For Sowing Now... BROAD BEANS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29505, 5 May 1961, Page 7

For Sowing Now... BROAD BEANS

I May is the best month for sowing broad beans for early crops, although there is a | frequent tendency to sow beI fore this. Broad beans are | quite hardy, but if they are I sown too soon then they I may flower too soon, with resulting loss of crop from frost damage or weather check to the flowers. So you lose, rather than gain, by (attempting to “beat the gun.” Soil for broad beans does not need to be too rich—in fact superphosphate is the only fertiliser which is often needed. This material produces good results with beans, for it is beneficial to pod crops and encourages the nitrogen-fixing bacteria which live on the roots of the plants. If a balanced fertiliser is required due to deficient manuring in the past, then a mixture of 4 parts of super and 1 each of sulphate of ammonia and potash sulphate at 2-3 ounces to the square yard will give good results. If you have any choice in the matter, choose a piece of land which is not too wet and sticky, nor too light and sandy, for neither is really suitable. Seed is usually sown in | double rows 10 to 12 inches i apart, since then plants are I more self-supporting under ! windy conditions than in i single rows. Seed spacing j is usually 4 to 6 inches in the rows. Some gardeners take out a trench 2 or 3 inches deep in which to space the seeds by hand, but it is more convenient to plant the individual seeds with a blunt ended dibber or a troweL with a few extras placed at the end of the row to gap up any failures. You will need about a quart of seed for 50 feet of double row. and this will be more than ample for the average family. The approximate yield you ' could expect from this quantity would be about 60 to 11001 b. | There are two types of broad bean, the or ; broad podded type, and the I long-pods. For overwintering | the long-podded type is

best, since it is slightly hardier, although it is not quite as good in the kitchen A sowing of long-pods now will mature next spring, when fresh vegetables are scarce, so they’re well worth the effort.