Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: bruno on May 02, 2010, 07:17:25
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Is it still too early to plant out runner and french beans?
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if there is still a danger of frost where you are then the answer it yes.........unless of course,you go to great lengths to cover them every night if frost is forecast.
My seed are not even set yet...another 2 weeks at least.
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And the weather forecast is not always very accurate on the possibility of frost.
I have some in a small plastic greenhouse/cloche. But last year I lost them not to frost but they got too hot and cooked.
It is a bit of a gamble, I put out a few early ones, and cover the whole wigwam in cling film. If you are lucky you get some early beans. But they often do not set well early on.
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I put bolotti and spagna bianco out last year at the end of April. It was a gamble, but the weather was fair and we got early flowering. Ours were surrounded by a glass cube.
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Being new to all this I thought runner beans were hardy and have had mine out for a month or more! They are growing well - will it be obvious if they are not going to give me beans? Will they die if they cannot cope with the frost so if they are still growing then it will be O.K?
I am in the south so probably a bit warmer here but we have had frosts since they have been out?
Also have broad beans out and peas too!
Should I be planting a few more and keeping them in till end of may?
So much to learn!
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The advice re runner beans is wait till danger of frost has gone or rush out and cover up if frost is forecast. :)
I have got some in pots and they don't look right to me,they have been indoors but I think they are not going to be great,last time I started them indoors they were growing up the walls by the time I put them out and then they went limp and miserable.Last year the rabbits ate them at the very young stage. :o
Some people I talk to say it is better to start them off in the ground rather than pots.
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I'm going to risk putting mine out today - but maybe rig up some protection from the north wind that we're forecast....
Being in the south west I don't anticipate any more frosts (but hey - never say never).
I'll also sow one seed per cane when I plant them - hopefully getting another crop later.
Alison
PS this is runner beans - my french beans have only just germinated, and the peas have been out for some time. Another lot sown to follow on.
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Broad beans are hardy, so are round peas. Nearly all other beans and wrinkled peas are not. I've had round peas out for a while and although the dreadful winter killed off one batch of broad beans and mice hadtheir replacements I have another set in the ground now and they're coming into flower. I've just sown something like 800 assorted beans and wrinkled peas (a tall one), beans are everything from my sis-in-laws pet runner beans, three varieties of soy bean, lots of climbing french beans for dry/shelled beans, borolttis, two sorts of butter bean, lots of dwarf beans for drying/shelling and crimson flowered broadies to take over from the Suttons that are in ATM.... there's 23 gravel trays in my kitchen ATM and 20 of them are loaded with modules of peas and beans.....
If I'd had the space/time at the right time to do so I'd have probaably tried to get some runners in early with another batch to follow on in case they failed but I wasn't in a position to so couldn't
chrisc
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(http://i41.tinypic.com/1zd6tle.jpg)
Thes do not look to great to me,having probs getting the light levels right.
Would you start again ??
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I sowed my french beans direct last Sunday, one of the blokes on our lottie always sows his runners early, he as sellothane wrapped round them and they are about 8 inches high. ;D ;D ;D
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They do look rather leggy. I don't know if they'd be ok if you moved them to more sunny area or if you need to start again and throw them.
I would try to salvage them, and start some others in a lighter place - belt and braces approach.
Alison
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my first set of seeds got planted out yesterday. If the frost gets them. no big deal i just resow the area later.
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I predict I'll be having to get up an hour earlier soon to shuttle gravel trays in and out of the kitchen and to do the watering in the polytunnel.....I've got 18 trays of beans and 2 of tall peas ...
Yes they look a bit leggy... put them outside in the day and bring them in at night.....
chrisc
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This was one of my questions as a newbie - and novice grower I might add. Mine are planted outside in pots, they've sprouted and are about 3 inches tall now. I live on Vancouver Island, BC Canada, and the climate is pretty similar to the South of England (used to live there).
It get's pretty windy around here but so far they look okay. It's cool and rainy today, but no more frosts expected (famous last words...!)
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I have just put mine into the ground in the hope of not getting any more frosts.
Check it out.
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,59683.msg611599.html#msg611599
Posted on the 30th
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I am probably a bad example, I sow direct and mine went in on Saturday. But as I am in Brittany...
I sowed 2 short rows of green beans, a few yellow wax and the end of a packet of Coco de Paimpol, which are half-drying beans.
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I'm keeping mine under cover on the allotment for another couple of weeks at least.
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Thanks for the advice - I'm in Derby so will wait another week or so. The beans can sit outside in pots and be covered with fleece if frost predicted.
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Hi Bruno... I'm in Derby and mine are still in the packets... several on the site have put them out already... need to check if last night saw them off.... we have a plant sale on (Sunday 9th May) and again 6th June... just in case...
www.littleoverlaneallotments.org.uk
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Broad beans are hardy, so are round peas. Nearly all other beans and wrinkled peas are not.
chrisc
See now I am confused ( not hard ), mine are round and wrinkled !. Kelvedon wonder. I have trays of french beans (Suttons ), broad beans, a tray of kelvedons that are looking like they want to emigrate fast, and some others I forget the name of, and I keep thinking I have to put them out fast or watch them die, I read broad beans were hardy and nearly put them out today regardless just so my garden has something in it this end!.
Why is this so confusing.
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Kelvedon Wonder are a wrinkled pea, but they'll be fine outdoors now. The seeds rot easily, so just don't expect to plant them outdoors in March!
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Thank you for that Robert. I will put them out tomorrow then. and seed some more as well..
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See now I am confused ( not hard ), mine are round and wrinkled !. Kelvedon wonder. I have trays of french beans (Suttons ), broad beans, a tray of kelvedons that are looking like they want to emigrate fast, and some others I forget the name of, and I keep thinking I have to put them out fast or watch them die, I read broad beans were hardy and nearly put them out today regardless just so my garden has something in it this end!.
Why is this so confusing.
Broad beans are normally winter-proof unless we get a winter l;ike the last one.... Round peas are rouind whjen they are dried, wrinkled ones have more sugar in them and when they dry they go wrinkly... the difference is obvious if you compare the seeds.
I wouldn't bother with a dwarf wrinkled pea, you might as well grow the tall ones cos they'll put up a bigger crop and go all summer....unless.... you want to put something in there place later in the summer... ... typically things like late small leeks, spring cabbages/cauli's, garlic, overwintering onions etc.....
All the french, runner and butter beans are non-hardy, that said there are varieties that toperate less high temperatures. If you're growing for green beans once again I'd not bother with dwarfs, the tall ones are more convenient to pick, crop longer etc. More complicated with the shelling beans cos there might not be a tall version, tyhe best kidney bean for red kidneys is a dwarf (Canadian Wonder), and there are any number of uniquely pretty bean forms that are only available in dwarf too, Ernie's B ig Eye leaps to mind, as does Yion-Yang, though there are similarly patterened climbing beans but not the classic black and white.
It's pretty easy:
Broad beans: Aquadulce go in in in the autumn, Sutton's get sown indooors in January and go out in March to fill the gaps, Imperial Green Longpod and Crimson FLowered get sown a bit later and stuck in whenever convenient.
Peas: you can try Meteors going in at the same time as the Aquadulce, also sow some at the same time as the Suttons. In the propagator gap in April between the peppers/tomatoesd etc coming out and the cucurbits going in get some tall peas (Alderman, Telephone etc) going, they can go outside middle of May, but be ready with the fleece and don't put in the final climbing frames until the end of the month.....
French beans/kidneys/haricots/canellini (they're all French beans) sow in April indoors, hjarden off in May, out at the end of Mayu or directy sow late May.
Pea-beans: treat as French even though they're "Egyptian"
Butter beans in heated props in April/early May, harden off in May, out end of May/early June.... they only take a week to germinate tops ......
most of the other exotics you can treat as butter beans.....
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Anyway that's what I've done and will do again probably.... :D...; certainly the butterbeans are streaking away in the root-trainers... they've only been in a few days and half of them are up....... THey'll be on the windowsill tomorrow and I'll rotate something else into the prop....
chrisc
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i rather foolishly put out my some beans cherokee which were coming along nicely in their cold frame, thought they'd be OK in the garden in a raised bed. lost about 80% of them to cold nights. Weggeiser the mange tout that i usually plant out is OK. so yep too early even in a sheltered spot.
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Theres a bloke who lives behind me called Percy, he's a lot older than I and in his late 70's or older. To me he is a Guru, every year I have watched that bloke dig and manure, plant and pole up, rain, shine, snow or whatever, I watch him in amazement, yet I rarely if ever ask him anything, why ?, not out of embarrasment but because he always looks so busy and I don't want to pee him off by asking him questions all the time. People must think "read a book" or something, and get the hump, so I try to only ask the harder things of him and as I said, rarely.
He gave my ten year old about 70 or so of his runner beans to plant this year, and so I was stood there with beans and peas ready to plant and all I could see is confusion!, I often think to myself "Help! Percy look over and tell me what and how to do it" and yet the older generation probably think even when seeing you looking like that that they dare not in case its taken the wrong way, or they get abuse for it, i find that so sad. We seem to be drifting inexorably to a population of hermits too scared to talk or interact with each other. So if you see me standing there looking lost, for gods sake gently ask " you ok lad?, want some help". Incidentally I am everywhere, on many allotments and many gardens, I dont always look the same either.
Thanks for the info on Peas.
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Kelvedon wonder just peeping through.
(http://i42.tinypic.com/3499d01.jpg)
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Decided to plant out the beans as staying in a pot was not a good idea,put too many in in the hope that some will survive.Have also put some beans direct into the ground under another support and planted some more in pots,determined to have plenty of beans this year ;D
(http://i41.tinypic.com/2d9tz4j.jpg)
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My runner beans ,alas, were sown too early, in my enthusiastic newbie rush! They're now about 18" tall, and all of the stems are twisting round each other. I've been popping them outside during the day for little excursions into colder territory, and yesterday put them in the mini plastic greenhouse with the door rolled up. They survived the night in there, so now I'm thinking they might be Ok left in there for the next 10 days or so as we're going on holiday and I think I may be right in delaying planting out until we come back. I think I'll put some seeds in at the same time though, just as a back-up plan!
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Superspud, just ask Percy. I have a 'Derek' near my plot, he has never minded me asking anything. In fact, he seems to enjoy giving advice, but never volunteers it unless asked. Percy might think you think you don't need advice. I bet he's longing to help. ;)
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The Cotswolds are COLD - so this is what I do - end April photo.
As to size in pots - not to worry until they are 10" tall - so long as they have water.
These are some of our follow on lot.
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Hi Emagggie.
I spoke to Percy about some things, In fact I asked him if my beehives were a nuisance ot him at all to start with and he said he had noticed them a year or so ago and that he was happy with them as his crops benefit so that was something, he told me he wouldn't be putting his out till next week just to be sure and I said I would follow his lead ;D. Next door who is an alcoholic trouble maker of 80 odd also overheard and decided to go put his canes up in one upmanship !. Weird person he is.
So I then checked my peas etc and found a nasty surprise in the toms in my g/h. so far no one seems to know what it is.