Broad bean problem, low bean set from plentiful flowering, any suggestions appreciated

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Hegardens Nelson, New Zealand Jun 21, 2017

Hi, any suggestions with this problem appreciated, The situation is, I have been growing broad beans for a few years now and every year I have the same problem, the early flowers do not set bean pods.
All the broad bean plants I grow do it and it is the first 4 - 6 flowers on every plant that fail to set a bean pod.

I plant the beans in autumn and they grow a bit in autumn and also grow a bit in the mild New Zealand winter I have here and start flowering in spring, by this time they are about 2 foot (600mm) tall. and still growing.
Pollinators:
I garden in a forest area and so are low on pollinators at this time and I have recently planted a selection of herbs that shall be flowering at spring time to encourage the pollinators.
Hand pollinate:
So I hand pollinate as I researched, which involves putting my hand gently around the base of the flowering plant and then sliding my hand up the stem over the flowers, I do this a few times with each plant every few days or so.
Sunlight
I garden on a mountain and so at spring time the garden does not get the sun till late morning, but then gets it for most of the rest of the day.

Other vegetable flower/fruit set problems I have:
The broad bean plants grow well and look healthy and the last of the flowers set good size pods with healthy looking good sized beans.
I grow lots of other vegetables successfully, however with pumpkins I often get the first female flower set a fruit and then it fails within a few days and drops off, then goes on to set successful pumpkins.

Compost:
I use no sprays and make my own compost, and have stopped adding compost to where I plant the broad beans, wondering it the soil was too rich, but still they are not setting beans with the first 4 - 6 flowers on each plant.

Conclusion:
With each broad bean plant not setting bean pods with the first 4 - 6 flowers and then setting between 2 - 4 pods with the following flowering and the plants at this stage reaching a height of 5 foot or as tall as me,
I feel I am getting less than half the amount of beans that I would get if all the flowers set bean pods.
I grow other pole beans here which I plant in spring, without problem and they produce well.

As preciously said, any comments or suggestions appreciated.

This message was edited Jun 22, 2017 1:23 PM

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