Topic: Runner Beans

[Biscombe]

I´m growing white Lady runner beans this year. The runner beans (scarlet emperor)  were rubbish last year we had about 8 beans off 15 plants!!! the plants looked lovely cute red flowers but no harvest!! I´m doing things differently this year

1. getting them in early (sown some today) frost seems to have gone here in Spain!
2. Planting white flowered plants for better pollination, anyone had experience with white lady??
3. Planting some flowers round them (any suggestions?)
4. Dug a trench which we keep filling with compost and kitchen waste (does it matter if the waste is not rotted down fully?)

[manicscousers]

not white lady, painted lady for the last two years, interplanted with sweet peas, loads of beans, sweet peas got white mould with the damp last year but the beans weren't touched  :)

[Marymary]

I've had indifferent crops over the last few years so I'm planning on putting them somewhere else where they should get more sun.  However the sun will be on the front of the row so I'm not sure haw the back of the row will do. 

[Biscombe]

It´s great to get this kind of feedback after the terrible harvest last year!!! keep the tips coming!!  ;)

[angle shades]

:) hi Biscombe.

always grow scarlet emperor, give bags full of beans away! always mulch them well and never water them again

also grow white lady the same way, with both i grow sweet peas up the canes and convolvulus (royal  ensign) around the wigwams for pollination.

grow in full sun, they don't do very well in shade, hope this helps,/ shades x

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

I think everyone struggled with runner beans last year. It wasn't just lack of water or poor pollination. The problem was the very high night-time temperatures caused a great increase in pods dropping off before they developed.  If we have more summers like the last one, maybe it 'll be better to switch to climbing french beans, which seem to cope much better. They're nicer anyway

It's been so long since i've done the trench/ compost thing with runners - i'd forgotten that was what you're supposed to do. Think i'll do it this year. I suppose if the compost hasn't fully composted, then the composting bugs will be taking nitrogen out of the soil, so you may need more fertiliser

Borage is great for bees. You just have to hope that some of the bees are too stupid to tell the difference between a borage flower and a runner bean flower..............

RT

[Robert_Brenchley]

That depends on the type of bee. Bumbles and solitary bees will visit whatever's open, so if you can sttract them in, everything gets attention. Honeybees are extremely selective, and will only visit a single species at a time.

[Biscombe]

Great info you all!! what a great idea about planting sweet peas with the runners!! I have some sweet peas just poking through my first go at growing them! I must admit though I´m not looking forward to the mildew which all my cukes, squash, peas and melons get!! I know this is a problem for sweet peas too! Thanks for all the great tips xx

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

That depends on the type of bee. Bumbles and solitary bees will visit whatever's open, so if you can sttract them in, everything gets attention. Honeybees are extremely selective, and will only visit a single species at a time.

that's interesting, as it's honeybees that seem to go for borage. I did wonder that planting borage next to runner beans was a bit like having a cashpoint that gives out free £20 notes next to one that gives out free 50p's

[angle shades]

:)

remember, runner beans are a South American perennial, its natural for the plant to drop pods/ shades x

[valmarg]

Runner beans we grow Red Rum, White Lady, Lady Di, Fergie and White Apollo.  We get good crops from all of these, but last year the hot weather in July did not suit them.  They dropped their flowers, just were not happy.  Come August, with the torrential rain, they were much happier, and we eventually got a good crop.

Climbing french beans we grow are Cobra, Diamant, Neckar Queen, Rustico, Eva and Fasold.  I am beginning to move towards these varieties, as they are not so susceptible to the (very occasional) hot weather conditions, and the sparrows don't seem to find the flowers so attractive to peck off.

valmarg

[Robert_Brenchley]

that's interesting, as it's honeybees that seem to go for borage. I did wonder that planting borage next to runner beans was a bit like having a cashpoint that gives out free £20 notes next to one that gives out free 50p's

Honeybees love borage; it grown like a weed on my plot, and my bees are all over it. Doubtless other species visit it as well, but I haven't really looked. Once honeybees locate a good nectar source within a reasonable distance of the hive, large numbers home in on it, and you have to look for the other species among them.

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

:)

remember, runner beans are a South American perennial, its natural for the plant to drop pods/ shades x

French beans are also from South America, but they don't seem to have the same problems

[MrsKP]

I planted sweetpeas in my runner bean bed last year (like Alan T suggested) and the d**n things took over like triffids and crowded out the runners.

I'll be more careful this year.  As much as the SPs were gorgeous and filled the house and the office for weeks, I couldn't eat them !


 :-\

[Hyacinth]

Like most here, my runner beans last year weren't the bumper crop I've come to expect. I grow SE, Painted Lady and White Emergo & I'll be doing them all again.

The bean trench. I layer garden compost + kitchen waste (not all rotted down) with soil and this is successful. Finish the trench about the time I sow the seeds in pots so that by the time they're ready to be planted out the trench will have settled.

Plant french marigolds around & inbetween.

[mikey]

Alishka,

is 'White Emergo' the Runner Bean which looks and tastes like Butter Bean ???

Ta, Mikey

[Hyacinth]

Mikey!!!

I dried off beans to use during the winter in stews, etc. and.....

now you've mentioned it :-[.......yes, they did remind me of something ;D

So I'll be doubling up on them this year then 8)

[machman5]

I put my kitchen waste into my runner bean trench last year and like everyone else, my runner beans were a complete flop (I actually-stupidly- bought dwarf runners by mistake after the mice ate all mine out of the ground!)  I found that because the kitchen waste wasn't rotted down, I kept getting big fat, juicy potato shoots.  As much as these were a pain with the weeding, could they have been leeching all the water from the runners?
Donna.

Oh and Alisha, Mikey, I asked on here the other day about Butter beans and was told that White Emergo would be a good alternative to Lima/Madagasgar which apparently are the true butter beans.
 xx