Blue Lake Bush Beans

According to what Iâ??ve read on the Internet (and Iâ??ve seen this on many websites), the sowing distance for Blue Lake Bush Beans, is only 4â? (between plants), which seems very close to me, and the distance between rows is given as 24". Can anyone confirm this distance, please? I was given the beans by someone who didnâ??t want them, had never grown them, and had no instructions to give me!

 

Hi Quaedor36. I assume you mean french beans ? In which case those spacings aren't quite right. 4" apart and 18" between the rows, although I will plant the rows closer than that in my raised bed, more like 12". Cheers...freddy.

 

Hi again. It seems there's some discrepancy on spacings. I've just read that the spacings should be 8" apart and 24" between rows. I guess somewhere in between will be ok. Maybe someone else can add more on this ? Cheers...freddy.

 

Hi Freddy,

I was surprised at the 4" as last year, after being given the beans but no instructions, I sowed the beans in separate pots (not knowing what else to do) and planted the young bushes that came up at 15" between plants and rows. I didn't get a very good harvest but the beans I did get were very good, which is why I want to do better this year.

I think I'll go for 6" and 20" and see how they do - unless someone has a better idea!!!!

Thanks Freddy

 

Sounds like a safe bet :thumb:

 

I tried Blue Lake last season and spaced them the same as my runner beans (about 12" in 18" rows).
I was very disappointed with the harvest although the beans I did get were superb

This year I'm trying "Cobra" and if they fail to meet my demands, I'll be sticking to "Tendergreen" dwarf beans which seem to deliver consistantly good results.

 

I have Blue lake french beans and they're delicious, they don't make it into the house as me and my lad eat them all there and then, very yum, you can buy the seeds from Wilco

 

I have successfully grown Blue Lake climbing french beans but have never tried the bush variety. Are they the same strain with a different growing habit?

 

Hi Everybody,

Sorry I've not replied before! The beans are very good for casseroles and stews and seemed easier to grow except that last year (the second year, for me) they didn't do very well. I suspect, however, that the soil was out of condition as other crops also didn't do too well on that area.

I also planted them far too far apart.

I think that the bush bean is ralted to the runner though I've not tried the runners.

My son bought me the original beans, for a present, from somewhere in America.

The first year, when I planted only a few beans (taking the word "bush" far too literally!) I had a good crop and used them cooked as a vegetable and saved some as beans for stews, etc., and some each year for replanting.

 

Having grown the beans into small bushes the measurements sound better or, at least, that's what I would have thought, so thanks JWK. I wil, mostl probably, go to 8" x 18".

The only strange thing is, if the seeds are sown 5" apart, it's going to be the devil's own job to thin to 8" apart!! This sounds like one of those foreign instructions where the translation has gone adrift!

 

Luckily, John, I can speak Verbatim! I don't understand it but I can speak it!

It reminded me of all those foreign instructions that don't make any sense, such as the page in a book that says, "This page has been deliberately left blank" and, of course, it equally and obviously hasn't! Why it needs to say that (and I've got two books with that exact statement on a few back pages) I have no idea. My wife says that men never read the instruction manual, anyway - my reply to her is you can see why!

There may well be better beans but the Blue Lake seem easy to grow because they form a small bush and don't take up a lot of room, don't need support, don't appear to need a lot of attention, and freeze well, like most beans, I suppose. In spite of the poor harvest (because we lost some of the bushes and most of them suffered from some pest or. perhaps. the soil wasn't right, I don't really know) we had sufficient beans to cook as a meal (complete with the pod, as opposed to just the beans) and have a reasonable amount left to freeze for stews, etc., and about 100 beans for growing new plants this year.

Thanks for your reply,

John