How many beans do you think were in the packet?

[AppleSnow]

I've just planted 45 dwarf French beans (like handling very pale green tictacs). I had loads left in the packet so decided to count them. 175 beans in total! Is the company expecting a big failure rate or do they think their customers have market gardens? I'm really reluctant not to use them but my garden's just not big enough for that many beans! Do you think they would last 'til next year (and the year after)?

Generally you'll get quite a lot of dwarf beans in a packet. The expectation will be that you're quite likely to want to successional sow them (as they don't crop for so long as climbing french).

Also, anyone with an allotment or large garden will probably plant quite a long row and assume they'll lose a proportion to slugs & the like, as they won't be giving the same tlc as you would in a small garden. That's going to be especially the case if they sow direct rather than starting in modules.

So I guess 210 beans would be say 3 direct sowings of 70 beans each from mid may through to end june - doesn't sound unreasonable to me for someone with an allotment.

Providing you keep them somewhere cool & dry they should store fine for next season - you can always pre-germinate them on damp kitchen roll so you don't waste time planting beans that won't come through.

Thanks Takver. I was just struck by the difference in the number of seeds you get for different plants - 12 for pattypan squashes and the aforementioned 175 beans. I guess some plants don't produce too many seeds.

The tip to pre-geminate them is a really good one which I might try this year as well.

The difference is more in how many plants you're likely to want - squashes make lots more seeds per plant than beans. But, patty pan squashes /courgettes et al will produce a lot of fruits for a long time. So even with a big garden you're not likely to have more than half a dozen plants - allow twice that number for slugs/cats/small children & 12-15 would generally be considered a good packet size.

The ones that don't make sense logically are usually tiny seeds - if you were to count the no. of seeds in a packet of celery it'd be in the 000s. There you get lots because it's not really feasible to give 100 celery seeds in a packet, and it'd look unreasonably stingy anyway.

I'm on my third sowing of French beans as first two failed to germinate. 40-50 seeds on each attempt. I'm very glad there are lots of seeds in my packet!