I made a quick trip to the Hill this evening to pick drying bean pods - blauhilde, triomphe de farcy & bird's egg (or were they climbing barlotti...?)
Although I was quite sensible in planting total different varieties side by side down each side of the bean frame, so I could easily tell which variety is which, I wasn't quite so clever in making sure that totally different varieties were grown opposite each other.
Some of the beans sneaked up their opposite counterpart's poles - which is fine when you have two sets of beans like 'polish' (heavy black streaked pods) and 'pea bean' (greeny-yellow pod), as they are easy to tell apart when picking.
But if they are very similar varieties - like 'bird's egg' & 'climbing barlotti', well they are pretty indistinguishable inside and out. I can't be sure I've kept them separate so I've bunged them all in together.
They'll still taste as good, I'm sure, & if I do want 'proper' seed for next year I'll worry about it nearer the time - it's not like I'm short of varieties to try...
But if you don't want them to cross-pollinate and be profligate little blighters, shouldn't you plant them away from each other?
ReplyDeleteIt's not that they've cross pollinated, Bilbo - french beans are pretty much self contained - it's that the mature pods of these two varities are so similar that if the plants have wound round each other I can't tell the mature pods of the two varieties apart from each other.
ReplyDeleteWhoops?
ReplyDeleteI'm not always clear on a post, am I? I do rather tend to assume that everyone shares my brain, thus knowing what I mean! {g}
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't help when I say 'the bean frame' which has runners (cross polinate like mad!) and french beans (keep themselves to themselves). Broad beans are husseys too, which is why I grow a few crimson flowered at home in a pot, just to perpetuate the seed - those at the Hill will cross with everyone else's.
I know that tomatoes come true; peppers, not always; squash, not at all - but F1 varieties have different rules (refers to Flummery). And that is the limit of my seed saving knowledge!