new to beans - questions

[drew51]

So has anyone germinated indoors pole beans? Neither account of indoor germination mentioned what type?
My main reason for not doing it indoors is space. I have so many others I'm doing. This year I rooted figs on top of everything else. I need to germinate some flowers, yet to do it as it's been a busy garden year!

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by drew51

So has anyone germinated indoors pole beans? Neither account of indoor germination mentioned what type?

I've done it with black seed and white seed Super Marconi, Roma, Barlotto and Signora Della Campagna. This year I have seeds for three varieties that dad has been growing in his garden forever, and I'll be starting them indoors as well.

[rxkeith]

i have germinated pole beans in doors several times due to our freaky weather. the first couple weeks of june can be cool, and rainy. a couple years of that killed most of the beans in the ground. i start them about two weeks before plant out. the first summer i did that, the temps outside shot up into the 80s for a week, and stalled bean growth for several weeks. last year worked out better. i started my uncle steve, zelma zesta, tennessee red eye fall bean, tuscarora half runner, case knife, sicitalian black swamp, grandma roberts purple, and one or two others in nine unit cell packs. the black swamp bean was the only one that didn't go well. only one out of nine seeds sprouted.

if you have a fairly long growing season, i wouldn't bother with starting beans in doors.
if you have a shorter growing season like i do, starting at least some seeds in doors, can make the difference when it comes to saving seeds. sometimes it works out, sometimes not.

great accomplishments are done by people who didn't listen to the experts.



keith

[Zeedman]

Originally Posted by rxkeith

i have germinated pole beans in doors several times due to our freaky weather. the first couple weeks of june can be cool, and rainy. a couple years of that killed most of the beans in the ground. i start them about two weeks before plant out. the first summer i did that, the temps outside shot up into the 80s for a week, and stalled bean growth for several weeks. last year worked out better. i started my uncle steve, zelma zesta, tennessee red eye fall bean, tuscarora half runner, case knife, sicitalian black swamp, grandma roberts purple, and one or two others in nine unit cell packs. the black swamp bean was the only one that didn't go well. only one out of nine seeds sprouted.

if you have a fairly long growing season, i wouldn't bother with starting beans in doors.
if you have a shorter growing season like i do, starting at least some seeds in doors, can make the difference when it comes to saving seeds. sometimes it works out, sometimes not.

great accomplishments are done by people who didn't listen to the experts.

keith

Ditto... couldn't have said it better.

If I lived further South, I might not need transplants - but here I am, in a location with short summers & unpredictable springs. To further complicate that, I push the season with long DTM pole varieties, and grow for seed... so time lost often means failure.

I start a lot of beans each year in peat pots (another violation of "conventional wisdom"), and have had great success. It gives me better germination... and since I often use older seed, that results in a good stand - at proper spacing - without replanting. For small original samples, transplants make every seed count.

Last year was a great example of the value of transplants. I direct seeded some of my beans, and started others (those intended for seed crops) in peat strips. Several days of drenching rains followed, and many of the beans & soybeans that I had direct seeded rotted (along with most of my corn planting). For the varieties started as transplants, they were healthy & ready to go when the soil finally dried, and all of those seed crops were successful.

Bean transplants make sense for pole beans of all types (especially limas & yardlong beans), since the yield per plant is high enough to justify the extra effort. Transplants are also good for rescuing old seed, since with sterile media & control of temperature, the germination is much higher than it would be in soil - and every seed that germinates gets planted. Transplants would probably be unnecessary if growing beans only for snaps, if planting shorter-DTM bush varieties, or where the growing season is long enough to replant if necessary.

[fantoma]

Originally Posted by Tormato

I start about 10% of my beans in 16-20oz drinking cups/garden soil, indoors. Advantages are reliable germination, earlier germination (2-7 days earlier), and starts being several weeks earlier. With these tall deep cups, I've had not one single problem with 500+ transplants in the last decade.

If weather turns bad (heavy rains/cold) just after outdoor sowing, everything could rot, and you're starting over an additional week later. A second sowing means you're about a month behind transplants.

Disadvantages of starting in cups is the extra labor. But to some of us, it's a labor of .

Good advice... I try to use the same method myself

[ddsack]

I have no problems ground seeding Fortex, which has been my choice for pole beans. But for the last two years, I've had trouble getting much production out of Chinese Red Noodle beans which I know need more early season heat to do well. I'm going to pre-germinate those in cups this year and hope it makes a difference.