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Hiya - a really basic question from a newbie to gardening. Have planted Unwins climbing French Bean seeds ("Sultana"). Instructions say plant 2 seeds close together, 5cm deep etc etc. However, it says nothing about thinning out the weaker plant when the seedlings of each group emerge (which they are doing now). Am I correct in assuming that you thin out the weaker plant? Many thanks for any clarification.

We grow 2 to a pole anyway

I have never thinned out French beans! I tend to sow them more in a straight row and put the seeds in individually. If any don't come up, I put in a new bean a bit later.

Is it more to do with ease of picking? If you leave all the plants to grow, which they will quite happily. you will get a lot more foliage making the beans harder to find.

Once they find the support you have provided they will quickly be climbing skywards and, unlike other vegetables, a little competition from the other beans won't harm them.

I tend to leave all the plants to grow as most of my climbing beans go for winter use so finding the pods amongst dense foliage is less of a problem.

So just do what feels right for you as you will get plenty of beans either way. :)

Many thanks indeed for the swift replies so far. Confess I'm surprised that no thinning is recommended, particularly as the 2 seedlings by each pole are nearly on top of each other. However, the advice is greatly appreciated and I shall look forward to a bumper crop (possibly helped by the heavy rain going on at the moment!).
Regards
John

I plant four per pole if they all come up, and they're perfectly happy.

Hello all.

It's interesting to find out that french beans can be grown between 2x to 4x the 'standard spacing'. I'll be adding an extra seed at each pole this weekend.

Is the same true for runners?

I look forward to your replies.

Regards

Bluecar

i also do 4 to a pole on all my beans including runner beans

What spacing between poles Brown Thumb?

Regards

Bluecar

the poles are about 6 inches apart

That's close, but I'll give it a try with 50% of my plantings and see how they progress over the season.

Regards

Bluecar

I tend to plant my climbing beans two or three to a pole at six inch spacing, though most of them are for shelling beasn so I don't need to worry about picking access quite so much... green beans I normally use Cobra, two to a pole stations at eight inches if I have the space, six if I don't.... a sensible idea if (like me) you grow a mixture of climbing types, is to grow somethign less aggressive/tall /vigourous on the opposite side of the frame to the green beans, makes it easier to harvest as you'll be able to look through and get the ones behind, if you had somethign big and vigourous on the other side (Borlotti or even worse, Giganda) then you won't see a thing :D