Allotments 4 All

My broad beans are poking above the snow but the leaves have  nearly all turned brown.  They are not looking healthy at all.  The variety is Aquadulce so i thought they would be fine...Any one else had this problem?

Is it the frost/snow or something else?

hi, i put the same ones in in november and they were about 6 inches high when the frosts started and it burned the top of the leaves.......i put a post on here to ask the same and had a few replies that they may be ok but after looking on internet i found that they should be able to stand the worst of winters.....they are spose to be over winter variety, will see.  ;D

Quite a few of ours have broken low to the ground(probably down to the wind) They were netted so it wouldnt be the weight of the snow. They were about 8" tall. Not to worry because they almost always send up a couple of strong side shoots. We always plant some green windsor in the spring anyway so maybe put a few more in to stock the freezer.Lets hope the weather hasn't damaged your beans too much.

Checked my beans when I went over this morning to feed the cat.
There were about 8 inches tall before the snow and now I can just about see the tops of them.  Still green though.
Hope yours recover.

I had a very good crop before the snow I have not seen them for a week and there is still about 8 inches of snow to go, as they say watch this space I will post a photo good or bad when they reappear. ???

Hi
And sorry to hi-jack this thread but will my winter onions and garlic be ok under all the snow?? (9") they been under it for a week now?
Thanks Steve.

Still living and learning .

My onions are under there as well so we will have to see when the snow goes, but had a lot more today !!!! :(

At long last it has gone today (Sunday) I can see the soil, first time for about 2 weeks. All the plants etc. that have brrn buried look OK.





Smashing to see the sun once again.

Went down the plot today..snow has vanished thankfully...ground very soggy..
can't possibly dig or even walk on at present...
My broadies look almost identical to yours Laurieuk..as do the onions at the moment..
As for browning of the leaves, that would be frost damage before the snow came...snow insulates the plants from the above frosts that usually follow the snow...hope that makes sense-reads correctly!

I was watching countryfile tonight and one of the guys on the prog. pushed back the snow from his winter barley.
The barley was soft and pliable because it was insulated...

So the browning or even on some occassions when plants snap/break its because the frost has got them before the snow has covered the plants . .

I had a look at some of my broad beans today and the stems are withered and black. They were on well drained soil but we did not have much snow until last week so I wonder whether it was the earlier extreme cold with no insulation.
I also have some on my allotment that were sown later so I am hoping they might have fared better.
The onions and garlic seem OK though.

I have just been to the allotment and the later sowings are OK, even though they are on heavy clay. So the others must have been too big and lush to cope with the cold. It must have been that warm October made them grow too fast.

Mine had gone black before the snow Geoff so We put it down to the extreme cold weather but they are beginning to side shoot already

Mine aren't brown - they're black. (But still with a few green side-shoots, so there's hope yet.)

I'm leaving them be. Over-wintered beans are a bit risky at the best of times - even down here in the sub-tropics of north-west London - so anything you get is a bonus. The last two years have been brilliant, but win some, lose some.

The first of the spring-sown get planted in modules in the GH next week; plant them out St David's Day.