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After carelessly eating our seed reserve of haricot beans and then whingeing in GYO articles about their disappearance from seed catalogues, I feel I should put the record straight. 'Brown Dutch' seeds are available once more from this year's Organic Gardening Catalogue. The best haricot ever, gorgeous with a nice organic bacon hock in Boston Baked Beans!
Having said that, in desperation I selected a number of brownish beans from a Tesco 'Stew Pack' of mixed beans and grew them last year. Not bad at all! Now to grow both kinds for comparison (ever the researcher!), though they probably won't cross-fertilise to produce a superior hybrid - French beans tend to self-pollinate before the flowers fully open, and deliberate crossing is a bit fiddly.
Do explore supermarket shelves for novel seeds - ever tried growing wild rice, for example, just for fun?
best wishes, Andi
Having said that, in desperation I selected a number of brownish beans from a Tesco 'Stew Pack' of mixed beans and grew them last year. Not bad at all! Now to grow both kinds for comparison (ever the researcher!), though they probably won't cross-fertilise to produce a superior hybrid - French beans tend to self-pollinate before the flowers fully open, and deliberate crossing is a bit fiddly.
Do explore supermarket shelves for novel seeds - ever tried growing wild rice, for example, just for fun?
best wishes, Andi
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