As this is the first year of having an allotment we are on a learning curve. We were all very eager to get everything started and now realise that we sowed our runner beans and dwarf beans a bit too early.
They can’t be planted outside until there are no more frosts and we are getting frosts every morning at the moment. We are still hardening the beans off by putting them outside during the day and bringing them in at night.
What we now realised was that they were out growing their pots and the roots were coming through the bottom of the pots. If we didn’t transplant them we wouldn’t be able to get them out of the pots without damaging the roots and we want to keep the pots intact to reuse next year.
We decided to move them on to grow bags which we cut down to fit our plastic crates. This will make them easier to transport to the allotment when we are ready to plant them.
Beans hardening off
We have planted the broad beans on the left into the allotment plot because broad beans can withstand frost. The beans on the right have trebled in size and we have now transplanted them.
Transplanted beans
This has been our first lesson learned. Next year we will sow our beans at any time between now and the end of April. This means they will be able to go straight from the pots to the allotment in May without us having to do this middle stage.
We hadn’t realised how quickly they would grow and during a recent chat with my mum she said that she will be setting her beans over the next week or so. Never mind, I am sure we have a lot more to learn yet.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
I have now set my beans, they do grow fast, once they are through, I grow mine in trays,
then when they come through, i put them in orange cartens, that i save all the year, that gives them a long way down to root, then i cut the box to plant them, and it do not disturb the roots.
That is a good idea. This is our first year growing from seed instead of buying plants so it’s a learning curve. The onions and garlic we set in our veg plot are now just peeking through.