Kitchen Garden Forum

When is the earliest you would risk planting out climbing beans? I know they don't thrive in cold weather. Have a few seeds just popping through In a tray but wonder if it would be sensible to delay sowing the rest for another week or more? They'll be against a south facing fence Ina fairly sheltered position.

Indeed they don't thrive in cold weather, and they don't like a cold soil, either. Considering how slowly the grass is still growing (which is a good indicator), it's not warm enough yet but it soon will be. You also need to be mindful of frosts. It's at this time of year particularly when we can experience warm days but the temperature can plummet at night.
I would venture that conditions will be suitable by the time the seedlings you have emerging now are ready for planting. I would suggest that you sow the remaining seeds direct in the soil to supplement those you plant out, for a succession.

Hi Primrose,

My runners are currently approaching 1m in height and the climbing beans are at about half that but I wont be planting them out anytime soon.

May 11th and 12th, 2010, we had severe frosts both nights and I lost around 75% of everything I had planted out at that time and so now I wait a couple more days, until around the 15th/16th to start putting things out which can be a nightmare with squash and beans rapidly taking over the greenhouse by then but I simply wont risk it any sooner.

Hope that helps.
Vpm
xx

Thanks. You've both reinforced my more cautious instincts. I will sow some direct in the soil but suffer from the usual slug problem and try to grow as organically as possible (although I will use slug pellets if I have to) so will probably delay sowing the rest indoors for another week or so. I hate it when my beans grow too tall indoors as I always think that gets them off to fast a start from which they never really recover.

Sometimes it's so difficult to be patient when the sun's shining and you feel you want to get up and running with everything!

Don't know about Bucks but I sow Runners in Rootrainers inside about 1st May to plant out last week in May at the earliest. Climbing Beans like Cobra are less tough so I would guess need to be a week later. I've given up on Cobra outside and grown them in the cold greenhouse the last couple of years; this year they will be in the tunnel, just coming through sown in the heated greenhouse on 10th April.

I'm also growing Cobra for French climbing beans and Enorma for the runners.
As a matter of interest does anybody think there any difference in hardiness between French and Runner Beans? Is .one more hardy than the other?

In my opinion, Runners are definitely more hardy than the french beans but I wouldn't say there was much in it as neither like frosts

BTW I'm growing Runner Bean Czar for the first time this year and Blue Lake Climbing Bean, as well as Cherokee Trail of Tears Pole Bean. Czar and Trail of Tears were from the Real Seed catalogue and I can't wait to see how they do and I am looking forward to saving the seed from both these varieties.

VPM
x

ooh VPM Trail of Tears was on my list of "Stuff to Buy" you'll definately have to let us know how they are!

Are the pole beans are the ones which look like thin French beans but which can grow up to 18" - 24" long?
if so, I tried growing them outdoors several years ago. They were an utter disaster because it wasn't a good summer and I think they need a much warmer climater than we normally have here in the UK. Only a couple of them even germinated and they withered and died before they'd grown more than a foot up the poles. I tried a few the following year with the same results. But perhaps they were not the variety you are trying so hope I haven't disillusioned you.

I have just sown my climbing French beans in modules in the tunnel; they will be planted in the tunnel. Outdoor beans I usually sow in another 3 to 4 weeks (runners a couple of weeks earlier).

Primrose: Pole beans is just an Americanism for climbing beans (grow up poles ). What you had a disaster with would have been "yard-long beans" (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis), which are so often (mistakenly) advocated for UK growing. They fail for the simple reason that they are a sub-tropical plant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigna_ungu ... quipedalis

Oh you're right Alan. I couldn't remember the name of them. Yes, they were the ones. Pity, because they looked so alluring in the picture on the packet !

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.

Wicky wrote:ooh VPM Trail of Tears was on my list of "Stuff to Buy" you'll definately have to let us know how they are!

I surely will

VPM
x

Primrose
I grew them in the polytunnel in a hot summer (yes we used to have them!), they grew to five feet, flowered, produced the odd short pod, then died.

re Cherokee Trail of Tears: they are a very tasty and tender bean when young, but I have found they go stringy very quickly.

alan refail wrote:re Cherokee Trail of Tears: they are a very tasty and tender bean when young, but I have found they go stringy very quickly.

Thanks Alan, I'll bear that in mind when the pods start to form.

VPM
x

Like Geoff, I don't sow my climbing French beans, runner beans or dwarf beans until early May and start planting them out about 10 June. They soon catch up and certainly always crop by August.

Yesterday I saw runner beans in pots for sale at a garden centre and people were merrily buying them. I just hope they have a tall greenhouse!