firestorm runner bean

My Firestorm are picked at about 8 or 10 inch and are string less. I am well pleased with them and will be saving some seed to see how they do next year. I have also got Moonlight and they too are good and no string.

My Firestorm are picked at about 8 or 10 inch and are string less. I am well pleased with them and will be saving some seed to see how they do next year. I have also got Moonlight and they too are good and no string.

For the last two years I have had poor germination with Moonlight, which has put me off rather. Those that did grow gave good juicy stringless pods though

Moonlight seems to need very little moisture in the compost to germinate, any more than barely moist and they rot

I learnt that last year, so this year I was very careful how much water they got - only a little squirt from a drinking bottle, very occasionally.

Now you say that, I remember JayG (I think) saying something similar once before. I wish I had remembered it in the Spring, before giving them a good soak

Quote from: mumofstig on September 19, 2015, 19:41

Moonlight seems to need very little moisture in the compost to germinate, any more than barely moist and they rot

I learnt that last year, so this year I was very careful how much water they got - only a little squirt from a drinking bottle, very occasionally.

Now you say that, I remember JayG (I think) saying something similar once before. I wish I had remembered it in the Spring, before giving them a good soak

Probably did say that, although have had many sleeps since then!   

I have found white runner bean seeds of different varieties more prone to rot off before (or even while) germinating than the purple/black ones - best technique so far is to soak in tepid water for no more than a few hours, then sow into only slightly moist compost, and then water sparingly as Mum has described.

Same goes for pre-chitting - short soak but don't over-wet the kitchen paper in the chitting box.

I always pre soak peas and beans for a couple of hours before planting in loo roll centers filled with almost dry MPC.