Welcome to our plot!

I'm Hazel, and in Nov 2006 my friend Jane and I took on a half plot at Hill Allotments, Sutton Coldfield - we want the satisfaction of growing and eating our own fruit and veg, and to improve our diet (and fitness!).

This is the story of what happened next...........

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Bean Planting Plan...

I made a quick trip to the Hill this evening to pick drying bean pods - blauhilde, triomphe de farcy & bird's egg (or were they climbing barlotti...?)

Although I was quite sensible in planting total different varieties side by side down each side of the bean frame, so I could easily tell which variety is which, I wasn't quite so clever in making sure that totally different varieties were grown opposite each other.

Some of the beans sneaked up their opposite counterpart's poles - which is fine when you have two sets of beans like 'polish' (heavy black streaked pods) and 'pea bean' (greeny-yellow pod), as they are easy to tell apart when picking.

But if they are very similar varieties - like 'bird's egg' & 'climbing barlotti', well they are pretty indistinguishable inside and out. I can't be sure I've kept them separate so I've bunged them all in together.

They'll still taste as good, I'm sure, & if I do want 'proper' seed for next year I'll worry about it nearer the time - it's not like I'm short of varieties to try...

4 comments:

  1. But if you don't want them to cross-pollinate and be profligate little blighters, shouldn't you plant them away from each other?

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  2. It's not that they've cross pollinated, Bilbo - french beans are pretty much self contained - it's that the mature pods of these two varities are so similar that if the plants have wound round each other I can't tell the mature pods of the two varieties apart from each other.

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  3. I'm not always clear on a post, am I? I do rather tend to assume that everyone shares my brain, thus knowing what I mean! {g}

    It doesn't help when I say 'the bean frame' which has runners (cross polinate like mad!) and french beans (keep themselves to themselves). Broad beans are husseys too, which is why I grow a few crimson flowered at home in a pot, just to perpetuate the seed - those at the Hill will cross with everyone else's.

    I know that tomatoes come true; peppers, not always; squash, not at all - but F1 varieties have different rules (refers to Flummery). And that is the limit of my seed saving knowledge!

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