Hi All Long time no post but I really need a bit of advice ???. In oder to do crop rotation we need to plant our peas and beans in our existing brassica cage. This is a 20 ft by 12 ft domed construction covered in green debris netting that has all the big slot holes sewn up to prevent the cabbage white invasion. My question is do beans and peas need the bees to pollinate the flowers to produce their fruits? I am sure I could look this up somewhere but thought someone on here might know. Any advice gratefully received.
Jeanbean
Peas don't, they self pollinate before the flower opens. I think that beans do though :-\
Thanks Elsie Appreciate your answer. Will try to put beans outside and something else inside
Peas and french beans are OK. Moonlight (white flowered runner) and firestorm (red flowered runner) from Marshall's are supposed to be self pollinating too. All other runners will need the insects I think. Moonlight are available from other suppliers too, both as beens and plants. I grew these for the first time last year and was pleased with them. I'm trying Firestorm as well this year.
From google.
"The pollination of broad bean ... was studied by Free (1966) who concluded that insect pollination greatly increased production of broad beans but had little effect on production of field beans.
Darwin (1889*) showed that 17 broad bean plants covered with a net to exclude pollinators produced only 40 seeds, whereas 17 exposed plants produced 135 seeds.
Runner beans. The flowers are perfect and self-pollinating, but have to be tripped (usually by bees) to set seed. As runner beans are outbreeders it is important to grow as many plants as possible to maintain the health and diversity of the variety; a minimum of 20 to 30 if possible. Runner beans also need constant selection to keep them true to type.
Thanks Realfood that helps me greatly in deciding planting. Back to the drawing board with plot layout.