Has anyone else tried these? I was fed up with Aquadulce type which I found rather bland. But I decided to give another variety a go this year and got these from vegetableseeds.net in a flash sale. I don't think I will ever use another variety again! The plants have grown to about 5 feet in height (without really that much help, I just put string around the row to keep them upright), all I added was a little compost and some fertilizer pellets. The crop is still ongoing, I have so far had about 3 bags full of pods, from approx 16 plants. The beans are tender and delicious and although I did pinch out the tops, as my neighbours do, these are the only broadies on our whole site that have not been bothered by blackfly! Only hitch is that they have suffered this week with the extreme heat we have had, I gave them a good soaking yesterday and hope they will pick up a bit.
has anyone else used this variety and what did you think of it? I am most impressed by it.
I use this variety and have always been satisfied with it's performance.
Some years it does get blackfly before I get to the tops but it does not seem to affect the actual crop.
I am another new covert to this bean. Very productive, tall, bright green, tender, just perfect. Have been podding them all evening and will freeze a lot of them tomorrow as well as eating them fresh. I like Aquadulce because mostly they survive the winter, but this is definitely the bean to follow them.
Definitely sounds like one to try!
I've moved over almost exclusively to a variety called Wizard Field Bean which gets to about 4 foot, seems to shake off blackfly very well and produces masses of short pods which contain 4-5 small beans. I know the fact that they are small doesn't sound that appealing - but there are so many of them and the beans don't go leathery and bitter until the plant is nearly dead and dry so you don't have to use it as a glut item - just pick as needed.
Cheers
Squeezy
Personally I am a fan of Masterpiece Green Longpod. Never get much from Aquadulce, I find that the Masterpiece sown in February under bottles soon catch up the autumn sown ones and out crop them. Even this year they did well and burst into life at the beginning of April as soon as there was a slight increase in temperature.
I've only got Express in this year cos I didn't need a lot of beans, mostly cos I grew Masterpiece Green Longpod a couple of years ago adn am still eating frozen beans from that crop....
How are they doing in the heat? I noticed some varieties, such as Aquadulce, soon stopped flowering as it warmed up, while others, notably Wizard, are still going strong.
Robert you are right, they are not coping very well with the heat. But they do seem at the end of their natural span, I can't complain, I have had loads of beans from them and there is still one good picking left on them. I think they like a lot of water. Next year I will try to sow in dribs and drabs so they last longer, now I know how good they are. I did sow in one shot, maybe not my best idea.
I planted 3 varieties this year - all in the spring as the overwintering ones bit the dust in the freezing temps.
The sutton - Slow to come up, made some large pods and then stopped flowering when it got too hot
Leidse Hangdown - Produced flowers & pods very early and then got a really heavy blackfly infestation which has ruined many pods and checked the plants badly - I had to take the growing tips off to give what pods there were a chance of making it to the table.
Wizard Field Bean - slowish to come up but not as bad as sutton. Later to form flowers and pods than the others - but now tall, strong and very prolific ... not a sign of blackfly on them.
These are all in the same allotment next to each other I should mention!
Wizard was slow last year as well, and ended up doing better than any of the others I planted. It's a good one!
Have you tried red epicure from Unwins Antipodes? My favourite for flavour... and a distinctive red bean too,
Yes; mine are now well and truly hybridised (deliberately), but still red - I hope - and still flourishing. Crimson Flowered is doing well for me this year, but it hasn't done much in cooler summers.
Maybe that's why I've never had much luck with the Crimson Flowered...
If its red beans you want have you tried karmazyn. Picked some today but forgot about it so had something of a surprise when I podded them. Nice flavour.
I love the colour of the crimson flowered ones for the flowers, but they never seem to produce that many beans.
Karmazyn is one of the ones which has given up; it stopped flowering once it got hot. Is yours still going? Glad to hear it's a nice one; it should be a worthy addition to the mix even if it doesn't like the heat!
My Karmazyn is well past the flowering stage, it is currently at the eating stage. Seems to hold well on the plant and is slow to go mealy. It was sown in april. This is my second year. It did well last year as well. Not as productive as masterpiece. Very little blackfly on it either.
I didn't even know that red broad beans existed!!! I might try some of those next year, funny I have never noticed seeds for it.
There are red flowered ones (which have green seeds), and red seeded ones. Red seeds are Epicure which are lovely but I find them a bit low of pods and one which is new to this country Karmazyn. I got them last year from Estonia only to find they were available here.
You can get Karmazyn and Red Epicure on eBay. There are plenty of other red seeded ones; Grando Violetto is fairly easy to find but it seems to be very susceptible to blackfly. There are several strains of Crimson Flowered around; Robinson's has flowers which vary quite wildly in colour while Thomas Etty and Seeds of Distinction have strains which have probably been selected for a deep red.
Do the red podded ones stay red when cooked?
I grow Express which grows quickly and crops heavily on compact plants but does get mealy as the beans get larger.
They're supposed to if you steam them, but not otherwise. Unfortunately the red pigments are water soluble and when the heat destroys the cell membranes the colour comes out into the water. They're red seeded not red podded.