[Russell Atterbury]

I have been giving quite a few seedlings a bit of a help to stick their heads through the final layer of top soil. I started to do this because I noticed that others couldn't seem to get there and eventually gave up. It is mostly the climbing french bean and squash that i'm talking about. My question is, does anyone else do this, because the ones I have helped seem to be very slow growing and maybe it's that they had weak genetics or something.

[mumofstig]

Some soils do form a crust which makes germination more difficult. Keeping the surface slightly damp helps, try gently spraying the seeded rows.
Some people here resort to covering sown seed with multi-purpose compost, but these can dry out very quickly in hot weather.

[Russell Atterbury]

Thanks mumofstig, the soil i have is light and quite poor, and it does form a bit of a scab on top, that is why i have pealed this bit away to let the first growth free. Last year I grew normal runner beans in this garden soil, with no problem, once they got through the top I didn't seem to be so doubtful about whether they would make a go of it. Can you tell me if french bean 'blue lake' might be a slow starter, like some are stuck at 2-4 inches with only the cotyledon still, this after about 2 weeks.

[mumofstig]

Has your weather turned cold? This often makes beans stop growing, 'til it warms up again.

[Russell Atterbury]

The weather has been changeable, it was down to maybe 6 centigrade at night for a while. Another potential problem is that some of the little seedlings have been chomped on to varying degrees, very little to a whole cotyledon gone. I have put new seed in, numerous times, but these 'blue lake' are temperamental on germinating by direct planting. The 4 that are going quite well were started indoors and planted out at 6-8 inches. That is a lesson learnt for next year.