Select your climate zone Australia - cool/mountain Australia - sub-tropical Australia - temperate Australia - tropical New Zealand - cool/mountain New Zealand - sub-tropical New Zealand - temperate United Kingdom - cool/temperate United Kingdom - warm/temperate What is my climate zone?

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
			P	P			P	P

(Best months for planting Broad beans in Australia - cool/mountain regions)

P = Sow direct in garden where they are to grow.

• Easy to grow.
• Harvest in 12-22 weeks. Pick frequently to encourage more pods.
• Sow in garden. Sow seed at a depth approximately three times the diameter of the seed.
• Best planted at soil temperatures between 6°C and 24°C.
• Space plants: 15-25cm

It is a rigid, erect plant 0.5-1.7 m tall, with stout stems with a square cross-section. The leaves are 10-25 cm long, pinnate with 2-7 leaflets, and of a distinct glaucous grey-green color. Harvest 90 - 160 days depending on how cold the weather is.

In windy areas it is best to provide some support with posts and string, otherwise the plants will fall across each other. Pick the tops out once beans start setting to prevent blackfly.

Culinary hints - cooking and eating Broad beans

The fresh beans are eaten steamed or boiled. As the beans mature it is better to remove their tough outer skins after cooking.
The leafy top shoots of the adult plants can be picked and steamed after flowering.
Small beans can be eaten whole in the pods.
Broad beans will freeze well. Remove from pods and blanch.

Your comments and tips

18 Jul 10 green toes (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

sounds like a good idea

Reply to this comment | Post a new comment

18 Jul 10 Roger (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

This is my first time growing beans, my plants look healthy but I have more then one stem on each plant should these be cut off to concentrate on one stronger plant?

Reply to this comment | Post a new comment

18 Jul 10 Liz (New Zealand - temperate climate)

Roger, we just leave all the stems and although they tend to flop around a bit, they all produce plenty of beans.

Reply to this comment | Post a new comment

24 Jul 10 Roger (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

Thanks Liz will take your advice.

Reply to this comment | Post a new comment

11 Jul 10 Andrew (Australia - temperate climate)

My bean plants look healthy and quite tall, but no flowers or beans. It has been very cold here the last two weeks or so. Whats wrong? Thanks

Reply to this comment | Post a new comment

10 Jul 10 Keenonveg (United Kingdom - cool/temperate climate)

I have had good results from autumn planted BBs over the years, but for the last two years the plants have only flowered on the bottom few inches. Those flowers produced nice pods, but were gone in a fortnight, with no more to follow! What am I doing wrong????

Reply to this comment | Post a new comment

03 Jul 10 Margaret (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

When you pick out the tops, don't throw them in the compost, they are lovely chopped up and put in with your stir fry vegetables.

Reply to this comment | Post a new comment

01 Jul 10 Margaret (Australia - temperate climate)

My broad bean plants look healthy and come into flower but the beans aren't setting. There are lots of bees around so I am assuming it is not a pollination problem. Has anyone come across this before? Margaret

Reply to this comment | Post a new comment

03 Jul 10 Fiona (Australia - temperate climate)

I had the same problem last year. Turns out I sowed them too early. Don't worry though, they will start to set when the weather is right. We still had a really good crop in the end :-)

Reply to this comment | Post a new comment

18 Jun 10 JC (Australia - temperate climate)

What do you mean by pick the tops out?

Reply to this comment | Post a new comment