Kitchen Garden Forum

Having been away for the weekend I've returned to find my first batch of climbing Cobra beans are nearly 24 inches high. What's the lowest nighttime temperature they will withstand ? I don't think I can keep them indoors much longer. (Yes, I will sow them later next year. )

Sounds like they will spoil inside so plant them and surround them with a fleece fence - should be fine down there in the tropics.

My climbing french beans have also put on a huge amount of growth this week. I was wondering whether to cut the tops off and make them send extra side shoots out. It is too risky to plant them out up here yet.
Has anyone tried this. I would imagine they will be a week or two later, but have more flowers.

I've never tried pinching the tops out of climbing beans (rather like sweet peas ??) and would also be very interested to know if this works. When i the past I've accidentally knocked the top off a bean shoot it has normally sulked, refused to grow further and then slowly died on me.

I don't think I would try it. Even if you don't pinch out Sweet Peas like you should they produce side shoots low down but Cobra type beans don't branch in the same way.

Primrose wrote:I've never tried pinching the tops out of climbing beans (rather like sweet peas ??)

French beans and sweet peas are just not the same thing. They are both climbers, but they do so in different ways. Sweet peas tend to naturally branch at the base, which we can encourage further by pinching out the young plants. French beans produce a very dominant leader from the start. If you pinch this out, they are quite diminished.

I'm going to try one and see what happens. I seem to recall accidentally breaking the top off one and it sent out several stems lower down.

Hi Pp,
In the later growth stages climbing french beans can be nipped out to restrict height and certainly more laterals do occur but I have never done this to a smaller plant and do not know what effect it may have.
As you have volunteered to suck it and see it would be most interesting to know the outcome. Look forward to hearing from you later on in the season.
JB.

OK Johnboy, I'll report back on whether or not I've killed it!

P.S. There is no sign yet of my potatoes - I experimented with planting them quite deeply in November. Pity it has been the longest coldest winter for ages. I did dig up some strays the other day when turning one of last year's beds and they were sprouting nicely, so I may get a fairly late crop if they've not been eaten by slugs or gone rotten.

We've had a frost nip of our broad beans this week, but we're hoping they will survive. Got lots of others sown just in case but we'll lose our earlies if they succumb.