French Beans

[Bren]

This is my first year growing French beans (free bee from the digin), up till now I have had a good crop, but this past week some of the plants are dying off is this normal are they a short season crop? I planted 10 plants 5 of them are good and healthy but the other 5 are a gonner, they are growing on the same support as the runner beans which are fine they all get watered and fed at the same .
Bren

[alan refail]

this past week some of the plants are dying off is this normal are they a short season crop?
Bren

Hi Bren

I think the answer to both of your questions is: "Yes".

At a certain point they will stop producing much flower and the unpicked beans will start to set - survival mechanism - and the plants will start to decline.

[Monika]

Hello Bren, I agree with Alan. I pulled our French bean plants up today. They have had a good crop but the latest flowers have not set and the plants looked decidedly ancient. So, out they went. The interesting thing was, they had an enormous number of nitrogen nodules on the roots - never seen so many - which I stripped off and returned to the soil.

The plot is now sown with green manure.

[alan refail]

This morning I pulled up the climbing French beans in the polytunnel. stripped off the mature pods, shelled the beans and put one and a quarter kilos in the freezer for winter protein

[Bren]

Thanks Alan and Monica thats put my mind at rest I thought it might be a disease on them, so weather permitting tomorrow I will pull/dig them out and put the roots back into the ground.
Alan I have put some in the freezer for winter use but I prefer them fresh.
Thanks again
Bren

[John]

Hello Bren
As you have found french beans are a quick cropper. The climbing french beans are just as tasty and do go on producing for much longer than their dwarf cousins. You grow them in the same way as you would runners and the flowers always set very well. 'Cobra' is an excellent variety and widely available.
As with all beans though you must always pick off the older pods to encourage young ones to keep forming.

John

[alan refail]

After pulling up my climbing French beans in the polytunnel yesterday I have replaced them with 18 dwarf beans sown in modules on 3 August. These should provide a fair crop next month until they succumb to low light levels and damp in October.

[Monika]

I think you are right about the climbing French beans going on longer, John: I am growing 'Blauhilde' this year and they are still going strong although they started cropping about the same time as the dwarf beans ('Maxi') which have finished.

Overall, it's been a grand year for all kinds of beans for us and also peas, in spite (or because?) of the earlier dry weather.

[John]

Hello Monika
All our peas and beans have done well this year. We did do some serious watering during the very dry spell in May/June and it has paid off.
I had some spare space in the fruit cage this year, after clearing out an old raspberry bed and grew peas there. The crop was superb as the sparrows had to look for food elsewhere.

John

[Primrose]

I've grown some dwarf Yellow beans for the first time this year and have been so disappointed with the germination rate, and the crop yield. People say that if you want to get more beans, keep picking, but from these dwarf beans I've found that once I've picked the first batch no more flowers or beans have appeared, so yield has been extremely low. My climbing Cobra beans on the other hand have done so much better so for yield per planting space ratio, I reckon Climbing beans are a much better bet.

[alan refail]

My late sowing of climbing French beans - sown 26 July - are just starting cropping. With a bit of luck they will continue for a few weeks and be followed by the dwarf beans in the polytunnel.

[Primrose]

When I read Alan's comment above, I realise just how invaluable a polytunnel is, especially for extending the growing season and protecting crops from the horrible rainy weather we're currently experiencing. Just wish I had a bigger garden to accomodate one. Freshy French beans in November is something I would really enjoy.

[alan refail]

Hi Primrose

Last year the tunnel beans lasted till 4 November - and were sorely missed after that.