Kitchen Garden Forum

I also tried some yard long beans last year. Very few of them germinated and the most successful one grew to about eight inches high and died, which annoyingly left me with an almost full wasted packet.
They're obviously not suitable for our climate and whilst it's nice to have these unusual varieties available to try, I really think some of the packets ought to be labelled with a Frustration Warning!

For 2 years I have grown both Cobra and Blue Lake climbing French beans side by side. Cobra is more prolific and produces long straight beans. Blue lake beans are often short anf stumpy and go to seed more quickly. Choose Cobra every time.

This year most of my cobra didn,t germinate (twice !!) due to some very inferior non peat compost I suspect so have had to resort to climbing French beans from a garden centre. They were unnamed (immensely frustrating not to know what you're growing and the assistant working there couldn,t tell me but they,re producing white flowers aNd quite respectable French beans so any suggestions as to what they could be please?

Until this year my Cobra were average (well poor), but they are both huge, tasty & tender this year. I can now see why they are rated. My Blue Lake plants were done by the late frost despite protection & the Cobra was all I had handy to sow direct (probably out of date on the pack as well but didn't check)!

I am trying the heritage Trail of tears french bean. It has lovely purple flowers but is slow to germinate.