French beans rotted

[Marb67]

Well, a new packet of dwarf French beans sown has ended up the few rotting in the pot once again (as all my beans and peas usually do) I gave them an initial soak in water once sown and then left in a warm greenhouse (during the hot weather) and yet they have still rotted. I can understand this happening in cold, early Spring but in hot temperatures ? Unbelievable.

[ameno]

It's almost certainly duff beans. I've had this quite a lot in recent years.
Good beans should germinate almost anywhere. I often have them coming up in the compost bin, surrounded by soaking wet putrefying veg. If they're rotting after just a few days to a week then they were almost certainly never any good in the first place.
I advise taking the packet back and getting a replacement, and in future try pre-germinating them on damp tissue. That way, you will see whether the beans are any good or not far sooner (they should sprout in 3-4 days if kept warm), and thus not waste time waiting for them to come up.

[peacegarden2024]

try direct seeding them instead of trying to start them in greenhouse.

[Marb67]

I have lost count of the seeds bought from Wilko in last Summers sale that have failed. Fortunately most of them were pence but their quality (including Johnson) have rapidly declined.

[Vince G]

I had the same problem with courgettes and squash this year. Sowed 2 lots in pots which just didn't germinate before the third lot actually did something. A lot of duff seeds about this year clearly, these were from DT Brown too who are usually brilliant from my experience.

[Penellype]

I've had awful results from some new packets of seeds, including no germination at all from carrot Eskimo (Chiltern Seeds), mixed salad leaves (T&M) and tomato Sungold (Suttons). A new pack of romanesco broccoli (Plants Of Distinction) required 15 seeds to produce 5 plants and a new pack of french bean Sonesta (T&M) produced 3 viable plants from 10 seeds.

As you can see, this is an issue across various seed merchants and types of plant. I wonder if the very hot weather last summer has had a detrimental effect on the viability of some seeds.

[Marb67]

I sowed some more but something doesn't look right.

[peanut]

I sowed some more but something doesn't look right.

I've had some come up like that too. I left them to grow on in the pots to see what happened and they sent out little side shoots from the top and are now growing away happily.
Its not too late to sow more though.

[ameno]

French beans are prone to coming up blind like that sometimes. Sometimes they reshoot anyway, as said above, other times they don't.
I find it best to sow about 10% extra, just in case.

[Marb67]

I give up

[Nicos]

Why?…give them chance yet marb!

[Marb67]

And again, I sowed some brand new climbing beans and yet they have also failed. There is definitely a lack of quality with the seed companies going on this year. It's ridiculous to get so many failures with plants and veg across the board.

[mrsbusy]

Well, a new packet of dwarf French beans sown has ended up the few rotting in the pot once again (as all my beans and peas usually do) I gave them an initial soak in water once sown and then left in a warm greenhouse (during the hot weather) and yet they have still rotted. I can understand this happening in cold, early Spring but in hot temperatures ? Unbelievable.

I Find French beans are a bit fussy compared to runner beans. I sowed French beans direct into the soil not soaked about 4 weeks ago 2 to each station kept them watered in the hot weather and they came up fine.
The combination of soaking plus warm greenhouse/hot weather is. very likely why the seeds failed.