Allotments 4 All

Quote from: meg_gordon on September 14, 2009, 11:08:12
Husband just back from a conference in Corinth last night and has brought back dried gigantes.  If you pm me your address I would be happy to put some in the post for you.  I take it these just have to be soaked and they will sprout?  Never thought of growing them before - but going to try now.  Love them cooked in tomato and onion (although around Athens they put some chilli in when cooking them in the winter).

Meg

Any news on how the Gigantes germinated and if they are growing?

Meg

Mine are coming up right now. They put up true leaves, not the cotyledons, so they're not the same species as French beans.

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on May 08, 2010, 20:03:23
Mine are coming up right now. They put up true leaves, not the cotyledons, so they're not the same species as French beans.

Got a stash for cooking Robert - am I still in time to germinate and grow?

Meg

Mine went in a week ago in a heated propagator. THis morning I moved them down to the polytunnel as they've basically all germinated....  They're easy to tell from the stadnard butter beans though.... Giganda beasn leave the cotyledons underground, the butter beans bring them up....

chrisc

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on May 08, 2010, 20:03:23
Mine are coming up right now. They put up true leaves, not the cotyledons, so they're not the same species as French beans.

phaseolus coccineus, aka runnerbeans have their cotyledons in the ground.  Spagna beans are definitely runnerbeans.  Guess that is what you are growing.

I thought all the butter beans were Phaseolus lunatus.....

I grew these last year from a pack of dried beans bought from a Turkish deli, they are definitely runner beans. I got very poor germination and managed to save a mere half dozen beans.

It is quite possible these home saved beans and have been cross pollinated with Scarlet emperor that they were growing next too,I hadn't realised at that point that the Gigante were runners too.

I will be sowing my home sown saved beans as well as my Franchi Spagna and we shall see what we get, of course I may get something unexpected from my home sown beans.

Quote from: meg_gordon on May 08, 2010, 20:21:00
Got a stash for cooking Robert - am I still in time to germinate and grow?

Meg

Yes, I only started mine last week.

Well I've had good germination off the Gigandas that I got given (thanks  :D), and they have a different growth habit at germination that the Butter Bean "Lima" that I bought from Premier Seeds (I think) so they're not butter beans despite the fact that they look like a big butter bean amd not a big runner..... Bit of a bum if they are runners cos I wanted to keep them seperate from anything that mioght cross in but I thought I'd be safe if they were lunatus as it's not common in this country and I could put the
Lima on the allotment and keep the Giganda in the garden...... hmm... oh well looks like the runner beans will have to go at one end of the garden amd the GIganda at the other......

chrisc