Beautiful, healthy small bean plants just 18 days after sowing, and it's time to move them into their final home. I've sown three seeds per cell in plug trays to conserve space, but they will now be separated and given more space once in the GreenStalk. They are still small enough that this is easy to do, just make sure the soil is moist and be gentle.
Bush beans don't need a whole growing pocket to themselves and each pocket will be planted with three plants - one in the middle and one in each corner. I'm planting them deeper than they were in the plugs, and have only partially filled the planter with soil to make the process easier. I'll fill it up as I go.
While transplanting I found a few seeds that did not sprout or were misshapen and did not have a good chance for success. I replaced these with new seeds directly in the plant pocket.
Beans are astonishingly fast growers, and it's a good idea to provide some support right from the start. Bush beans don't actually need support, but I find it makes them more manageable when growing vertically, and also helps avoid the plants on one level shading the ones below. I picked up these small trellises on Amazon because I needed a lot and they were cheap, and they work well enough for this purpuse.
This will be a 5-Tier Original GreenStalk and four of the levels will be filled with beans. Yes, that's 72 bean plants. I consider beans one of the most useful vegetables for winter eating and always grow as many as I can make room for - but never this many before GreenStalk! My very first thought, the first time I saw a GreenStalk grow tower, was how many bean plants I could grow in it 😅
If you would like to see how these plants were started see our previous inlägg Beans, beans & more beans - getting ready for the new GreenStalk
The top tier of the planter will be planted with kale - green kale, red kale and black Tuscan kale - but they need more space, so only one plant per pocket.
Also in this planter are sown 72 carrot seeds! This was however highly experimental, after a tip I saw in the U.S. GreenStalk group, somebody who sows carrots in a "V" behind the bean plants. I'm not at all sure they are going to get enough sun back there in my climate (Sweden), but there are always way more seeds in a pack of carrots than I can use, so the worst that can happen is nothing.
The beans can also be sown directly in the planter, it is not necessary to precultivate them in trays. I prefer to start most of my plants in plug trays, I feel it is easier for me to control their environment and I have better success. But beans are fairly easy to sprout, and for the sake of comparison I have also sown one level of beans directly in the planter.