Robert Brenchley wrote:

<Last year one of the few crops I actually got on my allotment (despite
successive floods) was broad beans. The crop was appalling; I didn't,
unfortunately, think to count how many beans developed, but it must have
been around 20-25%, with numerous large pods not having a single bean. This
was undoubtedly due to poor pollination, the only visible pollinators being
a few bumblebees. This was one of a number of factors which persuaded me to
take up beekeeping.>



Hi Robert:

Are you sure from previous experience that honey bees pollinate broad
beans?  We have raised both bees and broad beans here for years and I don't
believe I have ever seen a honey bee on the beans.  In our experience broad
beans are wind pollinated and the weather has more influence on production
than any other single factor.  Have you tried block planting instead of row
plantings?

Skip


Skip & Christy Hensler
THE ROCK GARDEN
Newport, Wash.
http://www.povn.com/rock