I'd love to have fresh beans after summer's gone, so was wondering if they'd do well in a greenhouse. Would love to hear of any experiences, thanks.
bluefrog2,
Mar 19, 4:18pm
I grow French beans (bush beans) in the glasshouse in summer. Both the green and purple varieties, and the purple ones do better. Also climbing beans, but with less success as they seem to need a longer growing season to do well. You have to leave the door of the glasshouse open for insects to come in and pollinate the flowers, or you'll hardly get any pods developing - so growing beans in a glasshouse won't work in winter unless you have some way to pollinate the flowers without leaving the glasshouse open and letting out all the warmth.
bluefrog2,
Mar 19, 4:20pm
Have you tried broad beans? They are planted in autumn for harvest in spring (as soon as the bees wake up and start pollinating) You can eat the whole baby pods, or let them mature and shell out the beans. Great fried in olive oil and garlic.
oh_hunnihunni,
Mar 19, 4:34pm
The perfume from broad bean flowers is amazing.
samanya,
Mar 20, 5:39am
Thanks for your replies. I thought about planting them now, so I'll give it a go & see how they go. Bluefrog, I do grow broad beans (love them) but they do OK outside here. I'll get them in soon for around Nov harvest usually. & hunni . I just love the perfume of broad beans too.
annies3,
Mar 20, 12:49pm
commercial growers used to grow the runner beans in heated glass houses in the nelson area, seemed to grow and crop ok so I guess there is no reason not to do it now.
whitehead.,
Mar 20, 9:03pm
i grew them in a glass house and found that the bees would only go part of the way in so there were beans on the ends of the plants close to the door and the window but not the plants in the middle . i did try catching bumble bees but they were not impressed and tried to sting me
donnabeth,
Mar 22, 10:20pm
I only grow 'Chef's Choice' dwarf beans and couple of purple climber. Now in a new place I grew one patch in the tunnel house, more in pots on a sunny terrace, and more again on the east side under roses. Tunnel house beans grew early and cropped large, pots; well I forgot to water them a lot, so the beans were less prolific and a bit pale, but the rest grown outside did just as well as the tunnel house ones. This has been one of the best summers Southland has ever had, so may be climate related.
samanya,
Mar 23, 12:21am
Thanks again for the replies. My glass (polycarb)house has only got Basil Lemongrass, Chilean Guavas & a couple of tomatoes in it now, so I have plenty of space, so I will try to grow some beans . got nothing to lose & it's a learning curve for everything garden related, even for those of us who have been gardening for a while.
bluefrog2,
Mar 24, 8:12pm
You should be able to grow the Chilean guavas (NZ Cranberries) outdoors. Mine do fine outdoors on a windy Dunedin site. That will leave you with even more space in the glasshouse.
samanya,
Feb 23, 7:52am
I might have the name wrong re the guavas, I have NZ cranberries outside & the 'guavas' in the glasshouse are quite different . they haven't fruited yet so I 'm damned if I know what they are, but i do know that they were frosted when I had them outside . am I confused, yep.
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