Beantalk

The early broad bean crop is in flower, but the growth of both the early and late plants appears to be a bit stunted and the early ones have started to get blackfly: The whole point of an early crop, sown in November, is that they're supposed to flower before the blackfly are around. Marigolds / calendula, which deter blackfly, aren't in flower yet and there don't seem to be as many ladybirds around as usual. It's possible that they all flowered early on short stalks because of the unseasonally warm and dry spring. As usual, the leaves have been chomped by weevils, although it never causes a problem with the crop.