I have harvested my runner beans and would like to know the criteria for saving them.
Like Garlic cloves is bigger best?
Not, necessary..I would look for the pod and the seeds..If you have well filled pod...good size with several decent size seeds in it..that is good criteria for seed saving... ;)
Thanks ;D ;D
Only save seeds from pods that are brown and really dry (hopefully dried on the plant), these seeds will be mature. Green seeds will not be any good and may rot before the winter is out. :o Cheers, Tony.
Get them really well dried out, then pod them and keep them dry. That's the easy bit. The other bit is that they're outbreeders, so they're likely to cross with any other runner bean within flying range. The good news is that if you're growing them on a garden scale, and you don't mind not necessarily getting pure seed, it doesn't matter. You'll still get good beans, and insects don't normally fly that far. I've got hedges between my runners and other peoples', and I'm hoping that's been enough to keep my Black Magic reasonably pure. Roguing out the odd plant is no problem, but if I get too many I'll have to start bagging flowers and hand-pollinating.
It's worth saying that once your bean seeds (any bean or pea seeds) are really dry they are completely immune to frost - so you can put them in the freezer for a day without harming them - but it will kill the pea & bean weevil.
Definitely worth doing.
Cheers.