[KT]

Everyone elses beans seem to be going mad and producing loads, mine are producing .. ish ... so far i've picked 2 .. yes 2 runner beans and maybe 12 french beans in total.

The runners seem to have plenty of flowers but the french are looking alittle sparten they don't really even have that many leaves in comparison to the runners.

Is it just that it's still early and mine havn't really got going yet? is it the wind? wet? or something else?

Sorry to be a pest but im trying and failing to be veg sufficiant haha, and at this rate im going to be living off courgettes for the rest of the month.

[DD.]

My runners are just starting, my climbing French beans, planted at the same time are usually behind them. I wouldn't panic.

Could you pop your location into your profile KT? It can make a difference in answering planting, sowing & cropping questions.

[sunshineband]

We have only had one really good picking from the runners, as they went in a bit late, but there are masses of flowers and titchy bean forming now.

Our french beans have quite sparse foliage too - purple podded ones so it's good to be able to see the flowers and beans.

[KT]

There we go location updated.

In merseyside / northwest of england it's been pretty soggy and gloomy here for weeks about the only thing thats thriving at the moment is my courgette which don't seem to care either way.

My runner beans do look like they are going to get abit more promising but the climbing french  have reached the top of their frame but really don't seem to have much in the way of leaves or flowers, not grown them before so im not sure it thats the way they are supposed to look are they generally less leafy than runners? i've taken off the tops now so im hoping they will fill out abit now.
 

[DD.]

You'll soon get some, I bet!

[MoreWhisky]

Im growing Cobra french beans and was planning on using my munty frame.

That gives me 10ft how high would french actually grow? as ive not grown them before is 10ft overkill ?

[DD.]

I don't know about Cobra, but my climbing French Beans barely reach the top of an 8' cane pushed about 9" into the soil.

[madcat]

I grew Neckergold, a yellow climbing french bean, and it did about 10ft.  The problem I had with it was getting them to turn the corner on the multi frame.  The runners got the hang of it very quickly, one quick loop of the growing shoot over the string and they were off, but the french beans were much slower on the up take and wandered about a lot.

[Trillium]

I grow purple podded climber (don't know the name) and White Lady runner on the same Munty frame. In late fall I add a good shovel of chicken poo along the planting row for next season and work it in. I had vines climbing at least 15 ft (up and back down) before they decided to crawl over the tops of the nearby Monarda flowers. I keep forgetting to innoculate them but I suspect the chicken poo is doing a good job for me. I also keep mine watered so the beans stay nice and plump.

[mumofstig]

I keep forgetting to innoculate them

 

Sorry Trillium, but what do you mean ?

[Trillium]

Not sure if UKrs use it but over here, legume innoculants are popular. Its a form of  rhizobium bacteria, necessary for converting nitrogen from the air to a form legumes can use. Benefits include improvement of soil fertility, better root systems, maximum plant growth and yields. It's a form of powder which comes in small packages, and you put some in a small bowl/pot and roll your pea or bean seeds around in it prior to planting. Best of all, it's organic.

[Clover]

I never heard of anyone using it here, but you can buy it from D T Browns and Fothergills

http://www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk/catalogue/product_by_use/garden-essentials/pea-and-bean-essentials/1

I was reading that it's highly unlikely you would need it on an allotment where legumes have been grown before because the bacteria stay in the ground for so long and are only needed in minute quantities to get going again.

[mumofstig]

\i have read that when you start BBeans of in pots to add a little soil from somewhere that you have previously grown beans.............but i never understood WHY  :blink: Now I do
Thanks Trillium

[Trillium]

I forgot to mention that yes, the fixed nitrogen stays in the soil where the legumes were grown, but if you move your legumes around the plot as in rotation, you may not have the fixed nitrogen in the new spot so it's worth the bother of innoculating the new row. If you stay on that same plot long enough, gradually the whole area should become 'innoculated'. For the small cost of a package of innoculant, and the length one package will go, its worth the small expense. It would definitely save work moving soil about