Replanting The Beans

I’m glad I didn’t wait any longer.

   Snap beans were planted in the south garden on May 22 during The Brief Summer.  The Red Swan beans came up well, almost 100% germination despite the cool weather that followed.  Five Slenderette beans came up, but three of them were missing their leaves (the cotyledons).  None of the Roma beans came up.  That was a disappointment; I had been looking forward to growing an abundant crop of them for the first time this year.

   Yesterday afternoon, I decided to dig up a few inches of the Roma row to see if any of them had germinated.  A few inches became the entire row, as all the beans had rotted.   I decided to also check the row of Slenderette beans, and with the exception of the two that had emerged with their leaves intact, discovered the same thing.

   I planted the Roma beans left in the packet, and planted Tendergreen beans (green/snap) to complete that row.  The Slenderettes were replaced with Calima beans (green/filet - I’ve grown them several times before and they always produce well) and Beurre de Rocquencourt (yellow/snap).   According to the forecast, local temperatures are supposed to jump back up to mid-twenties to thirty degrees next week.  If anything happens to this bunch of newly planted beans, it won’t be rotting in cold soil!