Kitchen Garden Forum

I have loads of flowers on my runner and french beans but due to the cold, wet weather they're not getting pollinated. Is it possible to do it myself.

I wondered about this myself this morning as so far, despite lots of flowers, I have one solitary bean on my runner bean plants which I think I will have to donate to the World Seed Bank in case it becomes extinct. I think it would be a fiddly and time-consuming job as the flowers are so small and often inaccessible and it would be easy to damage them in the process. I'm glad I've grown some alternative climbing French Beans as well. They have also suffered from the cold wet weather but the flowers being self-fertile seem to be faring better and I am at least picking a few beans from them.

Dear Primrose

are all varieties of French beans self fertile?

helix

Helix - I believe so, both the climbing and dwarf French varieties. My French climbers this year are a mixture of Combra, Blue Lake, and the purple podded variety Brunhilde with purple flowers(from Thompson & Morgan).
I also have a few dwarf French purple podded beans, but at the moment they are torpid at around nine inches high without a flower in sight.

I've also got Brunhilde plus Neckar Green and Neckar Gold. The Brunhilde are loaded with beans and have grown so much they're strangling each other at the top of the poles! The others have grown well but aren't quite so far advanced. Much better than last year when it was so dry. Strange how things can be so different when we've all had pretty much the same weather.
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Granny