This summer I grew some Blauhilde Climbing French Beans. I allowed some of the beans to dry on the plants and yesterday collected the seeds. Out of curiosity I compared the saved seed against the old original Thompson and Morgan seeds and the T&M seeds are are much darker colour than the ones I saved. The T&M seeds are deep brown and mine are cream coloured.
Does this mean that my saved ones are not ready?
Duke :)
Duke,
If I had worried about the colour of my seed when sowing then I think none would have grown.
All I can offer is the part where I saved it and kept it in a plastic tub inside a paper bag.
The colour got darker over time and some stayed light. All have been a good cropper and I look forward to more next year.
I would say that in keeping mine inside the tubs have kept the mice at bay.
Ok thanks Landimad
I guess there is nothing to worry about and the proof will be in the "next years sowing" :)
Duke
I try to wait until the pods are papery if I can.
Shirlton~~Yes when I collected them the pods were completely dry and crispy...so much so that some of the pods had started to split.
Duke:)
They should be fine. I collected lots of Coco sophie and Goldfield that I had grown specifically for the seed. Hyacinth sent me the goldfield and another member sent me the Coco's cos the real seed ones I had the year before didn't germinate apparently they had a bad year for them.I notice that they are not doing them this year so am very pleased that I saved the seed
To be on the safe side, buy some fresh seed to plant alongside your collected ones and compare the crops.