Bean better

I went to town on my runner bean supports this year, using strong wooden supports and washing line cord to make sure there was no way the fence could collapse as has happened to me the last couple of seasons. However, I only had a dozen or so beans germinate meaning that I have huge gaps in the row and it all looks a bit silly. The variety is Blyton Sabre and I think the problem is that the seeds are just so large they take up so much water and rot before the first leaves and roots can escape the seed casing.


I must say though that I do have some wonderful looking beans, up to 20" long and showing no bean bulge. This weekend I shall take off all beans larger than 2 or 3 inches long. These should then be perfect size for my first shows in a couple of weeks time.

Blyton Sabre isn't commercially available but some seeds were given to me by Les Stothard the raiser of the Blyton Belle Marrow. He went to great pains to tell me not to thin the trusses under any circumstances as the beans will simply be too long if I did that. I can believe it.