Kitchen Garden Forum

I have had very poor germination rates for my runner and French beans this year, despite doing everything I normally do. Is this a general problem this year? Any suggestions?

Good morning Fiordland, this is often down to 2 things, seed bought from garden centres, where the seed isn't kept cool enough or, the seed staying too wet after sowing...sometimes the weather turning overcast and chilly is enough for the compost to remain too wet after the initial sowing and the the bean seed rots very quickly....

Apart from broad beans I start all my beans in root trainers in the greenhouse, even then not all germinate.

Welcome to the forum.
Agreed, I have had poor germination, I'll put some new beans directly into the plot soon.

Before sowing any beans (broad, French, dwarf, runner), I always leave them for three or four days between sheets of damp kitchen paper until they 'burst' and the rootlets appear, then they are sown in long root trainers. Not only do they then grow away fairly quickly but I can also identify the 'dud' ones which are never likely to germinate. Because nowadays we grow much less than when we had an allotment, I often use bean seeds which are one or two years old, so they might not all still be viable.

Welcome to the forum!

Mine germinated OK but well slow, but the mice thought they were too tasty to leave alone! Have you dug the trays to see if the seed is even there?