It's a problem with early beans - you don't seem to get it so much on later ones. My ol' man used to turn the hosepipe on the flowers, some suggest using a hose to "Dampen the atmosphere".
You'll get some, whatever you do and your later plantings should be fine as I said. .
marigold
Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 12458 Location: West Sussex
Posted: Mon Jul 06, 15 7:33 pm Post subject:
Yes, it's quite normal for flowers not to result in beans early in the season. Giving them a shower is supposed to help, though I'm not sure it does more than give you the satisfaction of having done something. They do need to be well-watered though, especially if grown in pots. And watch out for blackfly and soap/spray them off pronto.
I think if you spray them with water it can wash the pollen down and fertilise the flowers. They don't tend to fertilise in dry weather though. In 1976 we didn't get anything much until the rain started in September.
Tavascarow
Joined: 06 Aug 2006 Posts: 8407 Location: South Cornwall
Posted: Tue Jul 07, 15 1:10 pm Post subject:
Regular watering.
The first thing a plant does if it's suffering water stress is stop producing nectar.
No nectar, no bees, no pollination.
My beans are just starting to flower and I am watering them regularly at the moment as we haven't had rain for a while. Hoping some start to set soon, or it will be the spray or the paintbrush.
the flowers that have dropped since it started raining after the hot spell do seem to have a better pollination rate so the spraying thing might be sensible in dry weather .
It is important to keep the ground moist at root level as much as possible irrespective of the constantly changing external conditions. This is why a good root mulch is so important so the available ground water and nutrient is accessible at short notice to the vitally developing parts of the plant.
a quick update ,the beans have been setting much better,this could be due to the reasons set out above but something i have noticed is the set rate improved once there were small thin type of hoverflies sipping nectar as well as assorted bees
Glad your beans are setting. My runners haven't yet, but not many are in flower. The French beans are though, and hope to have a picking soon. I put them in a bit late as it was so cold at the end of May.