I like to keep my own seed, but have an increasing problem with voles. I realised something was eating my beans, and last year netted them thinking it was muntjac but there under the net bold as brass a metre above the ground was the vole chomping away at my beans.
So the question is how soon can I pick the beans and dry in the pods on the windowsill and they will still be viable for germination?
Also peas, wheat, etc etc.
I think my lottie is heaven for voles.
Quote from: Digeroo on July 16, 2012, 07:42:44
I like to keep my own seed, but have an increasing problem with voles. I realised something was eating my beans, and last year netted them thinking it was muntjac but there under the net bold as brass a metre above the ground was the vole chomping away at my beans.
So the question is how soon can I pick the beans and dry in the pods on the windowsill and they will still be viable for germination?
Also peas, wheat, etc etc.
I think my lottie is heaven for voles.
The usual advice for broad beans is when the pods are black and crispy, but in your case they can be emergency ripened when they are getting old, wrinkly and a bit bendy. Or when they start loosing their gloss. They need to be dried within their pods and the pods need to be turned frequently.
Spotted my first bad vole damage yesterday - beans that had almost reached the tops of the poles were severed and have had it >:( Luckily I leave some of each batch growing through bottle cloches and leave the bottles in situ throughout the growing period and these are safe. But it is a huge amount of work and there are not enough bottles to do every single bean plant. Hope you can salvage enough seeds for your needs.
For many years I successfully kept our broad bean seed when we lived in Hertfordshire. Here in SW France, I quickly gave up, as the seeds got eaten from the pods by presumably mice.
In the UK, I tied red wool round the pods I wanted to keep, and tied the plants to sticks at the point I dug up all the finished plants. I would leave them there until the pod was more or less dried, then cut a foot length of the stalk, and lay them on the greenhouse staging to finish drying off, before removing the pods to store.
If the mice are eating yours before they are dried properly, then it seems to me that you are losing nothing if you cut a good length of the stalk with the pod attached, before the pod is black and dry. if it works, fine, if it doesnt, then you wouldn't have had them anyway!
By the way, it is a good idea to put the bean seed in the freezer for 24 hours when it is dry, before storing, to kill off any insects.
I like the thought of leaving some growing through bottles. Except I select the best cropping plants to keep the seeds. Which is why the voles eating them is so annoying, I have given up eating the best of the crop. Only for them it eat it instead of me.
I have a supply of 5 ltr bottles for courgettes, so they are spare at the moment I will see if I can still thread some of the crimson flowered ones through, some are still in flower at the moment.
I will try digging up one really good plant with its root and may be pot it up on the windowsill. As you say nothing to loose.
I always put BB in the freezer before sowing, supposed to kill moth, and I also believe it reduces blackfly attack.
You can pick them once the pods are mature, and they'll ripen off the plant. I do this every year for convenience as it allows me to use the ground again.