Kitchen Garden Forum

I've germinated them in loo rolls for the first time and they're streaming ahead with roots coming out of the bottom of the compost. Know it's too early to plant them out unprotected but worried the roots need somewhere to go. Will they be OK if I plant out and put some mineral water bottle cloches over them? Or will the roots start forging upwards in the compost if I leave them for a while, which will halt their progress later when I eventually plant them out?

you are early! I haven't even sown mine yet! what about 5" pots with a small stick each, if you plant them out and cover them they won't have anything to climb.

Dear Primrose, i have just come in from planting out forty Runner bean plants.
I always take a chance, if i see a frost forcast i cover them over, if i miss a frost i have got plenty more growing.

Dear OH, What do you cover your beans with, if necessary? Fleece? Do you wrap the fleece around the beanpoles? I've done this in the past but always find it a little difficult wrapping up a long area of planting and finding something to peg the fleece to, to keep it in place, especially when it's windy.

Dear Primrose, i was given a roll of that green meshy type fabric that you sometimes see on scaffolding, it is six foot tall and seems to keep the frost off quite well.
I just use clothes pegs and peg it to the bamboo canes, job done.

Dear OH,
I shall have to go on the scrounge around some building sites !

Hello Primrose
You're really early with beans this year but I reckon its always worth taking a chance! You could try planting in wigwams as these will be far easier to wrap fleece around if protection is needed.
For my very earliest beans I always plant a half-row of an early variety of the dwarf french type under cloches. Its then quite easy to nurse them along if there's a cold spell even when they've outgrown their cloches. A sheet of fleece easily covers the whole lot.

John

Just a further thought.
Early planted beans, particularly French, seem to suffer from what looks like leaf scorch. Its a bit disconcerting but they mainly grow on out of. This came up in forum last year and there were various opinions on the cause. I would say perhaps the plants are not fully hardened off but I got it last year after a lot of hardening off. Maybe its a temperature/humidity thing?

This is what one of my plants looked like last year,about ten days after planting out, but quite soon recovered as new growth took over.





John

.
I am glad to see that others choose to grow "DELICIOUS" French Beans, both dwarf and climbing!

I am the only person on our allotments who actually grow them, everyone else vastly over plant, in their dozens,
those "HORRIBLE" runner beans that are tasteless either picked young or as most of them are picked,like cardboard.

Cheers

I grow one sort of runner bean, around five different varieties of French beans and lots more of them. They are SO much nicer!

Chantal wrote:I grow one sort of runner bean, around five different varieties of French beans and lots more of them. They are SO much nicer!

Hello Chantal,

I had to stop growing the Purple type as my wife would never cook them when I brought them from the plot.
She always said, the looked funny when cooked.

When my French sister in law visits from France, she always acquires from my plot,if in season, "English" French Beans and "English" strawberries, she says the French ones do not taste as nice.

Viva La Anglais

Cheers

Dear Lurganspade, us British gardeners are the best in the world.

I've sown a few Runners this year as a token gesture, but will be growing climbing french Blauhilde and Cobra mainly. As others have said, french beans are so much nicer.

Cheers, PJ

Tastes do change but for those who have been eating Runner Beans for many many years and look upon French Beans as inferior and lack the subtleties of the Runner Bean.
I for one look forwards to the very first picking of Runners and would compare it to the French custom of Nouveau Beaujolais.
I have always grown Dwarf French Beans but the climbing varieties are comparatively new to this country and I grow these as well. It is not that I dislike them but I feel that they simply do not have the same depth of flavour.
Certainly when it comes to freezing French varieties do so far better than the runner.
What I do like are Haricot Vert but cannot find a descent seed so if anybody can point me towards one I would be most grateful.
JB.

I thought Haricot Vert was French for green bean and that included French and Kenya beans? I should ask Piglet if I were you JB, as the only listings I've ever seen for HV are on French seed company websites. Piglet is always either visiting there or ordering from them and I'm sure he'd be pleased to help you find some.

Incidentally T&M (.com no .uk) see Haricot Vert and the look exactly like my French Beans

http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/uk/fr/product/170/1

I'm confused now.