Kitchen Garden Forum

Does anyone grow dwarf runner beans under cloches.
If so is there a variety you would recommend, i used to do it years ago using a tall variety and keep pinching the growing tips out. But i have not tried it with a modern dwarf variety.
Any advice will be glady appreciated.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

I don't grow french beans under cloches but I do grow dwarf french beans. The variety is Safari and it is listed in the seed catalogue as being a Kenyan dwarf bean.

When I first moved up to 600' I had pretty poor results with traditional runners so I tried dwarf ones - I think called Gulliver. They grew reasonably well but the ones I had left after slugs and rots had taken their share because they were dangling on the ground were not well received by her indoors because they were bent and twisted. I wouldn't suggest growing them. Why are you thinking of them - earliness or avoiding staking?

Hello Geoff, yes it is just to get an early crop.
I think i could get beans a month earlier by growing them under cloches. The cloches are the large glass barn type, so will have a good head height.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

I learned this regime many years ago froma book by Brigadier W P A Robinson. "Making your garden pay"
Sow beans on the first of April, plant out under cloches, tall barn ones, on the first of May. Take the cloches off and put the canes in as soon as the last frosts have gone, they will be in a bit of a tangle but no matter. There is every chance that you will have some beans to pick for two weeks before others have them. I used to use Earliest Of All, nowadays use Red Rum or Galaxy.

Hi OH,
My mother used to grow a variety called Hammond Dwarf but I suspect this variety has now gone in the dim and distant past. I have a friend who grows Hestia in troughs on her patio and gets some amazing results. Because we all all hills here in order to get a patio a JCB carved it out of the sloping garden and there is a retaining wall of about 4ft and the beans grow on the top of that wall. It is ideal as she has such ease of picking and tending.
Beans appear to put up with a certain amount of cold just so long as they get no frost on the foliage so I think with barn type cloches you should do quite well.

Thanks everyone, yet more excellent help, much appreciated.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

There is a dwarf variety called 'Hestia'.
Kings and Suttons and probably other seed suppliers have them.
Can be grown in pots. Personally I don't think much of the flavour but if you want early beans worth a try.

Beryl.