Runner bean flowers all falling off

[Marb67]

I did place in damp compost, not watered. I also soaked some overnight in kitchen and left in a small dish. One bean split in half and other two not germinated. Made sure they didn't dry out.

[veggiechicken]

Don't know whether this would help?

I've been experimenting germinating seeds on Vermiculite (£1 bag from Poundland!)
Sprayed the vermiculite, put some Bijou mangetout peas and beetroot on the surface, sprayed the seeds and put the tray in a plastic bag.
Sprayed the seeds again daily until they germinated - a couple of days.



At the first signs of germination I potted them up in modules - moving the beetroot with a teaspoon so as not to damage the roots.

[Marb67]

Is it too late to sow beams now ? Sean's allotment on youtube was harbesting plenty so it's not an issue with some growers.

[Jungle Jane]

Celebration runner beans say sow till July,I would sow some direct they should grow fast in this weather. They've got all of August/September/October there should be beans by then,sometimes they say how many days till harvest on the packet?

[Marb67]

Well still the flowers are falling and failing to pod. Just one bean out of 3 plants has materialised

[Marb67]

Absolutley cannot believe for the life of me why they are still flowering very healthy but NOT podding. This is ridiculous, the weather is warm and has been for some time

[Ms-T]

The birds are picking the flowers off mine and their not worried about the cd's that are hanging up there.

[Jungle Jane]

Marb have you pinched the tops to tell the plant to concentrate on these beans?

[Marb67]

Yes and now I am thinking the sparrows are pecking everything off. This year they are destroying nearly everything.

[Zelenina]

There are two likely causes for the flowers dropping, marb. First, runner bean pollen doesn't work very well in hot weather. If that's the case they'll start setting in a few weeks when the weather gets cooler. If you want runner beans in hot weather in future you'd be better off with one of the newer, more heat tolerant varieties that have some French bean genes in them. There are a few of them but I can't remember any names offhand.

The other possibility is that there are no insects helping them pollinate. Runner beans can self-pollinate, but they need an insect, often a bumble bee, to trigger the pollination mechanism by pushing down the bottom part of the flower when they go inside for the nectar. This can be a problem if there are no pollinators around, e.g. if you're growing them under cover. Or sometimes there are lazy bees that drill a small hole in the bottom of the flower to get at the nectar without triggering it.

If you think this might be the problem you can pretend to be a bee and press down the bottom jaw of each flower with your finger tip and see if that makes any difference.

[Penellype]

Stardust (white flowers) and Firestorm (red) are 2 of the varieties that are supposed to set beans whatever the weather. I'm growing Stardust and they are producing beans, although some of the flowers do still fall off. I'm also trying Firestorm this year, but they were planted later and haven't yet flowered.

I can recommend Stardust as an excellent stringless bean.

[Marb67]

There are plenty of bees about so no shortage of pollinators.

[Jungle Jane]

There's another thread about it,its a historical problem -
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...-off_1617.html

[TheMidnightGrower]

Well, my Moonlight caught up a couple of weeks ago and are setting nicely now. Getting a good crop of beans, very pleased with them.

As they struggled so much I had put in a 2nd planting of beans, so now also have White Lady, Painted Lady, St George and Celebration as I planted for flower colour 2nd time around (given I was not getting any beans, may as well get some pretty flowers!). These all started to flower in the last week and seem to be setting very well, but the weather is cooler here now than when I had problems with the first lot of Moonlight flowers.

Re pollinators, i grew Crimson broad beans early in the season and have lots of Heuchera plants around the growing area, for colour. The Heucheras have turned out to be very keen flowerers, tiny flowers on long stalks that started in the spring and have not stopped. Both these and the Crimson broad beans seem to be magnets for bees, never had so many bees in the garden before. Hugely pleased with the pollinator attraction and general year round colour supplied by the Heucheras, so will be planting them near the veg again when I finally get to move house.

[Marb67]

Well I did what Was advised and soaked overnight, kept covered with damp kitchen towel in plastic tub and all failed to germinate and rotted!! Will have to get some more and sow again for a late summer crop