Disappointing Beans

sandra255 · July 2018

Grew climbing, runner and dwarf green beans last year, with great success. This year, (in a different bed) lots of problems. The dwarf beans were extremely thin, some bobbly and others almost dessicated. The runner and climbers look okay, though some have gone a bit purply, but many are stringy to the point of being inedible. Today I harvested some, used a potato peeler to peel the strings off both seams, cooked and put them in the blender for a soup, as a last resort. Even so I still had to sieve the soup (and clear out the drain afterwards)

I've watered them every evening since this drought started, so I know it's not lack of water. Perhaps they just don't like so much sun? Any views?

Pete.8 · July 2018

You're not alone.
I grow dwarf and runners as do both my neighbours. We've all got the same problem. We're all suffering from blackfly too (beans not neighbours!)
As far as I recall, beans do not like heat, and we've had a lot of that lately

Valley Gardener · July 2018

I'm afraid my beans were executed last week! I was umming and ahh ing,then found one grossly deformed bean,and thought,to hell with it,I'm not wasting more water on these! I had great satisfaction yanking them all down,and stuffing them in a bucket to be disposed of later!

Lyn · July 2018

Oh dear, what a shame, I sow the drought resistant ones and they’re doing really well. Moonlight and Firestorm

Dovefromabove · July 2018

I think it's really much too early to give up on runner beans ... I never expect to start picking until well into August, and carry on picking through September and sometimes into October ... this year they are flowering earlier than in other years because of the weather ... if they respond badly to the heat, this weather won't last for ever and if we look after the bean plants they could produce good beans later in the season when conditions change ... which they will.

raisingirl · July 2018

I'm a way off picking any beans, too - at least a fortnight, I reckon. There are a few setting, which is reassuring. Climbing French beans usually do better in hot weather than runners - that's why I generally have some of each. I never get a good crop of both, but one or the other will normally be OK

Lyn · July 2018

I picked two off yesterday, others won’t be for a while, mine are checked by picking out so I expect them to be a bit later.

Busy-Lizzie · July 2018

I live in Dordogne where the summers are usually hot. I grow Firestorm and Scarlet Emperor. We've been eating Firestorm but are having to pick them young as they are going purply and stringy very quickly. The flowers drop off the SEs when it's hot but when it's cooler in autumn they usually have a second crop and do pretty well.