Sow Broad Beans in Pots – Quick and Easy
Growing broad beans in pots is an easy way to introduce your family to vegetables. These legumes grow very well in small spaces, but they can be an expensive way to plant them, especially if you are new to vegetable gardening. However, with some planning, broad bean plants will do well even in containers. Broad beans can be planted in the garden, brought indoors for planting, or taken home as harvest. Planting them in pots is easier than other kinds of plants that require digging.
Growing broad beans in pots is similar to any kind of garden. You need to prepare the soil for planting, making sure it is free from nutrients and salts, and making sure it is well-drained. If you are planting the seeds just before a rain event, wait until the soil is about two days to dry before starting to plant the seedlings. The reason is because the moisture content in the soil is low during this time of year and planting any time other than the rainy season would be too risky.
If you are planting the beans in the garden, you should follow the same procedure, just ensure that you have an area in your garden free from weeds and rocks where the seedlings can be sowed. You will also need to add compost to the soil. Once the soil is ready, prepare the pot. Most gardeners prefer a one inch thick clay pot. Preferably with a rounded bottom, so that the water doesn’t drain out through the sides. If you are growing the beans indoors for transplanting indoors, make sure that the pots are within six inches of each other when filled with soil.
It is recommended that you let the plants sit in their pots for between four and seven days after you have transplanted them. This is to allow the roots to get the right amount of exposure to oxygen and moisture. This is especially important if you have selected the vegetables that will produce beans for consumption.
When the plant starts to look well-developed, you can then transfer them to a six to twelve-inch wide pot, which has been placed on top of a peat moss layer. The reason you want to do this is so that the aphids and spider mites do not feed on the young plants. The young plants will be healthier if they are not fed by these predators.
There are three primary methods for sowing broad beans in pots. One is the mechanical kind, which involves using a rotating cylinder that moves up and down. Another method is through the use of polytunnel, which is a plastic tube with numerous holes inside of it. Finally, there are the manual types of pots, which have a spongy material inside that traps the soil as it is pulled upward. You can choose from these materials based on your growing needs and the amount of space you have available.
If you would rather go with a type that does not involve any moving of materials at all, there is another option. This method, called the cloche, is a basket-like container with a bottom opening. You simply place the beans in the bottom of the cloche, cover them, and go through the process of sowing, harvesting, and raking again. You only have to make a few sets of beans if you use a manual type of pot. On the other hand, if you use a manual or polytunnel pot, you could potentially save a great deal of money on each set of beans you grow.
So how do you sow broad beans in pots? To achieve a successful yield, it is important to first determine where the beans will be sown. While some people will be fine with sowing on a patch of flat land, others will be looking for a piece of thick soil to establish their seed. For a small plot, you may want to consider using the peat pit method, which has been described as the preferred method by the vast majority of independent growers. In this method, after the seeds have been moistened with water, the pots are placed over the wet peat and covered tightly with burlap or large sheets of newspaper.