Beans

[Heidi]

Hello, i'm a newbie to these boards.

Last year my husband an I tried growing some beans - 2 types of borlotti, 1 type of pinto and some Black Valentine (black dwarf french bean).

None of them sprouted - we put them in a proporgator etc and had it out on the patio, but nothing happened.

When we investigated, we found all of the beans had sort of exploded in the soil - any ideas why?

We want to try planting them again this year, but would liek to avoid making the same mistakes!

[shirlthegirl43]

Hello and welcome to the vine Heidi.

Sorry to hear you had no luck with your beans last year. I am afraid I don't have enough knowledge to help but I am sure there will be a grape along soon who can tell you what the problem might have been.

[Tigerella]

Hi

Welcome to the forum, I am sure you will get some good advise.
Perhaps it was too hot.
I planted some dried Marrowfat peas that I bought to eat, these are just starting to appear, so it cant be too hard.

Tiger

[Two_Sheds]

God, no idea. Exploded you say? Weird.
This year, soak them in water for a couple of days before you sow them. Much more successful

[SimonCole]

What compost/soil did you plant them in?
Did you feed them with anything?
What was your water source?
Where did you get the seeds? What company?
Do you think that the medium you planted them in could have been contaminated with weedkiller?

Quite a few questions... but hopefully we can help.

[Heidi]

What compost/soil did you plant them in?
Did you feed them with anything?
What was your water source?
Where did you get the seeds? What company?
Do you think that the medium you planted them in could have been contaminated with weedkiller?

Quite a few questions... but hopefully we can help.

It was normal store-bought compost mixed with a bit of our home-made compost from the compost bin.

No.

Water came from the tap in the kitchen.

Seeds were from Seeds of Italy, bought at the La Dolce Vita Festival earlier in the year.

No idea!

They were put out late - about June/July time - when we had the very hot weather. They were in the proporgator, and in the morning i'd put the proporgator out on to the patio, and then bring it back in at dusk.

Do you think they over-heated?

[Nicos]

Baked beans????

Oh .....and hello and welcome!!

[Heidi]

Oh forgot to say the Black Valentine seeds where given to us by my husband's grandfather.
They are a variety we bought for him as a present from the HDRA - the seeds he gacve us were from his previous year's crop.

[Flummery]

I wouldn't have thought they needed to be in a proagator in late June/July. Maybe you really did cook them?

[Heidi]

I wouldn't have thought they needed to be in a proagator in late June/July. Maybe you really did cook them?

Quite possibly!

Can you tell we're novices???

Well we've really taken the lunge now as i've just had a call from the town council and we've got an allotment! So steep learning curve ahead i think.

[denise]

We all novices at some point - Im pretty new to this all too.
Great news about the allotment. Do a little at a time, cover the rest until you can get to it. What state is it in? Takes pics now and see how far you have come by this time next year. Never be afaid to ask about anything on here, it is a freindly forum, some always comes along to help. Use the 'search' thingy at the top, you may find some already asked the question you was going too. So much GOOD info on here. All the very best with your plot ENJOY - better than the gym anyday in my book and most grapes will agree I'm sure.

[muckdiva]

Welcome to the Vine Heidi
For what it's worth, I planted some seeds during the hot weather last year too, and they didn't germinate. To get around this problem, I soaked the next batch of seeds overnight, then put them on some damp kitchen roll and covered with more kitchen roll, then put the lot in a poly bag in the airing cupboard for a day or two. Once they'd sprouted, I planted them out and they came up fine. I wonder if really hot weather cuts down the germination rate?

I always try the damp kitchen roll trick with anything that might have 'iffy' germination. Good luck with your next crop. The Black valentine seeds sound interesting. Maybe you can post a photo in the showcase when you've harvested them?

[Hazel at the Hill]

What beans?

With apologies to Heidi for hijacking her thread, I have another bean question:

We have dug a bean trench, filled with FYM, and covered it over ready to sow runners along each side of a run of bamboo canes. The only thing is, that will give us 20' x 2 sides = 40' of runner bean plants & attendant harvest.

Now although some people may argue that you can never have too many runner beans, I am not one of them, so I was wondering what other beans (I do have some blue lake climbing french beans) that we could use as an alternative to all those runners.

Really, I just luuuuuuurve peas, and I would like to grow them up at least half (and perhaps some sweet peas?), but they'd have to be quite tall pea plants - what varieties would the venerable grapes suggest? And would they be ok up the poles, or do they have to have netting?

[Two_Sheds]

To get around this problem, I soaked the next batch of seeds overnight, then put them on some damp kitchen roll and covered with more kitchen roll, then put the lot in a poly bag in the airing cupboard

Yep. We just put ours in a shallow saucer of water, works too but a little less work

[Two_Sheds]

I was wondering what other beans we could use

there's a lovely selection of beans on www.beansandherbs.co.uk
good descriptions of flavour and colour, check it out