Is anyone else trying the new self fertile runner bean called Moonlight.
I have several plants looking very bonny. There are right up to the top of the 8ft poles and well covered in flowers. But they do not seem to be self fertile at all and so far all the flowers have dropped off. The standard red ones beside them are setting beans much better. There are none dropping off the climing french beans and so they now have now got lots of tiny beanlets on them.
I wonder if they need higher humidity for flowers to set?..it is been so dry that it could well be the reason..but it sounds good that they are blooming well though..could well be big cropper...I think you need to go and spray some water all over the foliage.. ;)..and we'll see if that will sort it out..
Hopefully the higher humidity will arrive tonight. If not I will give them a spray tomorrow. Thank you for the suggestion. It is so frustrating just seeing all those flowers drop off.
We have grown Moonlight, as an experiment, in a very large tub in the greenhouse. The plants are enormous, and are growing through the top greenhouse window. The unfertilised flowers are just dropping off. Where the tub is in the greenhouse it can be in full sunlight, even though we have shaded most of the greenhouse.
It is very disappointing, but our conclusion is that it has just been 'too hot'.
As my birthday is in June, I tell OH from my experience of the weather around my birthday 'flaming June'' is a myth. This year has been the exception.
Perhaps if we tried again next year, when the June weather reverts to normal (Wimbledon rained off) wet , windy and cold - we might get a better result. ;D ;D
valmarg