assuming that mice didn't steal them :( ) it was just surviving a wet winter that was the problem.

Mine are in a raised bed - mostly compost and old horse manure, with sandy topsoil dug into the clay underneath - so drainage is okay.