When to drill winter beans

[Badshot]

With us in the south east still pretty much in drought and the air/soil temps still high.
I'm wondering if it's sensible to be drilling beans yet.
I was aiming for the last week of October anyway, but it's looking like being warm and dry still.
Kerb won't last long.
Will they get too forward and soft? Get a hard windy frosty period with no snow cover, might get frosted off?
Won't be getting there myself this week anyway.
But next week is a possibility.

 

[juke]

Other end of the country but there's been beans going in for the last 2 weeks.

 

[cotswoldcs]

Planning on getting ours in at the end of the week. 20-30 October probably ideal date for winter beans IMO. Has been very dry but had 35mm rain in the past few days.

 

[Fuzzy]

Around here 15-20th Oct is when ive had the best results, the 40mm of rain will keep me off ground for a few days but conditions should be ideal once its dried up a bit. Once beans are in i will then switch to drilling the main acreage of wheat.
@Feldspar have you started drilling your beans ?

 

[Barleymow]

hope to plough mine in at the end of the week nice and deep as its warm might slow them down a bit

 

[beefandsleep]

Will combi drill as deep as I can get into ploughing end of the week.

 

[Manny]

My neighbour has got most of his in and after the 21mm of rain over the weekend there chitting already.

 

[Still Farming]

My neighbour has got most of his in and after the 21mm of rain over the weekend there chitting already.

Crows love them?

 

[Manny]

Crows love them?

And we have plenty of crows around here at the moment.

 

[Mr Charisma]

After the rain we had it will be a week before we think about venturing into any fields to move any ground and there's still a bit of wheat to drill before I turn my attention to beans

 

[Jon]

Ploughing my beans in now.
Keeping me from wheat drilling and blackgrass clash.

 

[ratchet spanner]

Other end of the country but there's been beans going in for the last 2 weeks.

drilled ours 8 th oct. i inch roots on them today. Drilled end oct in 2016 and felt it was to late for this area. Time will tell if I have made correct decision

 

[Case290]

Done some on some nice ground last week but had to give up on another 2 fields it was to dry & hard so hope to go again tomorrow we had 1.5 inch of rain so should be ideal. Planting 27 seeds.

 

[FarmerBruce]

What’s ideal seed rate drilling this week in near on perfect conditions?

 

[beefandsleep]

What’s the thousand grain weight? I am aiming for 30-35 plants per m, some like less. I will be assuming 75 % germination and 5% field losses so will drill 49 seeds per m which at my tgw of 577g is 284kgs.

 

[tr250]

@Badshot are you drilling with gd? If so how deep do you think you will get them this is our first year growing them

 

[Badshot]

@Badshot are you drilling with gd? If so how deep do you think you will get them this is our first year growing them

I intend to, yes.
How deep?
I'm going to set it at max and see what happens.
Hoping for at least 3 inches.
Maybe 4.

 

[Badshot]

What’s the thousand grain weight? I am aiming for 30-35 plants per m, some like less. I will be assuming 75 % germination and 5% field losses so will drill 49 seeds per m which at my tgw of 577g is 284kgs.

Good lord, that's a lot of seed, and plants.
Can I be cheeky and ask how tall they normally get?
I found the thicker areas yielded less.
Neighbours were very thin, absolutely covered in pods, two feet tall, yielded 30cwt.
No inputs, at all.
Mine,
Much thicker, usual kerb, etc, fung.
Yielded 39cwt.
Who was better off?
Doubt it was me.

 

[beefandsleep]

I’ve only grown them the last two years. They got to 5ft first year, a little shorter 4 1/2ish last year but died off early in the drought. First year did 2.7t last year 1.9t/acre, much smaller beans last year I think was where the yield was lost as well as later pods not setting due to heat. I know the trend is in favour of thinner stands and I have to say, on headland overlaps there were very few pods. I worry that with few options with weeds a thin crop will be very dirty.

 

[beefandsleep]

I am allowing for a lot of losses. It’s uncleaned fss. I counted out 100 seeds and found 25 either damaged/v small or bruccid damaged and there is a 7% admix of broken seeds etc. taken into account in the tgw.