Never too old to learn @nick615... Pick off the tops ... soak 'em in salty water to get rid of aphids ... boil or steam and serve with butter or parsley sauce ... if you like broad beans you'll love these!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I admitted defeat to the blackfly and pulled up all my broad beans. Any pods that were on them were deformed and growing very slowly. I got one meals worth of little beans out of 1.5m2 worth of bean plants. 🙁
The blackfly are still affecting my french beans and courgettes. I’m trying spraying with a solution of bicarb of soda and washing up liquid. Seems to be helping, and has the added benefit of keeping the powdery mildew on the courgettes at bay.
having more time to spend in the garden this year, I've been taking a paint brush to my broad beans to remove black fly. I do it every few days, (you've got to be careful not to brush off any flowers), it's very effective.
We've now got blackfly on our runner beans. Has anybody ever bought ladybird larvae online? Does it work? It does seem rather expensive though at £15 per 50 - you could buy an awful lot of runner beans for that!
I have always had blackfly in May and usually dealt with it with the usual methods. This year they arrived on 9/05 and have been hideous. Today is the first day I think I can say they have disappeared. I have a stubby paintbrush which I brush them away with. It takes ages (sometimes twice a day) but actually I find it quite therapeutic. It not everyone’s cup of tea but we are now eating beautiful broad beans. Good luck
The bicarb and washing up liquid mix seems to be pretty good at getting rid of the black fly and mildew, but it’s damaged a lot of leaves on my courgettes, they look wilted/sun scorched. Hopefully they will recover. The french & runner beans don’t seem to mind.
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
The blackfly are still affecting my french beans and courgettes. I’m trying spraying with a solution of bicarb of soda and washing up liquid. Seems to be helping, and has the added benefit of keeping the powdery mildew on the courgettes at bay.