Sign ups are now open for Bees 'n Beans 2016!
The 'twist' this year will be asking participants to grow plants both in pots, and in the (dug-over) soil in their gardens / allotments. The idea of using the pots only in previous years was to standardise the amount of soil and nutrients that the plants received, but the drawbacks in practise seem to be the risk of drying out, and potential limitation of the growing plants by root space. Feedback from last year suggested that spare plants that some participants planted in the soil were studier and didn't suffer from drying out anywhere near as much, so this time round we're going to see if possible improved survivability of the plants outweighs the extra variation from being in the ground.
We are also asking people to provide their own 3L pots this year, rather than including the foldable plastic ones. These performed very well, but may not be necessary, and this way we can afford to send out more seeds and still have enough kits for everyone to take part again.
You can still sign up even if you only have space for beans in pots, or beans in the soil, but if we get over the 500 participants we will have to give preference to those who can do both. Although we do have a lot of seeds, so that's probably not going to be an issue, so don't let it put you off!
If you're interested in taking part in this project, please sign up below. Or if the embedded form is not showing up, the direct link is here.