[r2d2]

i have done well this year already with my first attempt at french beans and have had lots already, will they continue to produce all summer? as i can't see any new flowers although there are still lots of small beans, i have been picking the larger beans daily for a couple of weeks as i have heard regular picking helps

cheers

Mike

[Yorkie]

My beans have always gone on for ages (assuming they are climbing ones).  They may just be having a rest, or perhaps some flowers got blown off in winds?

[viettaclark]

I noticed the same thing. Although I've got another lot coming up I've only been picking for a week or two and there are no more flowers coming.
I'm watering and they're in rich soil so I shall give them a week or two more to hopefully get started again.......

[Salmo]

If dwarf french beans come to a stop water them well and give them some liquid feed. They may lay doggo for a while but then they should start producing more flowers.

[Trillium]

I too keep my dwarf french beans going as long as possible. Come fall I put fleece over them so I can squeeze out all the cropping possible. When they're finished, just cut the stalks off at the ground to leave the roots in as they're loaded with nitrogen fixers.

[Babstreefern]

I have climbing french beans, and I've had bucket fulls, and I'm still getting loads off of them.

[Paul Plots]

I have climbing french beans, and I've had bucket fulls, and I'm still getting loads off of them.

Climbing french beans... so much easier than dwarf - no scrabbling around at skirting-board level picking them!  ON my list for next year - a repeat.  :happy:

[titch]

This is my first year with climbing french beans, loys of flowers but no beans yet, but justy know they will all come at the same time as the runners!! Got lots of dwarfs too - plenty to eat when fresh and freeze for the long winter months too - I tend to stick in another batch when soemething else has finished, even if I don't get beans as the flowers are so pretty, the bees like them and the soil gets a nitrogen fix and it all helps keep the weeds down!
Didn't grow enough last year and think this year may have overdone it a tad

[kermit]

[/quote]

Climbing french beans... so much easier than dwarf - no scrabbling around at skirting-board level picking them!  ON my list for next year - a repeat.  :happy:
[/quote]

Speak for yourself - I planted mine too close to raised bed sides (the sides are quite high) - really struggling to get all the large bottom ones picked - paranoid I miss any.  Safe to say the Munty Frame approach hasnt come into its own yet 

Really pleased with my timings though - french beans going great guns for last week and runners just beginning to flower all over the place.  Last year it was all at once.

[Paul Plots]

kermit - sounds as if you cracked it - "successional sowing" 

Wish I had 

[r2d2]

cheers guys, mine are climbers, i will leave them in and hopefully they will carry on producing`

[LivvyW]

Not getting the scorching weather you are getting in UK, but i grew climbing french beans in the greenhouse for the first time and they are amazing. Been producing for about four weeks now.

Do they really freeze okay, we have just been eating them everyday, but i'm getting complaints now and the beans are still producing.

[Yorkie]

They do freeze OK Livvy, just don't let them get too old before picking, and don't forget to blanch for a couple of minutes too.

[LivvyW]

Thanks Yorkie, I'll freeze tomorrows haul.

[viettaclark]

Yorkie...can you tell me why it's necessary to blanch before freezing? Is it to kill bugs or soften the pods?
What effect will NOT blanching have?