Watering Peas and Beans?

[mew]

I read on a blog last week that you shouldnt over water your peas or beans as they will give lots of leaves and not many flowers (in turn veg) if you do. Ive been watering them every couple of days in the dry weather any just wondered what everyone else's take was on this?

Many thanks

MEW

[Wombat]

Ummm, sounds like bulldust to me!

nev

[Muddypause]

Isn't there something in a plant that makes it produce flowers (and hence seeds) if it is under stress - eg, underwatering? I think it's a sort of survival mechanism, but I'm not sure you would end up with more produce this way. Maybe that's what they were refering to.

[mew]

maybe - will stick to the current regime - if I have a poor crop then I know who to blame....... on kiddin guys, your knowledge in invaluable to a first time grower such as myself xx

thanks again
MEW

[contadino]

Ah, but a rule of thumb amongst Italian contadini is that the more you water, the more produce you get but less flavoursome.

[Cornelian]

I use pea straw as mulch and I have some very wet areas of the garden - so long as they had sun, then the peas that grew from the pea mulch in the wet areas produced very good and sweet crops of peas. The peas in the not so well watered areas didn't produce as much.

[ohareward]

All the books I've read say that when you are planting beans that you should water the ground thoroughly before planting and the don't water again until the beans have come up and then water as necessary.

Robin