Topic: Late & early varieties of climbing french beans.

[George the Pigman]

A while ago I had a conversation on the forum about why my climbing French beans stopped cropping in early August. The suggestion was I need to plant late varieties to extend the season. However I can find nowhere on the web that distinguishes between these two types. Do they actually exist? If so can someone give me some examples of late varieties?

[galina]

One way of getting round this problem is staggered sowing.  You can sow right up to the end of June, early July even in the South to extend the harvest.

Which varieties stop growing during August?  Usually they stop for a little while but put on a second flush of flowers and beans, if the watering  and soil will sustain this.  They only stop and wither if they don't get adequate watering.  But it may be different for some varieties.

If you grow runner beans as well as French beans there should be no problem at all. 

[johhnyco15]

i agree with galina i sow all summer sow direct from june  french beans can be a bit hit and miss in some summers they love the heat and plenty of food as do all beans so with multiple sowing at some stage with a bit of luck the conditions should be right for a good crop hope this helps

[Jeannine]

One thing that irritated me a bit when in the UK was that most seed companies don't put growing times on their varieties which is really important with some veggies.. anyway In Canada and the US they do.

I don't know if this will help you but quoting from a Canadian catalogue for my area which is almost identical the UK the following  dates are all for cllmbing varieties of French  beans.

Hilda Romano.. 60 days
Gold Marie   75 days
Kentucky Blue 70 days
Blue Lake  70 days

and there are many more but as you can see in the climbing ones there isn't much difference

Bush Beans go from 50 days to 75 days so more of a difference there

I know some of the varieties may not be over there but the  general idea is the same.

All types of Runners seem to be 70-75 days

And beans for drying are as much as 100

 It may not help but will give you  the picture.

I totally agree with staggered plantings.

XX Jeannine

[George the Pigman]

Many thanks to everyone for their advice. It looks like their isn't much difference between the growing times but they do have a limited lifespan so succession sowing is the answer.
Seed companies should put growing times on or at least point out that a plant has a limited cropping time. Their bumph implies that a bean plant will crop forever until the frosts come!

[Jeannine]

Yes the lack of info on packets is annoying. I have gardened in the UK, US and Canada and I do think on this this the UK is letting folks down. Of course for the most part it means from transplanting eg as you would with tomatoes, unless it is a veggie that one always direct sows and then it is from sowing time..it's the ones in between that  can be a bit of a problem. In some states in the US beans would be direct sow but in others they would be transplanted. However I do find overall it makes a difference, eg with squash it helps to know if it will take, on average, 70 days to mature which is doable in the UK easily but if it ones that takes 110 days it is iffy. Then with corn it is critical if one wants to separate varieties by maturity times so they don't cross. I have noticed  that  a
few companies over there do it.. but not enough.

Anyway goof luck with your beans.

XX Jeannine

[rollingrock]

Jeannine how accurate are those numbers. If you plant several varieties of bush beans that are
50,60,65,70 days.
If the weather delays them will they still crop the 55 day variety being first, then 5 days later 60 day variety, then 5 days later the 65 day variety and 5 days after that 70 day variety.
or are only for ideal conditions?
 

[Jeannine]

I can't answer that with any degree of accuracy but I would guess that if weather etc delayed them then it would probably do the same thing to all of them and they all would be later.

[galina]

I can't answer that with any degree of accuracy but I would guess that if weather etc delayed them then it would probably do the same thing to all of them and they all would be later.

I can't answer properly for beans, but for tomatoes there is a big difference between UK and US growing times.  The US days to maturity can be half of what the variety needs in UK because we do not get the continental type summers here.  Other tomatoes (even though they nominally have longer DTM requirements) are still quicker in the UK, because they cope better with our average 'non-summers'.  If I were to go by USA DTM numbers and say add 50% for UK conditions, it would not work out and there are differences from one year to the next.  It is a little more predictable in the greenhouse, but still not reliable. 

There is a huge difference in growing times between a squash sown on the first of May in South Hampshire and sown on the same date here on a cold ridge and clay soil in Northamptonshire (for starters we still get frosts in early June some years).  I remember a gardener who moved to Orkney and failed to grow the most basic, fast green courgettes in her greenhouse, despite long daylight conditions during summer.  Regarding beans - there are several areas in the UK where beans do not thrive at all either however long a gardener gives them, same with tomatoes.  I would have thought the same applies for Canada?  Maybe not. 

These huge differences between say the Scottish Highlands and Islands and the Southern counties of the UK have always been quoted as the reason why DTM numbers here are meaningless. 

[Jeannine]

You are absolutely right but  but the seeds I usually quote tou for maturity times are ones grown  specifically fro my area which is very very close to the area in the Uk where I lived,  I agree there are differences in temperature and frost dates, byt  there is not the difference that the US has. My area is very similar to most of the UK/.

Jeannine