Climbing French Beans - help!

[BroadRipple]

sorry rustylady, moment of late-night internet lunacy...quite like your new name too though!
wow lightning outside window just now, exciting.

[Flummery]

Shady Lady - Ohh! Like it. It makes you sound a bit dangerous!

[Germinater]

Yer seeds sound naff .try a packet of fresh seeds . I bought 40 French dawarf from moreveg for £1 and all of the ones iv sowed last week have germinated and will sow last 20 tomora..moreveg are great to buy from and quite cheaP with the smaller pack sizes of 50-60 seed packs

[Sylvan]

I had a couple like that and when I eventually tipped them out to throw them away I discovered they were growing upside down.

Extremely weird! I can only think they must have been disturbed after they had germinated.

They never did much though - they're still tiny.

[gojiberry]

I always find that French beans are far more tricky to grow than runners. My runners are up to the top of the sticks but the French climbers are still only 3/4 inches high and not making any growth at all. Both sown and planted out at the same time. Am sowing some more French as have given up on first lot.

Ian

[arpoet]

There is a thread on here about parsnip gemination too.. I have always struggled with both, until last year when i sowed snips direct in a raised bed (old wardrobe) and never looked back.
I had about 75% success with CFB germination in the spring but the damn things just shrivelled up once planted out. I sowed more 3 weeks ago in modules in the G/H with 20% taking so sowed another 20 last week and it looks like about 16 have taken.
I will get them all planted tin the next 10 days fo a late crop.
I now soak the seed for a few hours, then keep moist over night on kitchen paper then plant in the almost dry MPC and cover with a cloche until they poke thier little heads up.
Roger

[Jamesy_uk]

Have to agree French beans are a lot more sensitive than runners, I got my plants a bit mixed up but you can sure tell what is what now as the Frenchies are halfway up the pole and the Runners are off the top of the pole reaching for the sky coverred in flowers.

[Florence Fennel]

You didn't stop the runners at the top of your poles then Jamesy? I do this a couple of times now, because one year the overhang at the top of the poles was so great that the first bad wind took the whole lot over! They are in quite an exposed position.

[Jamesy_uk]

Ah Florence mine are back to a fence, my gardens oddly shaped as it has the garage in the back garden. I will cut them off shortly but as it stand i placed a length of string along the top of the canes and am training them along at the moment.

[teakdesk]

Thanks for the replies.

I hope this won't look as if I'm contradicting all your helpful comments, but this has driven me to distraction. The same thing happened earlier this year, when I sowed white seeded dwarf French beans.

...

I find that beans in pots (large pots or small ones) don't germinate/grow if they are in full sun by day or cold at night or subjected to wind.

I always sow a large (30 inch) pot early in the season (out of impatience) and get one half of the pot (which is protected from the wind by the pot lip) growing well while the other which gets more wind and sun produces stumpy, dead shoots just like yours.

You don't say where they were; could you try again with them in shadier conditions with more wind protection, perhaps indoors.


The compost you are using looks quite woody which can lead to it being acidic; if the manufacturer hasn't tested and adjusted the acidity to neutral or slightly alkaline then french bean seeds will rot. Try adding some lime as an experiment.

[Flummery]

I always find that French beans are far more tricky to grow than runners. My runners are up to the top of the sticks but the French climbers are still only 3/4 inches high and not making any growth at all. Both sown and planted out at the same time. Am sowing some more French as have given up on first lot.

Ian

Odd. I find French beans MUCH easier! I have both growing now and the FB are romping away. they are twice the height of the runners.

[endymion]

those white ones from lidl only produced 2 seedlings from 30 seeds.... sometimes you get what you pay for...not always but sometimes.

So it's not just me then. It's surprising, because all the other seeds I've bought from there have done very well.

If you want, PM me (if it's allowed!) and for an SAE I can send you some CFB home saved seed, so you can at least see if it is the seeds?
I don't think you are too late - I put some in about a week ago in root-trainers and they are bombing along!

Thank you for your kind offer. I might take you up on it in a few days, if I don't have any luck.

We've already got dwarf French beans growing, and flowering at last, so we wont' be without French beans, but the plan has gone a bit awry.

I've put some more of these beans into some compost from another make of grow bag, I've also started off some Borlotti Beans that were an end of season reduction - I bought them ready for next year. I hope it isn't too late to get a usable crop from them.

It's been quite a frustrating year for us really, because the carrots and parsnips have also done very badly. We've never really had any problems with things germinating before.