Topic: Perennial Runner Beans

[Garden Manager]

Some of you will know that Runner beans are in effect half hardy perennials, and will with some frost protection go on year after year (at least for a few years).

Has anyone tried growing them like this rather than the traditional annual method?

I as this because i have often found that the roots after being left in the ground over (a mild) winter and then dug up and put on the compost heap, have survived and even resprouted in the compost bin.

I have just cut away all the old growth from my beans leaving the roots behind and have mulched the bed they are/were planted in.

IF  (and its a big if) we have a mild winter, what would be the chances of the plants regrowing again in spring?

[philcooper]

I tgried it, by accident, a few years  ago. It was amild winter and quite a few survived. They produced earlier beans than those I raised in modules but were not as vigorous - so a few to get the early crop is a good idea.

I tried lifting and storing "tubers" last year. They are very much like thin dahlia tubers, but, being thin they dried out when I treated them the same as my dahlias (in my frost free greenhouse in plastic crates) - they obviously need to be moistened often to keep them going through the winter.

[djbrenton]

Maybe try treating them like horseradish, storing them in moist sand?

[philcooper]

That would seem a sensible thing to try

Phil

[tim]

So I nipped out & watered them, Phil!! = Tim

[Mrs Ava]

On plot number two, I cut my down to a couple of inches above the ground and am leaving them in situ until I come to prepare the plot for a new crop.  I won't be planting runners there again, they were only the left overs last year and we ended up with WAY too many runners.  However, reading this, I wonder if they may start to sprout come spring.....if they do I shall support them and see what happens.  According to 'old Jack' it is rare to get a hard frost on our allotment due to the shelter and they are all still picking raspberries and strawbs!

[aquilegia]

I read somewhere that they won't produce as many beans after the first year.

[philcooper]

aquilegia,

That was the case with mine, but as I say, they do tend to be a bit earlier than the freshly sown ones - so try a few to get the early crop and the rest for the main crop

Phil

[tim]

Phil - given that I normally put my runner plants out on 20 May, when do you reckon the roots could go in?? = Tim

[Garden Manager]

I reckon if you dont get penetrating frosts and give the area a good mulch of compost etc, then the tubers should survive in the ground.

Tim - I suppose if you protect them the roots could go back in much earlier than you would plant seed sown plants. Being mature plants rather than seedlings they will probably be tougher. Not sure how much earlier though. A month - 6 weeks perhaps?

[philcooper]

Tim,

My own experience is of, accidentally, leaving them in overwinter when 4 of 20 survived. When I tried to save them as tubers they shrivelled up.

But based on dahlias which are equivalents in tenderness, I would have thought the beginning of April (in Hampshire). If you can cover with fleece/cloches even earlier

[tim]

We'll give it a whirl! = Tim