Bean Booster Experiment Failure

The Bean Booster experiment is pretty much over. For reasons I can’t fathom, none of the seeds in the control trough germinated. I had around 80% germination in the boosted trough, and the ones that I sowed outside in the garden mostly germinated too.

And as if that wasn’t enough, once I moved the troughs out onto the patio, something attacked the boosted seedlings. Dug them straight up and left them lying on the surface of the compost. I suspect the blackbird, who has a tendency to dig through compost looking for worms. As soon as I noticed I watered them back in and covered them with a mesh to keep him off, but most of the seedlings didn’t survive.

So, as a proper scientific experiment, Bean Booster 2009 is over. However, there are still broad beans growing in the garden, and they’ve all been boosted. It will be interesting to see whether they grow better than they have in previous years and provide a bigger harvest (which will be a subjective test as I didn’t keep records from previous seasons) and also whether they develop root nodules – which I have never seen on broad bean plants in my garden and would essentially be proof that the bean booster has worked.

Posted 30 March 2009, 15:21.   Posted in .

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