My climbing French beans
 

The message
from "alan.holmes" contains these words:
"K" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell writes
Are a disaster this year. I planted them in May, they refused to flower
until recently although growing well. I have three tiny beans an inch
long
and a few flowers now. Too late. Is it the weather?

Probably. My experience is that runners do better when it is wet, and
french with a hot dry summer.

Both my runners and climbing french have gone mad, far too many to eat!

My neighbour just passed by with two five gallon buckets of runners and
another about a quarter full of ripe tomatoes, not to mention a load of
other veg.

Just as well he has a 4-wheeled trolley...

--
Rusty
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My climbing French beans
 

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...
Are a disaster this year. I planted them in May, they refused to flower
until recently although growing well. I have three tiny beans an inch
long and a few flowers now. Too late. Is it the weather?


They are now flowering like mad, far too late.

My climbing French beans
 

The message
from "Christina Websell" contains
these words:
"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

Are a disaster this year. I planted them in May, they refused to flower
until recently although growing well. I have three tiny beans an inch
long and a few flowers now. Too late. Is it the weather?


They are now flowering like mad, far too late.

Plant earlier next year?

My runners went in late, and I'm picking them by the carrier-bag ATM.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
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My climbing French beans
 

In article ,
Rusty Hinge 2 writes:
| The message
| from "Christina Websell" contains
| these words:
|
| Are a disaster this year. I planted them in May, they refused to flower
| until recently although growing well. I have three tiny beans an inch
| long and a few flowers now. Too late. Is it the weather?
|
|
| They are now flowering like mad, far too late.
|
| Plant earlier next year?

I planted my blue ones in plenty of time - the problem was that they
stopped flowering and have only just restarted.

| My runners went in late, and I'm picking them by the carrier-bag ATM.

Mine have more-or-less stopped.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

My climbing French beans
 

In article ,
says...
The message
from "Christina Websell" contains
these words:
"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

Are a disaster this year. I planted them in May, they refused to flower
until recently although growing well. I have three tiny beans an inch
long and a few flowers now. Too late. Is it the weather?


They are now flowering like mad, far too late.

Plant earlier next year?

When would you suggest? I planted mine in April, May and June, as the
various packets suggested. I've had roughly one meal per week of them -
24 plants - and while they're still flowering, they won't produce any
more pods.

My climbing French beans
 

In article ,
Amethyst Deceiver writes:
|
| When would you suggest? I planted mine in April, May and June, as the
| various packets suggested. I've had roughly one meal per week of them -
| 24 plants - and while they're still flowering, they won't produce any
| more pods.

Don't be sure. They won't ripen, but they will set if the weather is
warm enough.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

My climbing French beans
 

In article ,
says...

In article ,
Amethyst Deceiver writes:
|
| When would you suggest? I planted mine in April, May and June, as the
| various packets suggested. I've had roughly one meal per week of them -
| 24 plants - and while they're still flowering, they won't produce any
| more pods.

Don't be sure. They won't ripen, but they will set if the weather is
warm enough.

There was nearly a frost this morning. The flowers keep falling off.

My climbing French beans
 

The message
from Amethyst Deceiver contains these words:

Plant earlier next year?

When would you suggest? I planted mine in April, May and June, as the
various packets suggested. I've had roughly one meal per week of them -
24 plants - and while they're still flowering, they won't produce any
more pods.

Well, you don't want to plant them out until the end of April, and then
you may need to protect them at night occasionally. Because I still
hadn't grubbed-up the hedge, mine didn't go in until the end of June,
when they set beans immediately.

They have though, been well-watered, both naturally and with a hose.

Misting the flowers is reputed to help them set.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
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My climbing French beans
 

The message
from Amethyst Deceiver contains these words:
In article ,
says...
In article ,
Amethyst Deceiver writes:
|
| When would you suggest? I planted mine in April, May and June, as the
| various packets suggested. I've had roughly one meal per week of
them -
| 24 plants - and while they're still flowering, they won't produce any
| more pods.

Don't be sure. They won't ripen, but they will set if the weather is
warm enough.

There was nearly a frost this morning. The flowers keep falling off.

Try misting them. It sounds like a dearth of pollinating insects to me.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
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My climbing French beans
 

"Rusty Hinge 2" wrote in message
k...
The message
from "Christina Websell" contains
these words:
"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

Are a disaster this year. I planted them in May, they refused to
flower
until recently although growing well. I have three tiny beans an inch
long and a few flowers now. Too late. Is it the weather?


They are now flowering like mad, far too late.

Plant earlier next year?

Earlier than May 8th?

My climbing French beans
 

In article ,
Rusty Hinge 2 writes:
| The message
| from Amethyst Deceiver contains these words:
|
| There was nearly a frost this morning. The flowers keep falling off.
|
| Try misting them. It sounds like a dearth of pollinating insects to me.

Well, that wouldn't help, then. Yes, one of the reasons that low
temperatures reduce setting is by discouraging bees, but that can
be resolved only by hand pollination. And they don't set well if
the temperature is too low, bees or no bees.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

My climbing French beans
 

"Rusty Hinge 2" wrote in message
k...
The message
from "Christina Websell" contains
these words:
"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

Are a disaster this year. I planted them in May, they refused to
flower
until recently although growing well. I have three tiny beans an inch
long and a few flowers now. Too late. Is it the weather?


They are now flowering like mad, far too late.

Plant earlier next year?

earlier than May 5th?

My climbing French beans
 

On Tue, 9 Sep 2008 18:01:40 +0100, "Steve" wrote:

Hello all,

I was amazed to see this post as I have the opposite situation this year. I
am in Lincs and for the last five years I have been using 'Climbing French
bean, Neckarkonigin' which are only about fifty pence for a large packet in
Lidl.

I always have great success with them and this year they have been
exceptional. So many eaten, given away, frozen and now can't keep up and am
leaving them to dry for the winter. I usually put a row in the soil and some
in a container up a wigwam. The ones in the container have had a humungous
crop. This year just by change I had a large pot with a lavender plant next
to them which was always alive with bees; could they have been responsible?

Sorry getting carried away but I do recommend folks to try those beans; they
have a great flavour and are totally stringless. They always appear in the
spring when Lidl put out their seed racks.

Good luck

Steve.

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...
Are a disaster this year. I planted them in May, they refused to flower
..snip...


I;ve tried them from Lidl but found the germination poorest of all the
varieties. Still very cheap so will try again. Also tried the yellow
version Neckargold from Tuckers. Went in late, currently cropping
well.
Cobra cropping well, though of all the varities it has climbed the
least. It was setting beans at 2ft high!
Goldfield also successful. Purple King got hit by slugs, other
varieties next to them did not. A purple italian one produced masses
of foilage before setting beans. Less beans than Cobra.

Lidl have some very interesting varieties of veg. Possibly because
they are Central European in their veg tastes. The seeds are very
cheap. Well worth a visit in spring.

Dwarf beans - Tasman (filet bean) from Johnson/Wilkinsons doing very
well.
fairly well, Brittle wax from Lidl. Tasty.

French beans are I believe self fertile, so don't need insects.

It's been a rubbish year again for those things that need heat. Beans
have been the most successful thing here in Bedfordshire.

Not tried beans in a container, maybe I will now.

Nigel

My climbing French beans
 

In article ,
says...
The message
from Amethyst Deceiver contains these words:

Plant earlier next year?

When would you suggest? I planted mine in April, May and June, as the
various packets suggested. I've had roughly one meal per week of them -
24 plants - and while they're still flowering, they won't produce any
more pods.

Well, you don't want to plant them out until the end of April, and then
you may need to protect them at night occasionally. Because I still
hadn't grubbed-up the hedge, mine didn't go in until the end of June,
when they set beans immediately.

They have though, been well-watered, both naturally and with a hose.

Misting the flowers is reputed to help them set.

Marvellous - but I didn't really get many flowers until late August. As
I said, one meal a week (for two people) from oh, actually 32 plants,
all planted in accordance with the instructions on the packetes.

My climbing French beans
 

The message
from Amethyst Deceiver contains these words:

Misting the flowers is reputed to help them set.

Marvellous - but I didn't really get many flowers until late August. As
I said, one meal a week (for two people) from oh, actually 32 plants,
all planted in accordance with the instructions on the packetes.

My first guess would be lack of water in the soil. On reflection, this
would seem unlikely this year...

--
Rusty
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