[Markjp]

Hi

Should I sow my runner beans and dwarf french beans directly outside or would it be better to sow in pots?

If I should sow in pots should I keep them indoors or a greenhouse?

Regards

Mark

[home made pie]

With dwarf beans I find better to sow in pots in the greenhouse and plant out when about 5" high, this seems to stop slugs eating the young seedlings and gives them a better chance, keep in the greenhouse until weather warms up a bit then plant out.  I tend to grow a few at a time, the ones I sowed a few weeks ago are now 5" - 8" high so I'll be planting those out soon and I'll probably sow some more this week, otherwise you end up with all the beans ready at once

not sure about runners, never grown them

[DD.]

I always sow in pots/trays.

Gives the plant a better start and as posted they are not so susceptible to slugs etc.

[sunshineband]

... and they come up really quickly at this time of the year 

[Markjp]

Thanks for replies,

One final question what size pots should  use? I have quite a lot of 3" pots would they be ok or should I use bigger pots? or could I use modules?

I plan to sow Runner Beans, Dwarf French, Calabrese and PSB today, would the pots I need to use be different for any of these?

Cheers

Mark

[corndolly]

We use pots for beans and modules for calabrese and psb ,if the ground is nt ready these are potted up and then hardened off before planting outside.

[Stripey_cat]

My suitable pots have all disappeared this year (I suspect they're in the shed somewhere), so I pre-chitted the seed, stuck it into module trays, and then planted/am planting out into the final containers as soon as the leaves are up.  This would be a PITA if I wanted them in a row, but since they're for an early crop on the patio until the climbing types get going, needing to plant up a few each day isn't too bad.  They seem to be coping OK so far, even in the rough weather.

A saner route (especially for rows) would be to use a row-cloche to warm the soil up a bit, and keep it in place until they're going well and the weather bucks up its ideas.

In previous years, I've used 3" pots and deeper paper pots, and both did OK - there wasn't much difference after they'd been out a week or two.