Topic: Broad beans not setting

[Chrissie]

My broad beans are flowering beautifully but the lower blooms have gone black and sort of shrivelled up without showing any sign of setting :(. Does this always happen or am I doomed?

Any ideas appreciated!

Thanks.

[growmore]

Broad beans tend to set like  this.. I think  you may find a little bean will appear shoving the black bit off as it grows...Cheers Jim...

[supersprout]

Agree with growmore, Wait and See! My neighbour's autumn sown broadies have long fat beanz already :o but my spring sown broadies are 8" tall and it's still early for them to flower. Once they get started, they will fatten up very fast :)

[Chrissie]

Phew thanks both of you, that's a relief. I'll have to be patient. I've grown French beans before and the setting's obvious while the flowers are still on, but this is my first time with broadies. Looking forward to a feast...

[greatpalm]

I have the same problem. Some beans are coming but most of the flowers are just falling off leaving empty stalks.

I guess a lack of pollination is the problem.

I've hardly seen any bees this year. The terrible weather obviously doesn't help.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Wait and see, but poor pollination is a common problem. Our native bees are becoming steadily less common, and many of our crops suffer as a result. That's quite apart from the decline in the honeybee population, as they don't deem to go for broadies.

[bison1947]

Same here

Built 5 Bees nest boxes and sited them around the plot but as of yet not one
has any Bees i beleive that if they dont take residence befor mid June then
stick them in the shed till next year.

Bill.......

[Robert_Brenchley]

What sort of bees are they for?

[supersprout]

Off topic - robert, your top flowers for attracting pollinating bees to the veg plot please?
I'm new to this - your advice would help :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Borage and himalayan balsam (I know it's a frightful weed) are the two main plants I've seen them on on the plot. Not that that's much help since they're specialists; a honeybee only visits one species at a time. Other bees visit whatever's there, and the main thing there is to try to encourage them to nest. I don't know which species are significant for broadies, as I can't remember having seen anything much on them at all. Mine were well pollinated last year, but that was the first time I'd had it happen.

[growmore]

Robert ,its the big bees which I call bumble bees that seem to come on my broadies.. think these are the wild ones are they  ? ...Cheers Jim

[MrsKP]

i'm worried now ........ my broadies look lovely, but no pods  :'(

had a couple of bees earlier on but none for ages and i wondered if the flowers should be falling off (not in any great number though and tbh i'm surprised any have stayed on with these winds lately) :o

i shall go on a closer inspection for pods after my cuppa.

[artichoke]

My problem is that my broad beans are not flowering. They are huge, nearly up to my shoulders, and their flowers have set and produced beans nearly ready to pick (autumn sown) but there are not nearly as many flowers as you woyld expect.

I suspect I have fed them too well. I know they make their own nitrogen, but I put all the usual stuff in the soil before sowing them (manure, hoof and horn type stuff) and I think I overdid it. Any one able to confirm this?

Certainly the pollinators in my allotment are bumble bees. I have seen a few working away at the beans but not many. I believe they nest in neglected grass and compost heaps.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Bumblebees are certainly wild, and are declining due to loss of suitable habitat; red clover used to be vital for them, and there's far less of it now the old pastures have gone. I suspect they won't be the main pollinator here though. The reason for this is that young queens start new nests alone in the spring, and there are only a few around at this time of year. Solitary bees are far more likely, I'd have thought.

[MrsKP]

close inspection today revealed plenty of growing still to do, hunnerds of tight flowers not yet bloomed, no pods.

i hope i'm just waiting for everything to warm up a bit.

was lovely today, oh and a cornflower has bloomed ........ just the one, so i hope this is the start of good things to come.

 ;D

[Chrissie]

Spent today on the plot and between showing round crowds of visitors (Ludlow Green Fair open day!) I was able to find the first few baby broad bean pods pushing through the flowers. Phew. Plenty of bees around, large and small.

Interestingly the ones I sowed in November are at exactly the same stage as those I put in in April, so obviously no advantage in autumn sowing - though maybe there would be in another year with different weather conditions, I don't know.

By the way Artichoke, I'm impressed that your beans are shoulder height  :o!  They must be very well fed indeed.

[supersprout]

Today I intended to dig up the blossoming purple sprouting plants. The whole broccoli bed was humming with large hairy BEES. After reading this thread I have left well alone, hopefully the bees investigate the broadies too.

[Rox]

Happy some of you have had more luck than me - my Suttons and Red Epicures that were bursting full of flowers a few weeks ago have been left unpollinated (I presume with all this cold weather, rain, and lack of bees) and I've just been left with a whole bunch of dying flowers falling off the plants and a token bean or two out of the 22 plants!  :-[ :-[  Well, guess you win some, you lose some - hoping for better luck with my other crops this year.

[Mrs Ava]

There is a similar thread elsewhere on the board, basics I think, saying that the bees are sneaking in behind the broad bean  flowers and cutting a hole, stealing the pollen and not pollenating the flowers, so no pod production.  I have heard this happeneing to runners also.  Maybe this could be the problem?