Topic: Climbing French beans

[sticks]

Will climbing French beans crop for a whole season like runner beans do or should I sow in batches every few weeks as per dwarf french beans?

[goodlife]

Climbing french beans do crop 'like' runner beans = once starting they usually do crop until frosts.

[galina]

Yes - but....... they do have 'flushes' ie times when they produce pounds and then far less whilst they are going into flowering mode ready to produce a big flush for a second time.  

I would go for more than one French bean variety oran early one and sow early May, late May and early June (possible until early July in the balmy south of the UK), just to even out the amounts that can be harvested.

On the other hand, you might sow an early variety, which gives you an early harvest and whilst you are away on the summer hols, the beans do their 'go slow' ready for the second big flush in September.  This could work out well, it is all a matter of timing and your preference.

[chriscross1966]

The variety Cobra seems less "flush" suceptible than most others in my experience, unless the weather gets truly dreadful... you could give a feqw (say three or four) plants a space in the GH to help offset that..... that sadi the only other ones I grow after CObra are Speedie (cos it gives an early crop before the Cobras have grown) and Blue Lake, adn I grow that for the shelled bean...

[goodlife]

 ;D...and so the seed collection gets started... ;) ;D ;D :-X

[grannyjanny]

& it's very contagious ;D ;D ;D. We should know ;).

[sticks]

Thanks for the replies.

I have some dwarf French beans too (the same ones I grew last year that I can't think of the name of right now...maybe Poweron or something like that). I tend to sow 8-10 of them every 4 weeks or so, which gave me a pretty good, continual crop last year.

The climbing ones are some that I picked up at Wyvale's 50p sale at the end of last summer. I grew far too many runner beans last year - I was picking 3-4 carrier bags full every week and couldn't give them away quick enough (in the excitement of finally having an allotment I decided I needed two full rows of runner beans!) - so I thought I'd just grow 1 row of climbing beans this year with 1/2 runners and 1/2 french.