bean and gone

[BUFFS]

has anyone else had problems with french beans this year,we usually get a great crop but after planting them out mid april they are only now coming into flower,i suppose it was the repeated cold spells(4 of them) that have retarded the growth,they do look healthy but by the time i get to crop them,i wil have to buy them a pension plan,or a stair lift to help them climb...when i planted them out ,i didnt realise we would grow old together.....

[Nicos]

We have about 8 rows of 4 different varieties- plus climbers.
We took a double handful as our first crop last night- and that was of one variety only - the rest are just coming into flower. We had 3 lots of sowings as the plumules were being eaten/rotted as soon as they appeared.

Rubbish year so far....hmmmph

...and don't get me started on the peas!!! ( ooops- wrong thread!)

[Matt94]

my dwarf french suffered from wind burn at the beggining, so it took them a while to get moving, but now both my dwarf and climbing frenchies are starting to shift and produce flowers and fruit - so hopefully i will get a crop off of them if the weather stays nice - knowing my luck they will all come at once and i wont know what to do with them all

[Tripmeup]

You'd have to ask the slugs how mine are doing...I haven't seen them in ages

[BUFFS]

to tripmeup,i put my old bath ,sunken,into the bottom end of my veg patch some years ago and the frogs,toads,newts etc tend to come out for a walk at night time,so though we get a bit of slug damage,its not enough to fret about,and this in an area where you can tell when summer comes as the rain gets warmer,even an old dustbin lid put in a shaded area will attract the slugmunchers,it means that i dont have to spend anything on killing slugs,may take 12months to settle in but worth it,im not organic,just want something else to do the job for me...so thats me..lazy..

[Alison]

Mid April is very early to plant them out up your way (mid May at the earliest round here) as they're a very tender crop so they probably went into sulk mode with ongoing rubbish weather. The last couple of years you'd have been fine but not this

[kathyd]

Lol, and here's me feeling like a proud mummy because I finally have FLOWERS on mine!! Makes such a nice change from brown wrinkled leaves . I have about 6 flowers on my many peppers too... I don't suppose there's time for anything to form or ripen, but at least I have flowers!!

[Ericthehalfabee]

My yellow french 'Concador' are only marginally bigger than when I planted them out in May .. wish I'd left them in the greenhouse and they'd probably have been fine. Last year they were prolific but have clearly decided to throw a strop this time round and vote with their roots. :-(

[Tripmeup]

Thanks Buffs...will consider something like that but have young kids so have to bear that in mind too..!! Most other things were fine compared to some of the horror stories I have read here, so not too despondent.... have great carrots, courgettes etc...I think it might be the area I choose to plant them in....seems it was a popular slug hang out

[solway cropper]

My french bean yields are much lower and the runners have fewer flowers but I've had a fantastic crop of broadies so all is not lost.

[Tripmeup]

My french bean yields are much lower and the runners have fewer flowers but I've had a fantastic crop of broadies so all is not lost.

Yep me too...first time growing them and had a great crop of Aquadulce Claudia... definite for next year again...

[Kaiya]

I have a bunch I planted out in May - they're flowering but are only about 6 inches high so I'm not sure how much of a crop they'll support! Since the broadies died though I have plenty of space for more, and on the last GW Monty said we could still sow them direct.

[cazp]

Mine were sown outside end of May and are Just flowering. I sowed another batch in a vacant part of the raised bed last night.... whether they will come to anyting I don't know.

[BUFFS]

to alison,as we are on the coast hit by the gulf stream we usually get fairly mild winters,the two previous ones excepted (weeks of -13-16deg),as a rule i plant tatties 1st week of march and put the french beans (cobra) out in the last week,last year we had a cold spring as well,but the tatties and the beans are sitting on a fairly fresh bed of garden compost,6ft x 3ft x 3ft deep,so there must be some heat coming off that lot,i am quite surprised that our fig has sat outside in those severe winters and is looking really good,i wont mollycoddle any plant,just give it good soil conditions,the right planting size,then the rest is up to it,if it fails it will feed next years veg,im not mobile enough now to go running around after plants who feel "delicate".. next year should be better,but i said that last year,they were telling everybody we had a heatwave,but all through it we had to have the heating on as the sun disappeared end of may,start of june,and reappeared in late march this year ,only to vanish again...only in britain...

[Two_Sheds]

put the french beans (cobra) out in the last week [of March]

Really?

In Scotland? I'm gobsmacked. What kind of crop do you usually get? (I don't put mine out until end of May, and I'm a LOT further south than you).