Problem with French Beans - growing too quickly!

flavia84

Hi,

about 10 days I sowed some French Bean (Blue Lake) seeds in a quite warm room. The seedlings appeared 3 days ago. Since then, they have grown so much! Every time I check them (every couple of hours) in the evening, they seem to have grown! I guess right now they are about 10 cm high, and growing!

I never expected this rate of growth, and I really need to slow them down, as where I am the last frost date is mid May, and although we have an unheated greenhouse, I don't think they will be able to go in there until early/mid April (please correct me if this is wrong, this is my first year sowing plants from seeds), and we don't have much space for them indoors, especially as they are the variety that need to be caned for them to grow properly!

I have another room I can put them in, still next to a window and with plenty of light but a bit cooler (I would guess it gets to about 10C at night when the heating is off, whereas in the other room it gets to about 18C at that time). I have some other seedlings in there that I sowed in January, and they are growing there fine, although much slower than the ones I sowed and put in the warmer room - about 1 month older but some seedlings (not including the infamous french beans) are almost the same size, although the ones in the warmer room have only the seedling leaves whilst the ones in the cooler room have some true leaves as well.

So, the question is: should I move the french beans to the cooler room, or are the seedlings too delicate to withstand the change in temperature yet (I heard that seedlings are the most vulnearable phase of the plant - again correct me if I'm wrong!). If it helps, on some of the seedlings the leaves have fully emerged from the seed pod, on others not quite.

Thanks,

Flavia

RAS

They are far too early, but my advice would be to get them into the coolest room you have, pronto.

rhiwfield

French beans should be planted out after all risk of frost has passed, usually May depending on where you are.

Personally, I'd write off this batch and start again in April

Lotus-eater

Yep, start again later, these will be ruined by waiting, not what you want in a bean plant at all.

grandmaster00

no question - eat em or bin em lol forget em until mid april then plant some direct in ground mid may too and maybe again early june for successive crops. the indoor propagated ones i recommend doing in toilet roll innards too ........ mmmmm beans are my favourite and i recommend the yellow ones although they are harder to germinate and do like warmth also unless space is an issue id definately go for climbers rather than bush

ALIBOBSY

I wouldn't just throw them away, but I am sad and can't bear to throw "baby" plants away lol. Even thinings have to be used or moved lol.

I use my front window sill (south east facing open aspect-over a large radiator) like a heated propagator. Any seeds are germinated in either those aldi/lidl propagators or in pots/seed trays covered in cling film (I use recyled pots/trays all sizes). Once they get fair sized they move to the much cooler front porch window sill, then out to the unheated greenhouse. So a staged movement from heat to cool to outside.

Trouble is french beans can't stand low temps. Broad beans are ok and some peas manage if you keep them frost free. I would move them to the cool window sill then after a few weeks to the greenhouse, but covered with fleece or something simular at nights. It depends how the weather goes really. If we get a warmish or average march and april with not much frost they may well suprise you. To be honest most stuff planted now is a bit of a gamble we take to try to extend the growing season. Plan on successional sowing to keep you going and for insurance.

ali x

janibrown

Try nipping out the middle shoot it should then slow the growth process down and produce another shoot from the bottom I have done this before you have nothing to loose
Jani x

flavia84

Thanks for all the responses!

Like Alibobsy, I really couldn't bear to throuw away my little babies, so I moved them to the 'cooler' windowsill yeasterday morning, but most of them have still grown a bit since! They all have their leaves fully out now, and seem to have adapted to their surroundings with no consequences (even turning their leaves to the sunlight (before they were upstairs with a rooftop window, so sun was coming from directly above, whilst now they've turned all their leaves to the windowsill!). Mind you, yesterday was a very mild day here, so that may have helped the transition to new environment. I'm praying they'll slow down a bit now though! Janisbrown, can you tell middle shoot? You mean the new leaves coming out from the seedpod? And alibobsy, when they go in the greenhouse, do I cover the whole plant with fleece or only the leaves/ground? Sorry, I am showing my ignorance in all things greenfingered!

To be honest, as a complete novice of sowing seeds, I am a bit angry with the packaging, which said to sow indoors Feb-April! I thought mid-February would have been fine, based on the packaging! I guess I was over-eager!

How about courgettes? They are also growing quite quickly, although not as quickly as the french beans. Will they be alright for a bit longer there, or will they follow the french beans into super-growth? I guess courgettes would be easier to keep indoors for a bit longer, as they won't grow as tall...

Thanks for all the replies!

thelurch

Sowing courgettes now is too early, I usually sow end of march in a heated greenhouse.

morg_monster

I sowed runner beans too early last year, they got to about 5 or 6ft and were dragging along the bathroom floor (coldest room) by the time I was happy to put them outside. It was a waste of time as we got a late frost (we are down in the S) and they all died! Also it was hard to get them up the poles. However I had started off some others and they did much better. I also planted some direct outside in the garden to stagger things a bit.

I am not doing runners this year but am doing french beans again, I will not be planting the first ones til late march at the earliest. Last year was my first year of veg growing, I was just too excited to get everything going!!

Primrose

It's the hardest thing in the world to be a new gardener and to know when best to sow your vegetable seeds but in nearly all cases, we start off very inexperienced and sow them far too early. It's incredibly tempting to get a sunny day and think it's OK to sow but the reality is that it's probably early June before the tenderest vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, chillis, beans and courgettes can be put permanently outside. This means that sowing early to mid April is quite soon enough. Sowing any earlier means that plants just get too leggy through lack of light and never recover to be good plants.

The advice to toss your seedlings and start again may sound tough, but they really won't produce a viable crop and you'll be so disappointed. Peppers and chillis can be sown indoors now though. They need a long growing season and can take up to 3 weeks to germinate.

Don't fret about having to resow because you will produce stronger plants and in my experience once the soil outdoors has sufficiently warmed up, the later sown plants usually catch up.