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Board beans in a pod

Legumes and Seeds | Outdoors

Beans, Broad

Broad beans are generally the first legume to produce a crop, making them one of the first new season crops of the year. Broad beans are an ideal veg to try out if you are a beginner GIYer, as they are very easy to grow, prolific, and they freeze well. They are also a hardy crop – they can survive in harsher conditions, such as frost, unlike most veg and will grow in any moderately fertile soil.

BUY SEEDS

SOWING

  • Broad beans can be sown directly in the soil, or you can sow in module trays for transplanting later.
  • Sow ‘early’ broad beans in October for a crop in May/June, but only do so if your soil is good – they won’t fare so well in wet, heavy clay.
  • Alternatively sow between February to April for a summer crop.
  • Sow seeds 5cm deep, 15cm apart in rows 30cm apart. You can apply the same spacing if transplanting from modules.

GROWING

  • Keep the area weed free and water if the soil is dry at the flowering stage.
  • Pinch out the top growing shoot when the plant starts to set pods.
  • Plants can get blown over so you can enclose a row of broad bean plants within a ring of twine strung between canes.

HARVESTING

  • Start cropping from the bottom of each plant and work your way up.
  • They can be harvested at the mange tout stage (i.e. before the individual beans form) when they are about 10cm long, or left for podding for individual beans.
  • Don’t let the beans get too large or they will become tough, unless you want to skin the beans.

TIPS

  • When the plant has finished cropping, cut the plant out, but leave the root in the soil. Broad beans are nitrogen fixers – they take
    nitrogen from the air and fix it in the soil, which will be good for crops that will be planted there next year. If you dig up the root you will see tiny little white balls among the roots – these are nodules of nitrogen.
  • Broad beans are sweeter when small – in fact, you can eat the whole pod when they are 2-3cm.

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