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Having trouble with Blue Lake climbing beans

Janie4Janie4 Posts: 15
in The potting shed
I grow lots of climbing beans. Sometimes I soak the seeds before sowing in pots and other times I plant them directly outside, especially later in the season. However, my Blue Lake beans are germinating poorly and many are weak and miserable. This happened last year. I bought fresh seed this year and had the same problem. So I sowed a few more to experiment, was very careful not to overwater etc, but still only 2 out of five came up and one of those is miserable and misshapen. I am growing three other varieties in the same conditions, they are thriving and are now outside and climbing. Blue Lake is my favourite so I am sad. Any ideas?

Posts

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    Quite a few have reported variable bean germination rates this year so I can only assume the unusually high temperatures have played a part.  I also have several different varieties of climbing beans and split the sowing times somewhat this year, so had 2 batches of some varieties.  Those I planted later had very poor germination and many rotted, even the same variety from the same packet and planted in the same compost in the same type of root trainers..
    I also forgot to buy some runner bean seeds this year so planted a mixture of several varieties of 2-3 year old old packeted seeds and some collected and dried last year.  As I wasn't sure whether many would come up, I must have sowed well over 50 seeds into a couple of seeds trays with the intention of transplanting those which germinated as soon as there was a sign of life.  Not a single runner bean germinated! :'(
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • Janie4Janie4 Posts: 15
    Thank you Bob, that may be what happened this year. Certainly the timing of the hot weather would match that guess. And it's not just me...
    I am also thinking that it is time that I got a system in place to take better care of my seeds.
  • SuesynSuesyn Posts: 664
    My Blue Lake didn't germinate at all this year but fortunately I had Python as well and they are doing fine
    Strangely the Blue Lake were purchased this year and the others had a shorter use by date. Runner beans from my saved seed were slow to germinate but did eventually. I always start both French beans and runners in pots indoors and have never had complete failure before. 
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