GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

Baz[_3_] · 13-10-2012, 04:45 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

wrote in :

In article ,
Judith in England wrote:

I have grown runner beans for years - always very successful. I have
always used bought beans as seeds. This year I have left some beans
unpicked - they are quite long and quite big beans inside them now.

I intend to harvest, dry and us as seed for next year.

Have the pods dried out and are the beans mottled dark brown? If
not, they aren't ripe enough and you may as well cook them. A
rule of thumb that I use for French beans is that, if they shrivel
when I dry them out properly, they aren't ripe enough to germinate.

A retired colleague of mine does that with runners, but I do it
mainly with berlotti and pea bean.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

You can save seed from every bean and pea and you will probably never have
to buy any more. And you can sow them very close together, apart from what
the seed companies tell you. They sell you a packet of 50 broad bean seeds,
and say there is enough for a 6m row. That is ridiculous. You can trebble
that, and more when you have your own to sow. Trebble the harvest in that
6m row. Same with peas, get them in the ground nearly touching each other.

As a matter of fact I have sown my early pea and broad beans a few days
ago. I have enough if they fail, and will sow more and more as the year
goes on. Up until June sowing.

I must say that IME the pod must be dry and Khaki colour and not green or
yellow. My personal preference is to leave every pod on the bush until you
see that sandy/khaki colour.

Baz