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Broad bean

The hardiest bean there is, sown when everything else is finished and picked before the summer crops start.

1. Pick your window: in mild winters sow direct in autumn, in cold zones wait for spring.
2. Push the beans 5 cm deep, 20 cm apart, into firmed soil. No need to soak them first.
3. Sow in double rows so plants support each other.
4. Put a stake at each corner of the block and run string round it at 30 cm and 60 cm.
5. When the first pods set at the bottom, pinch out the top 8 cm of each plant.
6. Pick from the bottom of the plant upward as pods fill.
7. Cut the plants off at ground level when done and leave the roots in for the nitrogen.

Soil

Firm, well-drained soil with lime if acidic, pH 6.5 to 7.5. It fixes its own nitrogen.

Sun

Full sun. It will crop in half shade but pods set thinner.

Water

Needs little until flowering, then 20 mm a week while pods fill.

Spacing

20 cm apart in double rows 25 cm apart, 60 cm between blocks

Depth

5 cm deep

Care

['Weed carefully, the roots run shallow and wide.', 'Water at flowering, that is when the crop is decided.', "Pinching the tips removes the blackfly's favourite food and speeds up pod fill.", 'Autumn-sown plants may need fleece in a hard frost snap, but they handle minus 8 C.']

Harvesting

Pick whole pods at 7 to 8 cm for eating pod and all, or wait until the beans show as bumps for shelling. Pick before the scar on the bean turns black, that is when they go floury.

Storing

Shelled beans keep 5 days in the fridge, blanch 2 minutes and freeze for 9 months. Leave the last pods to dry fully on the plant for dried beans, which keep a year in a jar.

Grow it next to

Potatoes, brassicas and summer savory. Do not follow onions or garlic in the same bed.

Problems

[{'cause': 'Blackfly, drawn to soft new growth', 'fix': 'Pinch out the top 8 cm as soon as the first pods set. Wash the rest off with a hose.', 'symptom': 'Black insects crusting the growing tips'}, {'cause': 'Chocolate spot fungus in a wet crowded stand', 'fix': 'Space wider, avoid overhead watering, and pick off the worst leaves. A light case still crops.', 'symptom': 'Chocolate brown spots and streaks on leaves and stems'}, {'cause': 'Cold snap at flowering or too few pollinators', 'fix': 'Grow a strip of flowers nearby and mist the plants in dry heat.', 'symptom': 'Flowers form but no pods follow'}, {'cause': 'Pea and bean weevil', 'fix': 'Cosmetic on established plants. Fleece young seedlings, which are the vulnerable stage.', 'symptom': 'Notches chewed neatly out of the leaf edges'}]

Saving your own seed

Very easy. Leave a few pods to go black and papery on the plant, shell out and dry a week more. Broad beans do cross with other varieties, so save from one variety a year or separate by 200 m.

Containers

Use a dwarf variety in a 30 cm deep pot, 4 or 5 plants. Tall varieties blow over in containers.