Growing Beans

Evening all.

I'm now on my 4th attempt at growing beans. A couple of years ago I saw 3 bean plants after sowing a full packet. This year, so far, I've planted 50+ small pots with runner beans from 2 separate packets, and so far, not a hint of activity. The most recently sown were sown 2 weeks ago, and have always been indoors. The other lot were sown about a month ago and have been in the greenhouse.

Where might I be going wrong? I thought beans were meant to be easy?

 

I planted my first ever french beans mid-april 2 beans to a 3" pot , 1" deep. I got a 60% germination in 5 to 8 days . Strangely either both beans germinated in a pot or non.
Following a suggestion on here I presoaked some more beans planted 3 to a pot - into the light box - zilch Final attemp on the windowsill now ! Luckily I do have enough plants from my first batch.
50 pots not showing is very disheartening , hopefully the GC bean gurus will advise . Jack never had this problem

 

I'm on my second sowing of beans and this time they 'seem' to be doing ok....i've never had this trouble before...they've usually been easy

 

Yes, - exactly what I do with beans. (runners & climbing French) - when the emerging root is about 1 - 2cm I pot them up and keep them in the kitchen until the leaves develop, then on to the cold frame. Usually plant out end of May, but this year I have already planted a wigwam of runners (yesterday) and wrapped the lower part of the ww with fleece - we shall see!

a-a

 

I sowed 8 dwarf beans "Boston" in March. I had soaked them overnight. Nothing. Did the same in April. I have only one cell with a bean in it? Please, GC gurus, what is wrong here?

 

Hi.

I too have found them difficult at times. I've found that they've simply just rotted. I've always used multi-purpose for this, but I'm now thinking that the seed might not like the close contact of peat based compost? Anyway, I got fed up with the uncertainty, and now sow them direct.

Cheers...Freddy.

 

Sounds to me 1 of 3 things,, Old seed or stored in a damp place or humid place, soil too wet or too dry.

 

Bean having the same problem this year, first sowing of Dwarf French rotted, second one only 1 came up. Done ok with the Yardlong beans.

Sowed the Bridgewater Beans that Alex Adam sent me a few days ago, soaked them overnight & potted on the windowsill. Just looked at one & its starting to swell, can see the root coming.

I've put it down to the lack of sun & warmth, the compost is not drying out enough even on the windowsill & they are just rotting.

 

I sowed mine into place and they are now about 9" tall with no losses, last years seed.

 

I never soak, but place the pots/trays up high where it's warmest and keep them moist not wet, waiting for the compost to go a bit dry on top before lightly watering a little at a time. When they've nearly all germinated I move them down to a lower level (or into a coldframe) and up the watering.

 

Same here 60/70 % fail to grow, 3rd year runing

 

I have just emptied my non germinating pots after 14 days . I had put 3 beans in each pot - no sign of any beans ! They must have rotted .
I emptied some pots I had bottom watered very carefuly I thought . The compost was sodden . Following Scrungees and Blacksmiths posts , I mixed a lot more compost to this ,on my bench ,until it was just barely moist. I had no more beans left but I planted some Mangetout and Trailing Nasturtium in this - so lets see what happens.
Might be worth a go for all those having bean germination probs

 

Got to agree, too wet! a sniff of over-watering and they seem to be doomed..... Try try and sow again

 

I've only sown french beans 'Ferrari' so far, and got over the min 90% germination I expect:



Tomorrow I'll be sowing more Ferrari french beans (ebay) plus some Safari (20p/pkt from boot sale) in 24x modular cell trays and loads of runner beans (Polestar - saved seeds, White Lady - T&M seed sale, and Wisley Magic - as recommended here and bought from T&M whilst on buy 2 get 1 free + free P&P) in either 3" pots or 15x modular cell trays and expect the same level of germination, so will 'watch' this thread.

P.S. I never have a problem getting 'old' bean seeds to germinate, have kept them going for 5 or 6 years, and the only reason for changing to fresher (saved) seeds is because I've previously found some really cheap packets of that variety, grown them out and saved a whole lot more of new seeds.

EDIT: I also sow my peas, sunflowers & sweetcorn the same way. With sweet pea seeds I also never soak but also keep 'just no more than moist', and even sow the seeds in a thin layer of sand within the pot/cell to prevent them from staying too wet, but always get everything out of their warm locations ASAP after germination so they don't grow spindly.