Kitchen Garden Forum

I have made 2 sowings or dwarf french beans , with 2 weeks in between for succesional cropping. Neither has appeared but the weather has been really warm, and the rows were watered when required, all were sown in a well prepared trench.
Other beans sown at the same time are doing really well and climbing nicely ..but the dwarf frenchies seem to have vanished.
No signs of mice or birds as the rows are covered with chicken wire etc ..
Any suggestions???

Have a little rummage and inspect some of them

Have you checked if the beans are still there?? Isn't it a bit early to be sowing them outside (I realise you said you have other beans come up ok) - I always plant mine into loo rolls first - first lot have come up great. Maybe you have a mouse with a penchant for the dwarf variety you are trying!?? Or maybe on the particular day you put them in the ground it was a bit cold for them?

Sorry, not much help - but I'd really try them in tubes indoors if you can.

I too have had problems with the french dwarfs this year. They have germinated, but rotted off as soon as they appear above ground. Some of the peas in an adjacent area did the same, though the rest of them are fine. I'm worried that the soil may have been contaminated in some way, though I don't know how. I'm going to sow some more in trays and try planting them into the same ground and see what happens, though I seem to have more sucess sowing directly (except this time).

Sorry tangoman, that was no help to you at all, but I've been fretting about it and needed to share my pain!

Dwarf French beans seem to need more warmth to germinate than some others. It is usually more successful to grow them inside in trays or pots so they germinate quickly and don't linger in wet soil that can cause them to rot.

I would wait until the end of the month before planting them outside even though it is warm at the moment. I wonder if the soil hadn't warmed up enough when you sowed them because we had had a few very cold nights and a bitterly cold wind even though it was sunny.

Anyway, if you have a look for them it should give you a clue as to what has happened. They grow quickly enough to have another go.

We sow our French beans in pots or modules and plant out as small plants. It has been cold on a night even during some of the early summery weather and they are tender plants.

I started them in pots last year and they didn't do well at all, they were very poor when I planted them out. In a strop, I planted some directly, never having had much success with this years ago. They soon caught up and overtook the pot grown ones, so I thought I'd try again.

I'm going to do a bit of both now, I'm determined to get some in the end!

I know you say there is no sign of mice, but I would blame these little blighters - chicken wire is no bar to them.

I always grow all our beans in roottrainers in the greenhouse. They are just coming through and will spend their days outside for a bit now, weather permitting.

We have found with the first lot of French beans planted out they sometimes suffer a setback especially if they are not fully hardened off or planted out when it becomes a bit cold and we sometimes have been tempted to pull them up but they seem to recover.

I have grown some in guttering this year for the first time, I do this with my peas and have always had great sucess. I am just waiting a bit longer before I slide the beans out of the guttering and into the prepared trench.

This way you can check on germination,

Hope this helps

Tracie

Thanks everyone for the replies and advice...French beans have now been sown indoors in plastic pots, one seed per pot.I dug around and found no sign of any beans in the trench ..def not mice or birds ..
Thanks again .
Tangoman .