French Beans

mardatha

Will look for them now, if my power stays on. Thanks!

Farway

Do try the climbing variety Cobra, far better than Blue Lake

mardatha

Open exposed high ground so climbers might struggle - and only sheltered bit I have is in deep shade of next door's shed and faces east, so not a lot of sun.

RAS

Start saving loo roll inners, mar. Stick 6-8 upright in an old punnet and fill with compost. 2 beans each and use them as root trainers. Plant out about 2 weeks later. Nip out the weakest shoot as a rule.

Fruball

They are so easy to grow and much tastier than tinned/supermarket ones.

Dwarf ones are perfect for windy locations as they are less likely to blow over! They also do well in pots.

I have grown climbing ones (Cobra) and they were great but for ease, I prefer the dwarf ones. I am doing both this year

safestored4

Dwarf French beans are increditably easy to grow. You may have a short growing season at your height but if you can give them some sort of indoor protection, in a greenhouse or sunny back porch, for example, you can extend this by sowing clumps in large pots much earlier than recommended.

Then move the pots outside to a sheltered, sunny spot once the risk of frosts is passed and grow on. Don't bother transplanting. You will get a good crop just leaving them in the pots. Then for succession sow into open ground for a Summer crop.

If you have never grown them before the flavour of fresh beans is incomparable to anything you get from a tin.

mardatha

No greenhouse or porch, I wish. But I've decided to try them because they sound worth it, thanks

Fruball

I did them in a grow bag one year. Rather than cutting big holes in the plastic, I just made slits and put them in the soil and let them push through. I put a small plastic funnel at each end to help get the water down to the roots.

Bonus of that method is no weeding and very little evaporation :T

I am going to do them that way this year too with the dwarf beans and put the runner beans and french beans either in the ground or large pots. I bought my canes and some netting today.... Can't wait to get started

mardatha

Why do you need net?

Fruball

mardatha wrote: »

Why do you need net?

Not really 'needed' as they will grow up canes but pea netting gives them more available space for the tendrils to wrap around... I haven't used net before so this is an experiment to see if it produces more. no idea whether it will or not!