Planting out climbing beans

[FelixLeiter]

If anybody has any old ones lurking in a packet somewhere and were able to send me half a dozen or so, I'd love to try them one final time in the hope that we might have a good summer and it would be third time lucky. But it's hardly worth buying another packet for them all to end up in failure again.

Although it's an appealing challenge, I really wouldn't set yourself up for further disappointment. They absolutely do not grow well in the UK, despite what the catalogues will claim (and they want to sell seeds, after all). It's not just high temperatures which are necessary, but they have a day length response which cannot be foiled — our summer days are too long, and when they do shorten, there are too few remaining days warm enough for long enough for the crop to mature. I grew them once in a polytunnel, in a hot summer, and they did nowt.

[Johnboy]

Like Monika, I plant out late rather than early due to late frosts in this area and start accordingly.
I pregerminate my runner beans seed during the first week in May and plant into 7cm pots as they germinate and grow them on in an unheated poly tunnel. Temperature may fall below 0C in that time here but so long as frost doesn't get to them they can withstand that temperature and the are finally planted out at the end of the first full week of June.
I try very hard not to get any very tall beans as I have found over the years that the yield of these plants as not as good.
I have also found that beans grow better if unchecked in growth so sowing is quite a fine art.
I grow two plants to the pole and generally speaking I have quite good yields.
I am growing Wisley Magic, St George, Scarlet Emperor and Streamline all new seed this year. I grew St George for the first time last year but although I left plenty for seed the mice hit me very hard hence new seed.
St George planted at the same time as the others was a full two weeks earlier but finished early as you might expect but a very good bean.
Wisley Magic are simply magic with very quick growing beans up to 15" without any sign of stringiness. Scarlet Emperor and Streamline are also very good but somehow do not have the vibrant growth of the other two.
JB.

[Motherwoman]

I sow my runners on No.2 son's birthday, which was yesterday (25th) and plant out at the end of May. It's not so much the cold as the windy weather we always seem to get in the later half of May which shreds them.

I've grown Cherokee T of T on a regular basis, they are prolific croppers but you need to pick them young and small as they 'string' very fast. Very tasty though and worth growing. Don't forget to leave a couple of the plants to give you seed. I don't leave it till the end to mature pods as wet weather means they don't mature and dry properly. I allocate a couple of plants on the end of a row by tying a label or coloured string to them to remind myself not to pick them!

MW

[vegpatchmum]

Don't forget to leave a couple of the plants to give you seed. I don't leave it till the end to mature pods as wet weather means they don't mature and dry properly. I allocate a couple of plants on the end of a row by tying a label or coloured string to them to remind myself not to pick them!

MW

Thanks for the tip MW I'm looking forward to saving the seed from as many of the RSC varieties as possible.

VPM
x

[Primrose]

Another query I have with climbing beans which somebody may be able to answer.
Why is it that so many of them often look as if they've germinated, only to sprout through the soil and then no leaves develop from the original bean part, just leaving a bare bean shell which then does nothing and dies off?

[Johnboy]

Hi Primrose,
I would suspect a rodent attack is either from Mice or Voles that steal the cotyledons which is the the food source for the emerging bean plant.
Both can steal the cotyledons without leaving any trace of soil disturbance. It is for this reason that I raise my beans in pots and make sure that they have a good root structure before planting out.
With the adventitious roots forming the plants will survive without the cotyledons. Without adventitious roots the plant cannot feed from nutrient in the ground and the bean plant is relying solely on the reserve of food from the cotyledons and without that the plant will perish from starvation.
JB.

[Primrose]

Thanks for that explanation JB but this year my beans have been germinated on a window sill, and I don't think we've got any rodents in the house although I can imagine that outside or in greenhouses, this could well be a cause.

[Johnboy]

Hi Primrose,
May I enquire as to what soil you were referring in your posting?
JB,

[Primrose]

Bagged compost JB.

[Johnboy]

Hi Primrose,
I thought that you had planted them out on the plot when this had occurred. Obviously not so in than situation I have not got a clue.
JB.

[vegpatchmum]

Where did you get your compost from Primrose? Was this newly purchased this season or was it a bag left over from last season? Is it seed compost of AP compost? And if you did buy it fresh this year, was it new in stock or has it been stored (maybe outside) by your supplier?

What I am trying to get at is if it is possible that the compost used is at fault. Last year I used some AP compost which I had left over from 2011. It was an unopened bag and so I thought it would be ok. I transplanted some thriving seedlings into it and they were looking sickly within a week. Repotted them into newly purchased compost and they mostly recovered, although I lost a couple.

Also, this year I used the 'wrong' seed compost (that is to say one which I've had trouble with before), by mistake and my first batch of seedlings didn't do much of anything. Subsequent sowings in the 'correct' brand of seed compost, have done really well once moved, as is detailed in the next point.

Oh and one last thought, although we are finally having warmer weather (relatively speaking) during the day, the temperature is still very cold on a night so could it be that your bean seeds aren't happy on the windowsill? I usually start all my seeds off in windowsill propagators and have done so for years but this year, the seeds really seemed to struggle even in the correct compost and so I moved them off the windowsills and onto shelving and a miniature pool table which we covered in MDF to protect the top. Once moved from the sills the seeds started to germinate at a much faster rate and the seedlings look a lot happier and healthier..

Just some thoughts. Hope they help.

VPM
x

[thetangoman]

Mine have been planted and mulched for 2 weeks now, climbing nicely with plenty of flowers setting nicely..second sowing still indoors though catching up.

[Primrose]

Flowers already? My goodness! Both my climbing French & runner beans are pathetic. They've been planted out and wrapped round with fleece. unfortunately the wind has caused the fleece to whip around the plants, despite trying to anchor it, and they've been badly beaten. I've popped more beans in the soil in the hope that some new later plants will compensate as I don't have high hopes of the earlier ones I planted out.

[Ricard with an H]

My bush beans are looking sickly and only 50% have shown, they are now under fleece and i'm going to sow more seed on the basis of last years failure.

In-fact even though i'll have a hedge to help with shelter i'm going to buy plastic pipe and get into the habit of using fleece.

Fleece proved itself to me and traveling south through Scotland I did notice that many producers use fleece on a commercial scale. I wonder what they do with it after they lift it. It must go to land-fill, I don't see a farmer rolling up all that fleece ready for next year.

A picking of green beans is such a pleasure and even though my little dog eats them direct from the plants growing beans is worth the trouble for me.

[Monika]

Richard, I know you were writing about fleece on a commercial scale, but just in case you want to know, I have used some of our fleeces for a number of years, just giving them a good shake when they come off the plants and then putting them through a cool wash in the washing machine.

New or almost new fleeces are used on carrots, parsnips etc to keep out the carrot root fly and after that they go onto other plants just for frost protection where small holes don't matter.