Written by Charlotte Cunningham
With the autumn conditions delaying sowing of many crops, some growers are asking questions about how late winter beans can be sown. However, the answer may be more positive than expected, according to research from the PGRO. Charlotte Cunningham reports. “Undoubtedly, growers are asking questions about winter bean sowing windows, bringing back memories of the winter of 2012/2013,” said the PGRO. Due to the similar conditions seen seven years ago, trials were carried out to investigate how late is too late for winter beans. In 2012 a small number of previous trials indicated that they could be grown when planted in the spring – but to treat them as a spring bean, increasing the plant population to more like that of spring beans (typically 40 plants/m²). PGRO winter bean trials 2012/13 suffered the same fate as commercial plantings and this gave an opportunity to gather some concrete data. As part of the Optibean project, winter bean varieties Wizard and Clipper were sown at three sites, at four populations and and at three sowing dates. Key findings “Winter beans sown in the spring were not a disaster, even at 18 plants/m².” The main conclusions from the study were: On average, winter…
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