![Supporting Broad Beans Supporting Broad Beans](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/164/1646762/supporting-broad-beans-L-zVH5Gj.jpeg)
"Why bother supporting Broad Beans?" you may ask. Well, the reason is that if you don't, the bean plants will soon flop over into an untidy sprawling mess that takes up a lot more ground-space than if they are held upright. More importantly, bees find it difficult to access the flowers on a sprawl, so they won't get pollinated and your crop will be smaller.
Over the years I have tried various different ways of support Broad Bean plants, using twiggy sticks, criss-crossed string, wire, etc, but the most effective way is this. I push a bamboo cane into the soil and then tie the plant to it loosely with soft string. As the plant grows I tie it to the cane in more places - usually about four in total.
![Supporting Broad Beans Supporting Broad Beans](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/164/1646762/supporting-broad-beans-L-cBdBRE.jpeg)
Different varieties of Broad Bean grow to different heights and therefore need different lengths of cane. These beans are "Witkiem Manita", which supposedly get to about a meter tall, so allowing for the fact that each cane is pushed into the soil about 30cm, the 1.5m canes should be plenty tall enough.
![Supporting Broad Beans Supporting Broad Beans](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/164/1646762/supporting-broad-beans-L-OWORhu.jpeg)
I've mentioned before that I'm growing a row of Radishes alongside the Broad Beans, and you can see them clearly here:
![Supporting Broad Beans Supporting Broad Beans](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/164/1646762/supporting-broad-beans-L-9Bj3NF.jpeg)
My second batch of Broad Beans is just germinating now.
![Supporting Broad Beans Supporting Broad Beans](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/164/1646762/supporting-broad-beans-L-33kvjb.jpeg)
To be honest, I'm not sure what variety these ones are. I got them at the Potato Day I attended in January, and I recorded them just as "the brown ones"! It doesn't really matter to me what variety they are, just as long as I manage to get a decent time interval between the two rows in order to spread out the harvest.
![Supporting Broad Beans Supporting Broad Beans](http://m5.paperblog.com/i/164/1646762/supporting-broad-beans-L-FsfoV2.jpeg)