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Broad bean problems

sairbearsairbear Posts: 7
in Fruit & veg
Hi, I’m newish to growing fruit and veg and bought some broad bean plants last week, they’ve been out in a plastic greenhouse and we’re fine up until today. They’re now extremely wilted, I have moved them out of the sun and watered them but have no idea how to save them. I have some grow bags coming to plant them out but also not sure when I should do this or where to place them. My garden is east facing. Any advise would be greatly appreciated 

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  • sairbearsairbear Posts: 7
    Thanks for your reply, they had been outside for about a week or so. do you think I would be better to bring them inside at night? My tomato plants aren’t looking great either, some have turned light green and one looks to be sun scorched, some of the leaves have turned whiteish. I have moved the greenhouse into the shade, we only have a small garden so not many options as to where to put things and we’re east facing on the east coast so it can get very cold. 
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    They do look very sorry for themselves don’t they? Those modules they are in are also pretty small, it would have been better to immediately pot them on individually into 9cm pots (and introduce them to the outside world gradually, as panseyface says) until you are ready to plant them outside.

    You say you are waiting on some growbags to plant out. Broad beans are fairly deep-rooted plants so I think a growbag would be too shallow for that, you need a deep pot per plant or a deep trough for two or three plants, maximum, if you can’t grow them in the ground. They will also need to be firmed in well and given some support, such as a few canes pushed in each corner/around the edges of the pots and some string tied around the canes to form a basic containment ‘fence’ to stop them flopping over. Some of the dwarfing varieties such as The Sutton, can, in theory, be grown without support, so it does depend on the variety.


    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • sairbearsairbear Posts: 7
    Thanks Nollie! I’ve got some slightly larger pots I can put them in but who knows when the bags will arrive. The grow bags are more like raised beds, they are round and take 40L of compost they have slots to put canes in to. No chance of building beds or planting in the ground as we’re stuck in a rental property until covid is over and we can buy our own place. 
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    Oh that sounds better, one per grow ‘pot’ - you will stand a better chance of seeing some beans. Good luck with them, nothing beats young broad beans straight from the pod  :)
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • sairbearsairbear Posts: 7
    Thank you. I have kept them inside over night and given them another drink. Most have perked up but a couple still looking worse for wear. Should I put them outside for a few hours today?
  • sairbearsairbear Posts: 7
    Thanks, They got way too much excitement. The garden centre I got them from told me to put them back outside as they’d been grown in open greenhouses. So I did, then the wind took my green house over. I managed to save 4 out of 10 of the plants, the rest had broken stems 
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