Tuesday 29 June 2010

Black-fly wins battle of broad beans

The black-fly on the broad beans has got out of control, and now the priority is to protect the French beans just 3 metres (10ft) away; so we will have to cut them down as soon as possible, leaving the roots in the ground to protect the nitrogen they have fixed there during their vigorous growing period from spring.
We have harvested eight full baskets of beans and made sure that the immediate family got a taste of early potatoes and fresh broad beans, and frozen several batches, and so it doesn't hurt too much.
However, thinking onwards, the answer for next year lies in an early spraying of an organic liquid that will remove the black flies, and I don't mind regular spraying as long as it is effective.
That will be our task over the winter months... deciding on the best approach to this annual problem, which is worse this year than any we can remember.
Any observations or suggestions would be much appreciated.
The variety was 'Jubilee Hysor', and it can be recommended for its outstanding taste, and we will be growing it again next spring.

3 comments:

  1. Malcolm,
    I have 'tweaked / reworked' a copy of-
    http://www.spec.bc.ca/pesticides/recipes.php.
    Will send a copy if interested.
    Martin, Droitwich.
    mar10d@freeuk.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Martin, that is generous and will be appreciated.
    Malcolm

    ReplyDelete
  3. Will send it to your gmail address as Word & OneNote
    Martin

    ReplyDelete