Monday, 10 November 2008

Planting broad beans

Previous attempts to over winter broad beans have not succeeded at Trevalon. Maybe it is the high clay content of 55% which means the ground stays wet most of the winter possibly rotting the beans or maybe they just get eaten by mice or pheasants.

So today I planted broad beans in module trays in the unheated prorogation tunnel. 5kg of beans filled 36 trays of 66 modules = 2376 plants. They should be ready to plant out side in 4 to 6 weeks. If planted in a standard 1.2m bed 20cms apart in rows 30cm apart then the length of bed that will be plated is 160m. This should provide enough broad beans to put in all the vegetable boxes for 3 to 4 weeks next June. If I plant a similar quantity of broad beans in January or February then there will be enough for all the vegetable boxes through June and July.