Topic: Another Broad Bean questions - sorry if it is a repeat

[Mrs Ava]

My red epicure broadies have all germinated and have made fine, stocky plants - with flower buds already!  They will be going in tomorrow.

However, the Bunyards Exhibition I have grown were very old seed given to me, so the kids planted them.  About half germinated (well, they did go out of date in 1999!) but the plants are tall and spindly!  They have received no different teatment from the red ones.  My question is, can I pinch the tips out to encourage bushing at the base like you would sweet peas??

Thanks folks.  ;D

[grawrc]

I think you probably can, after all you pinch out the tips to discourage black fly so it can't really hurt can it?

[jennym]

I did this last year on some EJ, and some bushed out, some didn't - but it didn't kill them!

[katynewbie]

;D

My Bunyards had done the same thing EJ!!! Just before I read this thread I had lost my temper and pinched the tops off!!!

Maybe it's just a trait of this variety? Not grown them before. We will see what happens!!!

 ;)

[MrsKP]

can i jump in as well please.

having time inside today, i had a closer look at the unheated bedroom window sill and found broad bean roots everywhere  even some poking through the side of the loo roll, and the biggest one has gone all floppy because it's so tall .  so their pots have been extended to three long and hoping for the best.  no way can i do anything with them until monday week anyways now.

think i'll pinch the tops anyway to try and bush them out a bit.

i'll either come back from my long weekend away to find a house full of triphids or a graveyard ......... but then the fun starts in earnest !

 ;D

[Curryandchips]

Some of mine had their tops removed last year, there was evidence of fox activity on the plot so perhaps this was the cause. Either way, the beans flourished ! That has just reminded me, I still have beans in the freezer ...

[keef]

I always pinch the tops out when they get about 3ft high, helps stops blackfly. You can eat the tops apparantly.

[Curryandchips]

Moving embarrassingly off topic, my wife informed me that we were about exhausted on frozen veg from the allotment. I opened the freezer to find two carrier bags full of sweetcorn, another full of french beans and another full of broad beans (desperately trying to claw back onto topic here  ;D)

Broad beans and leeks in a garlicky cheese sauce for tea - I am eating it now, most delicious  :)

[emma h]

As a newbie can I ask about pinching the tops? My broad beans are about 6in tall now and growing fast (in my unheated conservatory). Should I be doing something, and what is 'pinching the tops'..do I actually have to remove them? Can it be done at an time or just when flower buds appear?

Thanks

Emma

[sandersj89]

Most people pinch out the tops of their broad beans later in the year.

This is mainly to deter black fly infesting the tender growing tips and causing problems to the beans themselves. I tend to remove the tops by pinching the growing tips between by fingers when the beans are in flower.

I have never done it at the "seedling" stage though I do pinch out the tops of my sweet peas as this encourages side shoots and hence more flowers.

HTH

Jerry

[Curryandchips]

Applying the same analogy to broad bean plants,

more side shoots = more flowers = more beans?

[Mrs Ava]

Hope so Curry as mine have all been pinched!  :o

[grawrc]

Please let us know how they develop EJ.

[euronerd]

Yes keef I can confirm that you can eat the tops, as well as loads of other stuff of course, but these are my favourites, the tops you might say  ::). I have a gas cylinder, burner and wok on the allotment so I can have them fresh. Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread.

Geoff.

[Curryandchips]

Please tell geoff, what do they taste like, do you eat them on their own?

[euronerd]

You get a distinct broad bean taste but with delicate 'other' tastes as well. It might have something to do with the fact that I saute them in lots of butter. I prefer them on their own, but often just go around picking other leaves - beetroot, turnip, spinach - whatever's got any spare leaves that need a similar cooking time, i.e. 10 seconds. And for the ecologically minded, food miles = 0.0378 or about 20 feet  ;D.

Geoff.