This year I grew four sorts of beans. White and red kidney beans, french
beans and runners. The white, red and runner pods have dried beautifully
on the plant and I have some good seed for next year as well as for
cooking.

However the french beans have not dried properly and most have rotted
away. Since they were all in the same plot I don't understand why the
french beans rotted. The same thing happened last year except that all
varieties of beans rotted on the plant.

Has anyone else had this problem with french beans?

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK
http://rance.org.uk

In article ,
Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...

This year I grew four sorts of beans. White and red kidney beans, french
beans and runners. The white, red and runner pods have dried beautifully
on the plant and I have some good seed for next year as well as for
cooking.

However the french beans have not dried properly and most have rotted
away. Since they were all in the same plot I don't understand why the
french beans rotted. The same thing happened last year except that all
varieties of beans rotted on the plant.

Has anyone else had this problem with french beans?

I grew some purple-pod french beans (I don't know the name as the seed
came from a friend who had saved it). The crop was so poor I had to save
what little there was for seed to try again if we get a better summer next
year; and not much of the seed looks any good :-(

Yes. I have got some, but have the problem fairly regularly. It is
due to high humidity in cool conditions, and some varieties are much
more sensitive than others. I grow climbing ones, and find that I
must not pick them for drying before the pods have got at least half
dry. Even then, the low pods often rot and lots of them do in poor
years.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Janet wrote:
I grew some purple-pod french beans (I don't know the name as the seed
came from a friend who had saved it). The crop was so poor I had to save
what little there was for seed to try again if we get a better summer next
year; and not much of the seed looks any good :-(

Were they dwarf beans? I have done a handful of purples the past few years
and found that although they're not prolific, they do seem to come earlier
than the others. They also tend to be very small.