Bush bean seed longevity/viability

[Steve Foss]

I got about 50 percent germination at best on my bush beans this year. It was a cool late May and June, and I basically wrote it off to cool soil temps.

But I reseeded the voids and didn't get very good germination there, either. They were planted about June 15.

So I'm wondering. These are N/K and Burpee bush bean seeds from last year. Bought too many and used the leftovers. They were stored in a cool dry place in the meanwhile.

Might they be too old? How long should bean seeds remain viable. I thought they'd be good for several years.

[Powerstroke]

We use the same bean seed Steve and we planted the seeds from last year too with great results. We had to thin our planting because of the success. I know you know your way around the garden so I assume you might have some older seeds that maybe sat on the shelf a while or maybe had other problems.

[Steve Foss]

Durn it. We've had great success with all veggies in this bed before, too, and I did the usual autumn routine of digging in a bit of compost and broadcasting 10-10-10 granular lightly before snowfall.

Well, we'll just have to do with 75 percent of the bean crop we were planning on.

Our carrots only got about 60 percent germination (brand new seed tapes), but the replanting of the voided stretches was 100 percent successful. It's only the beans that didn't take. Cukes, squash, radishes, kohlrabi, tomatoes, all going strong, though the vining plants do seem a fair bit slower than last year.

It's definitely been a cool and cloudy/wet spring and early summer. Only this last week have we really entered the warm summer season.

Since it's all raised beds, I'm thinking pretty hard about building some coldframes to set over a couple of the beds next spring. The cabbage relatives and radishes love it chilly, but frames would buffer those cool spring and early summer temps and likely make for more even germination.

[RiverFish]

Steve,

By no means am I a green thumb, but I have had the same experience in years past using bean seeds from the previous year.

We don't plant a lot of beans so I just buy new packs every year now.

[Steve Foss]

Well, I can tell you all my old bean seeds are going in the trash. Considering how little they cost, relative to the level of harvest you get, fresh bean seeds will be the way I go from now on.

[KEN W]

I always leave some on the vives to mature and use for seed next year.Pick them when the plants dry.Crush the pods and pour from bucket to bucket on a windy day to seperate the seeds from the chaff.

[Steve Foss]

We've done that before too, Ken, and we like collecting seed. It feels like we're more a part of the growing process than when we go buy it.

[Dotch]

A little late to the party here but yeah, my experience with last year's seed over the years has been a little like playing Russian roulette. This year it worked OK with the yellow string beans. Planted them a little shallower than normal as the conditions were less than ideal. Had good success with the Protege sweet corn too for whatever reason. Other years it hasn't worked so swell.

I usually don't save seed but am tempted on some things like the 4 o'clocks. Seems like the seed they produce looks nicer and judging by the volunteers, seems to germinate better than the packets I buy. Not sure if they breed true as the flowers on the next generation looks sort of crossed up. Not sure if anyone else raises these oddballs but the hummingbirds sure like them.

[Tom7227]

Lets see. If you had 50% success and filed in the voids with another 50% success, and then filled in the voids with another 50% success .........

Didn't I study that in some class at college?

Just for the heck of it take the ones you have left and put them in some moist paper towels and see how many germinate. It may not be the seeds at all, you could have birds eating 50% of them, and then more birds......

[KEN W]

I always plant beans in a block.4 feet wide and as long as you want....mine are 6 feet long.Just scatter the seed in that block.Use a hoe to pull the dirt from the paths over the top.

Enough always germinate.My bean patch is solid plants now.Can't see the ground.Wide enough so I can reach the middle from either side.Picked the first ones today.

I am a firm believer of wide rows of everything except potatoes and corn.Wide enough so you can reach the middle from either side.Why have a garden that has more surface in the paths than the rows?

[Steve Foss]

Thanks guys.

Ken, I plant much the way you do, though I basically use the square-foot-gardening method learned lo those many years ago. Our raised beds are 4x8 and 6x12, so we can always reach the middle. And the largest couple of harvestables, the ones we freeze like carrots and beans, take up one whole bed each.

I did throw the rest of the bean seeds into water yesterday to see how they'll do. The ones that sprout will go in the ground. At 50 days to harvest, I should have beans from those late ones by Sept. 1 or thereabouts. Depending on how the fall goes, that could mean 3 weeks of harvest before frost. Worth a shot, anyway.

There's something else going on, as well. Quite of few of the resowed sprouts have withered before hitting the two-leaf stage and are gone, while others right next to them are fine.

Well, we're not meant to understand everything in life.

[Dotch]

By what you describe sounds like you may be seeing some phytophthora. Not unusual once the soil temps warm up, particularly if the weather has been on the damp side. That said, increased incidence of fungal and bacterial disease may be one of the drawbacks to planting in blocks vs. rows with certain vegetables. Beans in particular don't like wet feet and they like it even less if the canopy doesn't dry out during the day. Too dense and they are more prone to fungal issues such as sclerotinia and bacterial blights. Rotation and raised beds help but the old disease triangle of pathogen, susceptible host and favorable conditions for disease development is still valid.

[Steve Foss]

Thanks, Dotch. Sounds like we have a winner.

The beans I put in water swelled but didn't sprout. I tossed them and found two more packets of bush bean seeds, one green and one wax. Put those in water this morning, and already they are all swelled and half have sprouted. Probably I'll put them in the beds tomorrow or the day after.