View the Beans - dwarf page

06 Apr 17 carol o'shea (New Zealand - temperate climate)

I have done several plantings of dwarf beans this past summer - green, yellow and purple varieties. The returns have been poor to say the least - perhaps 6 beans per plant if I am lucky. What am I doing wrong, if anything? It has been my first season of gardening in Tauranga and I'm told the weather has been somewhat abnormal but even so I would expect better than this. They have been grown both in the open ground, in varying situations and in planter troughs, also in differing locations, i.e. facing in different directions. Any help would be appreciated.

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27 Dec 18 Scott McMillan (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate)

Hi Carol, 1: Have the plants been getting plenty of hours of sunlight, ie not shaded by other plants and well spaced apart? 2: Do you water regularly early morning? 3: Did you pick the beans early to encourage further production? 4: Was the soil prepared at all or do you use compost, worm tea or the like? 5: Any pest problems? 6: Do you mulch? Hope this helps Regards Scott

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11 Apr 17 Nik (New Zealand - temperate climate)

dont worry it wasnt you this has been the worst growing season I have ever had cold wet spring followed by cold wet spring followed by cold wet summer means plants took ages to get going or died off (happened twice!!) and then I had to start again this applied to everything except I got 8 large pumpkins instead of 1 the year before I live in "sunny" nelson so the rest of NZ had no hope !!! Consider this your 1 in 10 year disaster year also consider planting one of each in a corner somewhere and saving the pods ( pick them when dry and brown and dry) for next years seed, the different colours of bean should grow equally well though you can also get purple and yellow climbing beans but yellow is a bit miserable compared to bush yellow plants good luck

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