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in another post elsewhere by Mrs KP regarding digging in runner beans I sent an answer that probably got lost in the hack, anyway

runner beans are perennial by nature but of course we tend to treat them as annuals in this country but crowns can be lifted and stored and when planted again next year give an earlier harvest and in mild areas they can be left in the ground and heavily mulched as a storing method (reckon there is someone here who might be intersted in that  ;)) but I wondering whether we could do our own trial with runners and see if they can be dug up and stored or mulched and stored and see what happens next year - anyone interested?

In case it is of interest I have tried this on a couple of occasions, I found that although the plants grow they do not have the vigour that newly grouwn plants have.I stored the tubers similar to the way you do dahlias.

How much earlier do they crop grown this way, is it significant enough be worth
over wintering just a few to fill the gap before the seed raised plants get going.

I potted one up to overwinter in the greenhouse, but it hasn't shown as yet, seems to have passed away.

Mine died!!

I think this year's persistent April frosts would probably have done for any left in the ground but in th ehope taht next winter will be milder and  being in sunny (not) London, I'll try to remember to give it go with a few plants and put a straw mulch on top of them for the winter.

I had plants overwinter in the ground at the plot 2006-2007 which sprouted in the spring, but I didn't keep them. They'd had no protection other than some groundcover weeds, and we did have several frosts

Regarding runner beans, I have grown them for years but this year they have not germinated, just gone mouldy.  I have tried different areas and even an unheated greenhouse, to on top of the boiler! On my 4th effort now or I think it will be a direct sow!....  has anyone any ideas?

It has been cold... so we haven't started ours yet... the "hot" ones may have been to wet (no pun intended!!)  :-X

A person on our allotment site tried this a couple of years ago.

potted up the roots of five kept them overwinter in a mild place, replanted them when he put the seeds for a new batch in.

It certainly grew quickly and flowered before the ones I started off as seeds in April.

Not many beans on the established plant and the newly grown beans  flowered about 20 days after the old plant.

Conclusion: If you are desperate for beans a couple of weeks or so early then keep the plants.

It is not cost effective because the dried mature beans from one year will form the seeds for plants for the next year. The bother of keeping the plant from one year to the next is greater than drying and keeping seeds and because the productivity decreases you need a greater area to grow the same volume of beans from the old plant as you will get from a new one.

If it was possible to keep a plant, producing beans overwinter, THEN that would be a different matter altogether.

Dwarf French beans can be started off sooner under cover and will yield beans for eating about a month before the runner beans are ready.