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Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: rdak on December 29, 2003, 12:10:47
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was thinking of trying to grow some runner beans, and perhaps trailing squash, up sunflowers for support. Has anyone tried this?
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- glutton for punishment?? = Tim
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sorry Tim..what do you mean?
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My only concern would be getting the timing right,by the time your sunflowers are big enough to take on the role of supports I would have thought your beans would be well on their way.
Try it by all means but grow your first sowing up canes or whatever you usually use.
Stephan.
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My only worry would be growing sunflowers big enough for the runners!
My runners go mad and grow and grow and grow. I always mean to pinch the tops out when they reach the tops of the supports....and I never get around to it!
And I don't know whether the sunflowers would be strong enough to support squashes, they make heavy (vicious) plants. And I agree with Stephan, if you grow the whopper sunflowers, it would be a matter of getting the timing right. You will probably end up supporting the sunflower and the beans and squashes with bamboos anyhow. Sounds like a great idea tho, maybe something less aggressive would be better like french beans (are they less aggressive!) :-/
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sounds like it's all in the timing!
maybe will give it a go if I'm feeling brave! will post pics if it's a success!
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if you give it a go, post the pics anyway...success or failure they're gonna have a certain novelty appeal ;) ;D - Lishka
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- sorry, rdak, didn't mean to be obtuse .
An artistic approach and, as the sages say, give it a whirl? But I have enough problem ensuring that my sunflowers don't get the 'leans' without putting a spinnaker on them! = Tim
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Rdak, just been looking in my book on companion planting, a very american book, called Carrots love Tomatoes and under pole beans, which to me look just like runner beans, it says the dislike sunflowers immensly. Just a thought. :-/
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Both are Phaseolus vulgaris selections. Pole beans are better adapted for hot climates though (runners for me shed their flowers until mid-August, when we start getting cooler nights) so there may be other differences. Perhaps they don't like sunflowers because they are so strongly upright? As I mentioned before, this will affect a plant's hormonal balance and increase vegetative growth at the expense of reproductive growth.