was thinking of trying to grow some runner beans, and perhaps trailing squash, up sunflowers for support. Has anyone tried this?
- glutton for punishment?? = Tim
sorry Tim..what do you mean?
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.
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!) :-/
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!
if you give it a go, post the pics anyway...success or failure they're gonna have a certain novelty appeal ;) ;D - Lishka
- 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
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. :-/
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.