Topic: Broad Bean Germination.

[Mortality]

 ;D
My son planted a few Broad Beans a couple of days ago, we are keeping them on the kitchen window sill, how long can we expect germination to take?

He looks at them every day !  :)

or is this a 'how long is a piece of string' question..?

[Tee Gee]

or is this a 'how long is a piece of string' question

Yes as there could be a number of variables  but a fair figure would be 12-14 days!

[TEL]

Hi i planted my b beans outside & they took 4 weeks to pop up but it should be faster inside

[detailista]

Before putting in soil I soaked mine in water for a couple of days as the outer seed was so hard thought I'd help them along!

You can see the shoot develop in just a day or two!  They were fascinating :)

[Digeroo]

Suggest that you sow a few in damp kitchen roll they send down a root in a few days, can take a lot longer to appear above soil level.  You can grow them up the side of a jam jar with water in the bottom and kichen roll up the side just touching the water they are great to watch.  They get a bit leggy so do not produce the best beans.

[Mortality]

On the 5th of Febuary the first of the broad beans sprouted.
We now have 5 of the 6 growing well, at what stage is safe to plant them outside? 3 of them are about 6 inches tall with the second lot of leaves ready to open.

[Robert_Brenchley]

They should be fine, as long as the weather doesn't turn arctic again. The only things which kill my Aquadulce Claudia seem to be mice and waterlogging, but I'm not sure how the more delicate varieties cope with real cold.

[Digeroo]

Squirrels can also be devastating, though for some reason they go off them once they are growing strongly.  They have been known to eat the bean and leave the new shoot behind.

I would suggest hardening them off a bit before finally putting them out permanently.  I think I would find somewhere cooler for them.  Sounds like they are growing very quickly.

I put mine outside under bottles as soon as they get a root.

[Mortality]

I wanted them to be fairly well developed before planting out, we might have mice that will get them.  :-\ Ive put them on the kitchen window sill, its fairly cold there.
If it stops raining long enough tomorrow ill plant them out.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I normally find that mice leave peas and beans alone once they've germinated. Not this winter, though!

[Mortality]

I planted them out this morning, covered with cut plastic milk cartons, will they be ok like that? Still thinking of slugs and mice..

[Ian Pearson]

Re mice: I have had no mouse problems for the last few years since I started using the garlic technique. Put a clove of garlic in a plastic bag, bash it to pulp, then add the beans to the bag and smear them around in the squashed garlic before planting out. I also plant firmly in the belief that this also helps. I also use this method with peas. The old-fashioned method is to use paraffin, but I don't fancy that much in my soil.