Runner Beans

I have my runner beans going really well in the g/house ,in fact a few are looking to start climbing, i really think i will be having to put them in their growing position next week, :thmb:

I keep them in the big pots ,1 plant per pot and grow them up a net on the fence, according to a site i check ,my area doesnt get frosts after April, :skp:

So i will be hardening them off next week and getting them out the week after, so i really dont want a late cold snap:ntwrth: ,or i will just have to fleece up

 

Yup, sounds about right provided you have the last frost date correct.

If they get too tall they all get tangled up, and are a nightmare to plant out, and anyway the wind etc. then shrivels up the top leaves and they get severely checked.

Maybe plant a few more just in case the first lot get the chop?

I start hardening off as soon as the plants are big enough for it - I can choose not to put them out on overcast or windy days - as I find that that stops them growing too fast, and makes stockier plants.

My Sweetcorn (sown far to early :() have been outside during the day for two weeks already, and need another two weeks really to be near end of frosts - but I think their roots are too developed already, so I think I'll have to take a chance and fleece them if necessary

 

iI've not even sown mine yet!.. but plant them out when they're ready, but keep an eye on the forescast... if its going to be a cold night cover them up with anything you can , just to keep the frost off... we won't get a heavy frost now, so an old sheet, or newspaper or something will do!

 

"I've not even sown mine yet!."

I can top that. I've sown mine - but only the ones I'm going to try in the greenhouse for an early crop :D :D :D

The main crop I have resisted sowing so far, but I have scribbled on my crop plan to sow them 1st week of May (for planting out 1st week of June). Thinking about it:

Chit in damp kitchen paper - probably 3 -4 days

Pot-on to 2 seed leaves being well established 1 week
From 2 seed leaves to a vigorous climber 1 week

So that's 2 weeks + 4 days ... 18 days ... from 1st May that would be another 13 days, 2 weeks, to get to 1st June which will be a nightmare of tangled climber!

I'll do it mid week.

Which reminds me, I've seen lots of people saying "Can I plant out XXX" on the forums (3rd or 4th week of April) to which the answer is, of course, plant out after last frost ... and then, rather unkindly, "Too soon, re-sow" :( [Not the forums here, but same issue applies]

I have seen charts for vegetable seed sowing in America that are designed to calculate the sowing date based on XXX weeks before last frost.

That seems to me to be SO much better than the seed packets showing "Sow MAR / APR / MAY" and all the newbies sow on 1st March because they are keen to make an early start ...

Even I, who should know better, have done that this year :(

I sowed my Courgettes on 1st April (wasn't thinking, that's what it said on the packet). They are very healthy looking plants, ready to go out into the garden, but I know they hate cold shocks (let alone frost) and I am sure they just sat still for a while when I planted them out 1st June last year, let alone early May this year ... so I should have sown them 1st May, not 1st April :(

Sorry my point is:

Why don't WE [in the UK] advise sowing XXX weeks before last frost, rather than on the earliest possible date for the best location in the UK? - which is basically the "start date" on the seed packet suggestion??

 

"I can top that..."

It's not a competition!

 

Indeed, it was tongue-in-cheek as I'm experimenting with a few in the greenhouse to see if I can get some "earlies"

 

I experimented this year with a few dwarf french beans in my conservatory. (Saxa = planted 6 March). So far so good: I reckon I'll be eating a few beans by the end of this week!
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f7/Prastio/CIMG4460.jpg

 

The plan is to continue growing indoors for a while (they are in one of those planters with a water reservoir). It will be interesting to see how they develop.

On the subject of the thread, I planted out my first runners two weeks ago (Wiltshire) with more hope than judgement. They don't seem very happy, but they are hanging on.

 

"They don't seem very happy, but they are hanging on."

That's been my experience too - even without frosts an early planting gets so dramatically "checked" that a later planting catches up, or even overtakes.

But I've got a few climbing French beans plants which I am planning to plant in the cold greenhouse today. Dwarf French would have been easier :( but the family particularly likes the variety Limka - I don't know if you can get "flat" French beans like that in dwarf form?

 

"Kristen, "crop plan" - what's that?????"

Its the spreadsheet you get when you send me a request

See this thread: http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/showthread.php/should-long-20227.html?t=20227

My Squash plants are under way, many thanks :thumb: ... grown half a dozen, I'm sure that's too many for what I need, but they can have the space used last year by the kids growing useless Gourds (I get more miserable by the day!! ...)

 

We've planted a few Dwarf beans in one of the planters we bought for the patio...In our efforts to get the kiddies we Mind interested in their veggies..Hope they don't want to take them home,I love 'em:D

 

I thinking of doing long carrots to get the kids interested - although left it too late this year. I figure I might just, with luck, be able to grow a carrot longer than the 10 year old ...

(Its the grow-in-a-drain-pipe thingie ... by the by, I was reading today an idea that growing things in drain pipes could be used as a fence / partition to "next door" - which struck me as an interesting idea.)

Sorry, I seem to have wandered off topic in my old age ...