[hubballi]

All my French beans are very puny and extremely curly. I have planted them in compost, fed and water every day but with dreadful results. My runners however are giants.

What could be wrong ?

[lisa80]

we didnt give ours that much attention!!! there is a couple of recent threads on here about similar topic hope that helps

[hubballi]

I really am at a loss. Now my (up to now healthy) runner beans have started to curl and are showing signs of dark spots on the beans. They are also some wider at the bottom and thin at the top. A bit like a Gurkha knife.

Feeding with comfrey once a week (1:20) and watering twice a day.

[kittiwake]

My french beans are very varied, some as straight as shop ones and others curly. Some of the curly ones apear to have grown that way because they have grown against obstructions such as leaves and the bean poles, others have slight scarring where most probably the wind has caused them to rub agaiinst their neighbours and the beans then bend at the scar point.

I have come to the connclusion that either comercial bean growers attatch weights to each bean to keep them growing straight or else they chuck away lots of wonky beans such that the only beans we see in the shops are the straight ones. If this is the case then I dread to think how much veg gets thrown away.

I now realise after having my allotment for a year that all those uniform vegetables in the shops are not normal.

If the plants look otherwise healthy I wouldnt worry - they still taste delicious !

Kitti

[barbarella]

I agree with Kitti - the same thing happens to my sweet peas - where the stems meet an obstruction, which happens more and more as the season goes on - they bend and curl to find a way through the other stems and foliage.

[Zippy]

I think you may just be seeing what happens to french beans when you don't buy them from the supermarket - they only buy the straight ones so people think french beans are supposed to be straight.

I thought cows were square until I realised that was just Corned Beef!

If they taste just as good, just let them do their own thing.