[Pimento]

Hi,

I’ve been growing lovely gigantes beans for a few years now, both purchasing seed and saving my own. But the germination always seems to be rubbish. Does anyone have any tips, please? I usually start them off (or try to) in individual pots under cover.

Thanks!

Pim.

[New shoot]

I sowed some a week or 2 back along with all my other beans and they are coming up the same as the others.  I haven’t noticed them being particularly more temperamental than other kinds.  Are you having the same issues with other beans, or is it just the gigantes Pim ?

Like all beans, they are not fond of cold or wet compost, so I have them in the greenhouse and have watered very sparingly.  I also held off this year and sowed them late.

[mumofstig]

My seed was saved in 2019 and still 19/20 chitted indoors, so I potted them up and they are coming through the compost now, in the greenhouse. They're doing better than my White Lady runner beans are, though (WL always seem to be rubbish tbh)

[steven c]

as mentioned before we now chit all larger seeds tissue in a takeaway carton in the airing cupboard or similar dampen the tissue this works for us the advantage is you know the seed is viable and they then sprout much more reliably good luck

[Pimento]

Thanks all, my other beans have all germinated beautifully so seems to be a fluke with the gigantes. Maybe I just overwatered, or planted a little too early. Will definitely experiment with chitting next tme!

[Silva]

Hi Pimento, I also had fairly poor germination with Gigantes while the other beans all came up, so you're not alone!

[Pimento]

Just an update... As my seeds germinated so badly I bought a packet of dried gigantes beans and planted those - they seem to be going great guns. Works out at a fraction of the price of the seeds, as well!

[mumofstig]

Just out of curiosity where did you get your dried beans? I have looked previously and not found any 

[Pimento]

Hi, I got them on Amazon - but they’re grown in Greece!

[wolveryeti]

Just out of curiosity where did you get your dried beans? I have looked previously and not found any 

Real Seeds stock them: https://www.realseeds.co.uk/runnerbeans.html

[Pimento]

I bought my original seeds from Real Seeds, but as mentioned the germination was poor for me this year. i love Real Seeds, but by buying the dried beans I got hundreds for roughly the same price as buying around 20 from Real Seeds, and for whatever reason the germination has been much better. The gigantes seed I saved from last year’s Real Seed crop did better than the fresh seed I bought from them this year. Normally everything I buy from them does really well, so a fluke, I guess.

[missmoneypenny]

I got some from real seeds too. They say not to over water and I did find about 1/2 those big seeds rotted. I’m trying a second batch and am watering sparingly.

[Silva]

Nearly all mine did come up in the end, just quite a bit slower than my other varieties!

[mumofstig]

I planted mine out today, they are taking a bit of a battering in the wind, so hope they are ok, after getting them germinated