french dwarf beans?

[Paulottie]

Mike, I find you can fit four in a 3 ltr pot with a cane, great for early season but I get much better yields in the border.

Regarding freezing beans:you should definately blanche then dry as well as poss. b4 bagging and freezing, and do it when they're fresh not the ones that have been sitting in the fridge for a fortnight first! The same with runners: they are better if you use one of those ozi things that cuts them like spagetti- unblanched frozen diamonds horrid and slimy to me.

[nick the grief]

funny isn't - I've never been very good at french beans.

The more tricky stuff works better for me - I guess I take more care planning and caring for it when I'm told it's difficult!

I used to have the same trouble CC till LJ took me to one side a& sorted me out, never looked back since.

I think the biggest secrets with French beans ( which actually come from mexico ) are :-

* Don't over water them when you plant them otherwise they rot off

* Fresh seed - if you buy a big packet they just don't seem to keep so good. Thats why I grow open pollenated varieties rather than F1 Hybrids I can save my own seed from year to year and I know it's fresh.

[Paulottie]

Thanks Nick. It is really useful to know that. I had suspected as much. I brought a box of seed in France a few years back and was dissapointed at the germination rates last year. At first thought it was me/the hot summer etc. Only unfortunate thing is that I brought another packet at the end of last years Holiday for use this year...DOH!

I am, however, having better success this year using various batches.

Perhaps I should try early germination on a towel- as I saw this fellow do on Big Dig last night to save on pots/modules of compost-which I never reuse after a miss.

true what you say about overwatering too.

Paul

[Cutecumber]

Yes, thanks for the tips.

I think they've been a low priority for me over the years, so I haven't given them the best of chances - sown a bit late, not given quite the right spot, etc.

But I have bought two new packets of seed this year - the Borlotto (lingua di fuoco) which is so much in fashion and Cobra, which I've had before. Might let them climb up some sweetcorn... how cool would that be!!

[Paulottie]

Very cool Cutey. especially if you plant a squash (the other 'sister') underneath

[TonyF]

Problem with freshness of seeds here is that the French still buy their bean and other seeds by weight, all the boxes are a uniform size and being French and cos it's been done that way since the Revolution, the weights are to feed a family of 4 through the year if the veggies are preserved in some way.

So if you plant smaller crops (and the boxes are usually cardboard) within a couple of years the beans may not be as viable.

This year I have 4 types of peas, 6 types of French beans, still putting in broad beans and some old UK bought runners. It's the second year planting for 3 peas and 3 beans and that's finished them up, but they have to cover two gardens.

I think in future that I'll use half every box every year with the number of plants I want for succession in two large veg gardens.

[Paulottie]

There are so many in the box that if I turn my toes up they will definately need to be divided equally between my kids! Vive la revolution!...I guess that's not 'mad as a box of frogs' but 'mad as a box of french beans' then.

This time I went for a foil packet from caillard luckily. There called 'talisman.' Hope it will have kept them fresher. Is weather unseasonly hot down there as well Tony?

[TonyF]

No, not at all Paulottie, just the usual 75 today.

Nicely toasted out in the garden as well!