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Hello. I have harvested a lot of rhubarb seeds. Can I germinate them this year, at this time, or is it too late? I read they don’t require cold stratification, however, I’m not sure if they need a longer amount of time to establish before the zone 5-6 winter.

We can get our first snow in late October, early November and I’m located in southern Ontario but have two places I could grow them that are about a half to 3/4 hardiness zone difference.

Thanks!

Hello ,

I haven’t had much luck with my beans this year and would like to ask if you have any recommendations for me. Perhaps you know of bean varieties or alternatives that are better suited to the location and upcoming climate changes.

I’ve had my garden for the second year now, so I’m still a beginner and inexperienced. It’s a small garden in Germany, outside of the village with little water (I have to carry it there), heavy clay soil, lots of humus, USDA 7b or 8a.

This year I planted runner beans. They also grew beautifully with many flowers. However, we’ve had an unusually hot and dry start to summer with temperatures above 30°C/86°F. At such temperatures, runner beans seem to no longer produce pods (several websites confirm my impression). Accordingly, I haven’t been able to harvest anything yet. Fortunately, it’s been significantly colder again for a few days, with 20°C/68°C during the day and 10°C/50°F at night. And it’s been raining a lot. So maybe there will still be a small harvest, but who knows what the next months will bring, and due to climate change, runner beans are probably not sustainable. In preparation for hotter summers, I’ve also tried a few alternatives.

At the end of May, I planted five lablab purpureus. They supposedly like high temperatures and don’t need too much water. So the weather should have been perfect. However, they stopped growing after I planted them outside. Only know, with the drop of temperature, did two of them start growing again. Do any of you have experience with this beans? It’s noticeable that three of them have green leaves and two have red leaves, and only the ones with red leaves are growing.

I also tried growing black-eyed peas. They don’t like it here, though. Only 3 out of 30 survived, and only one is now 20cm tall and developing it’s first flower. I planted these too at the end of May.

I planted my chickpeas in mid May. They’ve been growing well and even survived an unexpected frosty night. However, over the past few weeks, more and more of them have been getting red leaves and then gradually drying out. The soil is probably not suitable for chickpeas, and it’s getting to wet right know.

I also have soy beans. They actually grow well here, but they need far too much water and germinate very unreliable.

Do you have any recommendations or even experience with beans under similar conditions? I would prefer pole or running beans, as I don’t have much space and snails ate my bush bean harvest last year. They just don’t seem to like chickpeas. But I would also try bush beans again if pole beans don’t work.

Thanks!