Broad beans are getting blown about in this windy weather & need protection to stop them being knocked down. Beans will grow tall if they are on fertile soil and tend to blow over in heavy rain or wind.
- LodgedBroadBeans
When the broadbean plant blows over it ‘lodges’ with other broad bean plants and stays close to the soil. Some of the leaves will be hidden from bright light so the broad bean pods will not be fed so well which means that they will not grow and fill with good sized broad beans.
To protect broad beans from the wind:
broad beans protected by polythene
- a windbreak can be put up around them to stop the wind from blowing the beans over. This is particularly effective when the beans are young and still quite short. Any barrier from the wind will do, even mesh fencing helps.
tie-bean-to-stake
- staking the beans, either individually, or as a group, will help to hold them up.
- lodged-Optica-broad-beans
The beans in the picture lodged at a late stage in their growing period, so will provide a decent harvest. But if the lodging had happened at flowering time, the broad bean pods would not have filled properly.
- broad-bean-plant-Optica
It is well worth taking the time to protect broad beans from the wind.
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Snow is a good insulator, and protects vegetables in the garden from the cold and frost.
sprouts in snow
To protect vegetables plants from extreme drops in temperature they can be covered with:
cover-soil
cloche
- conifer branches – In Switzerland they cover leeks with conifer branches. The branches will hold the snow off the leek leaves, so that they are not knocked down & squashed by the snow. Warm air pockets will form in the dense conifer branches, which will protect the plants from the frost
- polytunnel
polytunnel
Watch out for pigeons! If the snow settles, and stays for a while, pigeons will come into the garden to feed on the brassicas, like Brussels sprouts. It is safer to net the sprouts, so that the pigeons will be kept off them if they do visit the garden.
Snow protects vegetables in the Garden, and with a little thought the vegetables can be protected from extremes of cold.
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Frost is forecast, and it looks as though we will have some seriously
cold temperatures in the next few days.
Young seedlings are tender, and vulnerable to the frost. At worst, they
will be killed. Otherwise the frost will damage their cells, slow down
their growth, and reduce their potential. They will not yield so much.
Return on effort is one of our guiding principles – so do not allow the
frost to affect potential yield, & reduce the return on all the effort
put in so far.
Protect the plants by covering them over. Use
* polythene sheets
* horticultural fleece
* or similar light materials.
* in Switzerland they use conifer branches, which are placed over
the plants to produce warm air pockets protected from the frost.
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