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My broad beans have been absolutely appalling this year its nothing to do with the weather they were just the same last time i grew them, enough for 3 small meals and no more can anyone recommend a good variety for next year please?
I have purchased some aquadulce claudia to try over the winter so fingers crossed. my summer ones got to about a foot tall no more though the beans we had were delicious

Some varieties of broad bean are naturally short - I grow The Sutton sometimes, and that's about 45 - 60cm high, but usually covered with beans. Aquadulce Claudia is reliable, I always grow that, but think that Masterpiece is very good.

My recommendation would be Masterpiece/Imperial Green Longpod.  They are quite tall plants.They are green seeded beans.  Picked early, when the beans are just showing in the pods, and the beans are about the size of your little finger nail, they are at their tenderest and most delicious.

We have had several delicious feeds from the first row OH planted.  The second sowing doesn't seem to be doing too well, having been drenched, but there are some beans developing.

I cannot recommend the two varieties too highly.

I am not a fan of the white seeded varieties, and when you see what is being sold in the shops, with the beans the size of bullets, that need skinning, and even then taste floury/mushy.

If you've never had very young broad beans, particularly the two varieties I mention, you've never had broad beans at their best!!

valmarg

Imperial Green Longpod is very good - I grew it for years. Aquadulse is for over-wintering; my only previous experience was a dismal failure, but this winter (very mild, of course) they did brilliantly!

As a spring crop I now grow the purple-flowered heritage beans from HDRA. You only get 3 or 4 beans per pod, but the flavour & texture are wonderful! (Don't grow them near 'normal' broad beans as they cross-pollinate and you need to save the seed.) Worth the annual subscription if that's the only thing you get out of it.

Aquadulce did OK for me this year; I planted the crimson-flowered ones later so as to avoid cross pollination. I haven't tried them before, and it's too early to say what they'll be like.

I have always grown Claudia, and they've been great.  This year I switched to Super Simona.  I'll be switching back to Claudia next year.  They're good and reliable.

I always grow an overwintering variety, they are big enough to cope with the blackfly season. My spring sowing always get horrendous blackfly and I never get a  decent crop from them.

Another  big-up for Masterpiece Longpod from us too  8) - but we'll also be trying  Claudia this winter,  cos they're earliness helps avoid the dreaded blackfly  >:(

I'm a big fan of aquadulce claudia as well, sowing it in autumn. Frosts do make it stagger about a bit, but if the main stalk is lost, several strong shoots arise from the roots underground to replace it.

An elderly man nearby earths his up like potatoes to protect the stalks from frost, though I can't entirely see the logic in this as the rest of the stalk is still exposed....

Something tears at my pods, makes big holes, and eats the beans. It's not badgers (as I have been often told), otherwise the netting and supports I put in would be opushed over (netting to discourage dogs being exercised on the field). I have just been told it is jays. Apparently they love broad beans and are expert at winkling them out.

Is this likely? Next year I shall throw a net over the crop as soon as most of the beans have set.

Our summer broad beans were a disaster this year but we will be overwintering Sutton again..
:-X

Some of my pods were torn open as well. I suspect voles, which are common everywhere on the site; I spotted one in long grass on my plot only yesterday. But I could be wrong.

I am obviously lucky.  My broad beans have been great this summer.  My early ones weren't as good.  I didn't know I liked them (not had them before I grew them) but they are great with onion and bacon (think I got that from one of the threads here).  Anyway, have also discovered my dog, Millie, is partial to broad beans too.  Have made a mental note to grow more next year.

Twinkletoes

Why don't posters offer growing advise - why debster has had problems?
- Soil fertility?
- Shade?
- Etc.
- Varieties aren't going to solve the probs. on their own!

Well....my worst year I put too much fertiliser in the ground. Beans make their own nitrogen, and mine grew very tall and leafy with very few flowers, meaning fewer bean pods.

It sounds as if debster grew Suttons, a short variety. I have grown Suttons, but don't like them - lots of small pods, and if you wait for them to enlarge, they get tough.

In my experience, beans don't like shade. My huge crop this year grew in an open, sunny area.

Any help?

Well, I did reply to telboy, but yet another of my posts has disappeared into the ether.  I'm beginning to wonder if I'm barred from posting on this site. 

Don't tell me to email don.  I once did, and never had so much as the courtesy of an acknowledgment, let alone a reply!!

valmarg

I think there are all sorts of things which could have caused problems, but we need to know more.

In Tuscany they grow them very close together - in groups of 5.  I'm always being told I'm planting them much too far apart (about 9 inches as per instructions ont he packets).  There's something to be said for them being close togetrher, as mine were flattened by the wind. We got beans all right, not as much as last year, but a reasonable crop from Imperial longpods and Bunyartds.

Next year I'll try them in group of three - nine inches apart and see what happens.
:) :)

We grew  Aquadulce last autumn and they were great. We did support them to stop the wind blowing them over. I also grew Sutton dwarf but was very dissapointed. The blackfly got out of control on them as well. The ladybirds although profuse were out numbered by them. You don't get this problem so much with the overwintering varieties cos you just pinch the top out at the first sign of them

I pack mine in pretty close compared to instructions, and put stakes and strings around the edges of each block to keep them upright through windy winters and springs. I admit it makes it a bit of a scramble to find the beans, but there seem to be plenty of pods except in the year I overfed the bed.

Every broadbean plant on the site was cut down by rust this year.  Chaps who have been working plots for donkeys years have never suffered with it before but this year it got all of us.  Lance