I wrote this post about a month ago, about the punnet of Bonaparte beans I’d bought at a Sunday market. I said that I’d always sowed beans direct and wasn’t happy about buying large seedlings in a shallow punnet, but wanted this particular variety and had never seen seeds of it for sale.
Here they are after I’d planted them out in a wicking box:
And here they are today, a month later:
They’ve grown better than the seeds I sowed direct!
I think I’d better take back everything I said about not planting large seeds into small punnets!
Foodnstuff 
November 21, 2012 at 6:53 am |
well done!!!
my beans are all has beens now….chooks have totally decimated them- in spite of mesh protection and being locked up most of the time. seems to have made them more determined!!!
hope you get lots of seed set for next year!
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November 21, 2012 at 4:09 pm |
I like seeing other people having to eat their words! I’ve had to do it so much of late, so I now how it feels. But better bean plants are the bonus here, doesn’t matter what you thought before. 🙂
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November 21, 2012 at 4:10 pm |
*know (I must have a light finger on the K!)
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November 22, 2012 at 8:04 pm |
We experimented by using my automatic sprouter to germinate the beans nice and steadily and once they had developed their roots we planted them out into seed trays and once they got big enough planted them all out. Good to see someone else planting closely! I thought that I was being a bean rebel but now I have legitimacy thanks to you 🙂
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November 25, 2012 at 11:15 am |
Hi Fran, could you do a post at your blog about the sprouter and how it works, or if you’ve already written about it, could you point me to a link. Thanks.
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November 25, 2012 at 5:30 pm |
I can do that for you Bev 🙂 I bought it from a health food shop in a fit of healthy enthusiasm…I don’t remember what I paid but it was quite a bit and I bought HEAPS of lovely healthy small beans and peas and seeds and set about sprouting them all and aside from being extremely annoyed at how invasive the roots were I ate my sprouts with a decided lack of enthusiasm to say the least ;). It sat in the cupboard for a year or so and when we were about to plant out our bean seeds I figured that they could do with a bit of a helping hand. I figured that if they were sprouted first it would give them the boost that they needed and after they sprouted in the automatic sprouter they just seemed to take off. Every single bean that I planted grew and every single one is vigorous to a tee. Even the 3 yin yang beans that some active slug decided to top in their new bed are growing back from their slug attack. I will do a little post about it if you like 🙂
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November 22, 2012 at 8:05 pm |
Just about to plant those tepary beans out…apparently they have a very quick growing season to take advantage of dessert water availability, 60 days apparently from sprouting to harvesting. Doesn’t sound like much to me! At least I will give them a go. I also got some blue speckeld tepary and if they all grow will send you some for next year 🙂
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