Windowsill French beans

[Odsox]

Continuing with my experiments growing fruit and vegetables on a windowsill, we had our first cook of French beans on Saturday, and very nice they were too.
They took exactly 16 weeks from sowing to first picking and as I have a second batch to follow on, we will have fresh beans for a few weeks yet. Sown in individual pots and then transplanted into a trough, they have spent all their life on a sunny (or most often NOT sunny) windowsill.
I still have plans for other veg, so far I have successfully grown tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, radishes, spring onions, peppers, and strawberries, with cucumbers and calabrese still to try this year.

Beans1.jpg (99.59 KiB) Viewed 2913 times

Beans2.jpg (89.69 KiB) Viewed 3112 times

[oldjerry]

I'm amazed,How warm is that room Tony?

[British Red]

What a great idea - thanks - I'll have a go at that :)

[Millymollymandy]

Brilliant!

[demi]

are they self pollonating? or did you have to pollonate them by hand? as i dont presume there are too many bees in your consevatory over the winter what about your other plants? same question. do they all have to be self pollonating?

[Odsox]

I'm amazed,How warm is that room Tony?

They spent all their life in the unheated conservatory OJ, so sometimes about 5c at night and sometimes 25c during the day. There was no room in the house as all the sills were full of tomatoes and geraniums, otherwise they would probably been a week or two earlier.

are they self pollonating? or did you have to pollonate them by hand?

Yes French beans are all self fertile, so no problems there Demi.

[demi]

I'm amazed,How warm is that room Tony?

They spent all their life in the unheated conservatory OJ, so sometimes about 5c at night and sometimes 25c during the day. There was no room in the house as all the sills were full of tomatoes and geraniums, otherwise they would probably been a week or two earlier.

are they self pollonating? or did you have to pollonate them by hand?

Yes French beans are all self fertile, so no problems there Demi.

and does that go for all the veg you've grown indoors over winter? is there anything you have to hand pollonate?

what things have you grown in the unheated concervatory?

we are going to make a conservatory/greenhouse on the back door into the garden. we initially just wanted it mainly to start off seedlings early but after seening your posts on here we've been inspired to try to grow over winter produce
its gets really cold here over winter though, down in the -20's at night for a few weeks every year. but the back door leads off from the kitchenet/utility room bit which has a chimney for a wood stove, so we can leave the door open into the concervatory and put the wood burner on when its reall cold like that.

[Odsox]

None of the veg that I grow indoors need pollinating, that would be hard work and I'm in favour of an easy life.

Overwintering plants that I have successfully grown in the conservatory (so far) are tomatoes, French beans (obviously), carrots, spring onions and strawberries. The strawberries were new this year and they started ripening at the beginning of April and are just coming to an end now. They are grown hydroponically though and the water is heated with a small aquarium heater and kept at a constant 20c regardless of the air temperature.
I have the next lot of strawberries grown in soil starting to ripen now. Rather amazingly there won't be any gap between one finishing and the next lot starting, I wish I could claim that it was good timing on my part.

The overwinter tomatoes were also grown hydroponically which survived and ripened fruit at temperatures close to freezing, which I'm sure was only because their roots were kept at 20c.
My "normal" overwinter tomatoes get the luxury of a windowsill in a heated room.

[oldjerry]

Tony, I 'd really like to try this,as it's completely new to me,even now Iwonder is your mid atlantic location an advantage? Will it work here? I'm thinking 5 degrees in an unheated room in Jan,here,is pretty warm,and light levels?
Next winter I'll give it a go.BW.

[demi]

does nothing fruit in the unheated conservatory without the hydroponics system keeping it warm?

how much energy does the hydroponics use? could you run it off a soler charged 12v battery?

[Odsox]

Tony, I 'd really like to try this,as it's completely new to me,even now Iwonder is your mid atlantic location an advantage? Will it work here? I'm thinking 5 degrees in an unheated room in Jan,here,is pretty warm,and light levels?
Next winter I'll give it a go.BW.

Yes definitely give it a go Jerry, what have you got to lose ... half a dozen beans seeds and a bit of compost. If you don't try you will never know.
Temperatures here definitely help, but you must have a windowsill indoors that you could take over, and as for light levels here .. that only applies when the sun shines and remember WE are not in a drought area, cos it rains continuously all winter (or at least it seems that way) and most of the rest of the year too.

[Odsox]

does nothing fruit in the unheated conservatory without the hydroponics system keeping it warm?

I don't know of any plant that would fruit in -20c.
Vegetables on the other hand would probably survive especially if you covered them at night. Winter lettuce, carrots, onions overwintered would give you a head start in the spring.

how much energy does the hydroponics use? could you run it off a soler charged 12v battery?

On my hydro, the circulation pump is on all the time and is rated at 6W, the heater is rated at 50W but is cycling on and off. They are both mains fed but I'm sure you can get 12v ones.

[oldjerry]

Given that today (7th May) it's 5C outside at midday,Imight end up growing on the windowsill all year round...

[grahamhobbs]

Our flat is too dark for this sort of thing, but we have been enjoying peas in the polytunnel for the last couple of weeks (unfortunately so have the mice). Our french beans are still a couple of weeks off, perhaps I'll try sowing even a bit earlier next year.