Climbing French Beans .
Terry29
Posts: 58
in Fruit & veg
Hi Everybody.
I have decided to grow climbing French beans for the first time this year and I would like someone to tell me how they grow .Are they like Runner Beans and wind round the canes or do they need netting to scramble up . Ideally I would like to grow them up a wigwam arrangement .
Many thanks to all who answer
0
Posts
A bamboo cane wigwam will be fine Terry. The stems twine around, sounds similar to your beans (never grown runner beans myself).
I tried growing French beans "blue lake" last year, but didn't have a great crop. They like warmth and sunshine, a little lacking here in Manchester
I read to plant two seeds at the base of each cane. I started mine indoors at the end of April and planted out in May.
Last year my runner beans were a complete failure and I planted climbing french beans up the wigwam* instead ... A big success!
*or as some of the more pedantic of us will point out, strictly speaking it's a teepee - an indigenous American's wigwam is a domed structure covered with animal hides
https://www.reference.com/history/main-differences-between-wigwam-tepee-4591e5a868c194f3
But I think in the UK beans will continue to climb up wigwams
Dove, I grew mine up an obelisk I had going spare from a transplanted clematis, which I moved following advice from Obelixx
Runners like warm wet weather, french beans like hot sunny weather. So I plant some of each and one or other usually does well. On their wigwams
Same here raisingirl, one or the other usually does ok if the weather doesn't suit one of them. Like scroggin, I do half and half outdoors and usually grow some borlotti beans in the polytunnel too which almost guarantees some beans, whatever the weather decides to throw at us!
I grow climbing French beans up a pair of wigwams with a cane running horizontally across the top. They climb up without much encouragement, as soon as they touch the cane. I have settled for Cobra, which crops well, and I save the seed from year to year.
Looking at my notes from previous years, I would advise holding back and sowing them quite late. I start mine indoors, in modules, but I'm not even going to start them until May, aiming to put them out towards the end of the month.
Never had much success with climbing French Beans for some reason. Runners do well so not sure what I'm doing wrong. Last year we did have a very good crop of dwarf beans (Delinel from DT Brown) grown in large pots (Morrisons flower buckets 10/£1, recommended on here I think).
I normally grow runners and climbing french beans; I like colour so always grow some red and some white flowered runners; some purple, some yellow and some green fruiting climbing beans. I find the yellow varieties of climbing beans always out perform the purple and green.
I'm growing 'Blauhilde', which I noted was highlighted by Monty Don this week on the t.v...
I only need a couple of plants to grow up obelisks with roses and clematis, for decorative cottage garden effect... might not eat many... they're certainly erratic regards germination..