I know how daunting it can be when you are a beginning vegetable grower and you don’t know where to start. I was that beginner a few years ago.

This is why I have created the How to Sow, Grow and Harvest Broad Beans Checklist to help you through the sowing and growing stages with some handy tips on dealing with the pests of Broad Beans.

Growing Broad Beans

• Part 1 📕 – Origins, Nutrition & Growing Conditions of Broad Beans
• Part 2 📗 – Comparing Broad Bean Varieties
• Part 4 📙 – How to Plant Out your Broad Beans in a Raised Bed with video.

📥 Get your Free PDF Checklist Here

If the above download button above doesn’t work, go to the page here.

Option 1 – Print out on paper.

Option 2 – Print out and laminate for a re-useable sheet for next year. Use a whiteboard marker to tick your boxes. The ink can be rubbed out when you have completed the checklist.

How to Sow, Grow & Harvest Broad Beans Checklist

📋 Shopping List

You will need:

• [ ] Broad Bean Seeds,
• [ ] 9cm pots or root trainers (if sowing in pots first and planting out later),
• [ ] Peat free potting compost.
• [ ] An old pencil or dibber or stick (for sowing direct into soil).
• [ ] A trowel (for planting out Broad beans seedlings into raised bed).

Broad Beans – Months to Sow

• [ ]  Spring Sowing Broad Beans – Is the month of the year either February or March? Yes – Then you are ready to get Sowing!
• [ ] Autumm Sowing Broad Beans – Is the month of the year either September or October? Yes – Then you are ready to get Sowing!

🪴How to Sow Broad Beans in Pots to plant outside later.

If the ground is wet, waterlogged, frozen or if you have mice, then it is better to sow your Broad Bean seeds in a pot in an un-heated greenhouse and then plant them outside in the soil at a later date.

Start here!

• [ ] Put enough compost in the pot to fill it up to just before the top of the pot.
• [ ] Make a hole with your finger that is large enough for the broad bean seed to go in. This will be the size of a broad bean seed plus a tiny bit extra.
• [ ] Drop the broad bean seed in the hole, the seed should be upright with the scar or black mark pointing downwards and cover with compost.
• [ ] Water the compost so the compost below the surface is wet. This will activate your seed into growing, along with the right temperature 8-15 degrees centigrade.
• [ ] Put the broad bean seed pot in a tray or saucer and put in an un-heated greenhouse. The greenhouse can be glass or plastic or a mini greenhouse with a cover.
• [ ] Write on the next line what Date you sowed your Broad Bean seeds.
• [ ]  Date Seeds Sown:
• [ ] The Broad Bean seed will germinate in approx in 1 to 3 weeks.

💡 Have your seeds germinated yet?

• [ ]  Yes, go to How to Grow Broad Beans and then How to Translant your seedlings section.
• [ ] No, then wait a bit longer, it could take up to 1 – 3 weeks, add a bit more water and make sure it’s not too cold – between 8 and 15 degrees is ideal. Alternatively try, try and try sowing again.

🫘 How to Sow Broad Beans directly into the soil in a Raised Bed

Over-wintering Broad Beans – sow direct in September to October. Spring sowing Broad Beans – sow direct in March – April.

• [ ]  Where to Grow – It should be sheltered, in full sun and in free draining soil with added compost.
• [ ] With your dibber, poke holes in the soil, large enough to drop a Broad Bean seed in. This is about 2-3 inches (5-7cm) deep.
• [ ] Drop your Broad Bean seeds into the holes. Space them 6 inches apart. Sow in double rows so they support each other. Go to How to Grow Broad Beans.

🌱 How to Grow Broad Beans

• [ ] Tick the box if your green shoot or seedling is pushing up through the soil. Wahooo!

🎉 Congratulations you have made a little broad bean plant! 👏

• [ ] Give your Broad Bean seedlings a little water, once a week. Go to ‘Caring for your Broad Beans Outdoors’.

Transplanting your Broad Beans into your Raised Beds

• [ ] If sowing in pots, once your seeding has made 4 leaves (2 on each side), it is ready to be planted outside.
• [ ]  Where to Grow – It should be sheltered, in full sun and in free draining soil with added compost.
• [ ] With a trowel, dig holes in your raised bed to plant the seedlings. Carefully take the plant out of the pot. Put the plant in the hole and cover with compost.
• [ ] Water in the Broad bean seedling well unless your soil is already wet from recent rain.

💝 Caring for your Bean Beans outdoors

• [ ] When the flowers appear, water well as they need to set the pods.
• [ ] When the flowers appear, also make sure your plants are staked as the pods will appear shortly and make the plants heavy.
• [ ] Spring sowing Broad Beans take 15 weeks to grow from seed. Autumn varieties take approx 20 weeks. Refer to the How to Sow section where you wrote down your Sowing Date and count the weeks.
• [ ] Stake your plants with a bamboo cane and a string line, when they start flowering or you if have grown a tall variety.
• [ ] Go to the Pests and Harvest sections.

🐞 Broad Bean Pests and How to deal with them

🐌 Pests – Slugs and Snails

• [ ] Did your plant have slime trails on the soil or leaves and have the leaves been eaten? If Yes, it could be slugs or snails.

Slug and Snail Solutions include placing the following around plants:

• [ ] Cotton wool, Holly sticks, Coffee grounds or Copper tape secured on the ground with ground U shaped pegs.
• [ ] There are also slug nemotodes which mix with water and work in the soil to remove slug eggs.

🐁 Pests – Mice

• [ ] Did your seedlings just disappear from the ground? It could be Mice.

Mice – Solutions:

• [ ] Sprinkle chilli powder over the ground where you have planted your seeds or seedlings. This will not harm the mice.
• [ ] Wire mesh pegged in the ground over seedling may deter mice.
• [ ] Sow seeds in pots or root-trainers and plant out into the ground when established.

Pests – Pigeons

• [ ] Did your plants get eaten with just the stem left in the ground? If yes, it could be pigeons.

Pigeon Solutions:

• [ ] Netting over the Broad bean plants.
• [ ] Pigeons also don’t like things that move as it can startle them. Use a child’s windmill or hang up a shiny old CD.

Pests – Black fly or Green Fly (Aphids)

Does your Broad Bean plant have clusters of tiny black or green bugs (flies) on the tips of the plants? Or ants running up and down your plants?

Black fly or Green fly Solutions

• [ ] Pinch off the tip of the plant where the leaves are all upright and the cluster of black fly are sitting. This will remove most of the black fly colony and the ants will stop running up and down the plant.
• [ ] Try planting Oregano, Thyme, Yarrow, Rosemary, Dill next to the beans, these plants are thought to encourage ladybirds and hoverflies so they can eat the aphids.
• [ ] Add a small amount of an essential oil to water in a spray bottle and spray the plant. Rosemary or peppermint oil is thought to work best.
• [ ] Blackfly do not affect the plant or the pods they just look unsightly and attract ants.
• [ ] A jet hose water spray will also rinse the black fly off the plant but they may come back.
• [ ] Squish the black fly with your fingers and wash your hands afterwards.

How to Harvest Broad Beans

💡 🎉 Congratulations! You will now have up to approx 10-20 Broad bean pods on each of your plants!

• [ ] Feel the pods and check they are full of beans. Check out my broad bean variety comparison chart to check how many beans per pod your variety will grow.
• [ ] Pull the pods off the plant, you may need to hold the plant with your other hand as and when you need to harvest them. You don’t need to harvest them all in one go.
• [ ] Open the pods with a fingernail or snap the end to get an opening spot. Take out the Broad Beans.
• [ ] The Broad beans have a tough skin around them and to break this, use your thumb and forefinger to squeeze the bean out of its casing.
• [ ] Sometimes this is tough so another method is boil the broad beans which have just come out of the pod for 2 minutes, to soften them. Then use a nail to pearce the casing and squeeze out the green bean.
• [ ] You can now cook the broad beans.
• [ ]  🍽️ Enjoy your Broad Beans!
• [ ] When all the pods have been harvested, the plant can be pulled up and put in the compost bin or green garden waste bin.

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