Kitchen Garden Forum

I know about crop rotation for all the various reasons but recently I was told that Runner Beans were ok to plant in the same patch on the plot each year. What do you think ?

Heligan gardens in Cornwall keep runners in the same place as part of their design but they dress the ground heavily in winter, in their case with seaweed. I can't think of any disease in runners that would build up over time, anyone else think of anything?

MW

If Johnboy spots this he will tell you he has grown them in the same bed for many years to save building a new support each time. He also heavily manures in the Winter I think. I move them every year for the benefit they give the ground.

my parents don't have the room to rotate their crops. they literally have a greenhouse, and a runner bean row, and that's all the room they have. 15 years and counting with no issues. fertilise the soil well, and mulch it (or dig a trench, and fill it with kitchen scraps) and you should be fine in my experience

I also have little room for rotation, growing my beans and tomatoes along a south facing fence in a narrow border. I grow two (or sometimes three) beans up single poles.and every year I rotate the beans and tomatoes which each take up a 50% share of the row.

To be honest I do this more for the benefit od the tomatoes than the beans, trying to reduce the effext of any blight spores in the soil. Once the crops have finished, i trench along the whole fence, chop up and throw in any uninfected haulms, kitchen scraps, lawn cuttings and by early October fill in the trench. This always nicely compost down in the warmth of any autumn/winter sun in time for June planting, when I fork a few manure pellets i to the soil as I can rarely get hold of genuine manure. This has worked well for me for 30 years

Dear Elen, i agree with all the above, especially the manuring or feeding, as they are very hungry and thirsty plants. Also, if you do get any problems like rust or the like, do make sure you clean up all the runner bean growth in the Autumn.

My R. bean frame is permanent so I grow them in the same place every year but I do leave the roots in over winter for the nitrogen and add a good layer of well rotted compost on top and again in the spring; turning it all in before I plant. Never had any problems so far after more than 10 years.

Beryl.

Pays your money and takes your choice. Both methods seem to be ok.
Personally I rotate because I don't want to have to work around too many permanent beds but other plots around me grow them in the same bed year after year. When my daughter takes over the plot I suspect she may try growing them in the same bed for maybe 2 or 3 years at a time

The important part is clearing dead leaf and stem growth rubbish and manuring or feeding in some way.

We have grown our runner beans for several years running in the same spot (in order to use the strongly built frame) and have always manured the ground heavily and dug it well every winter, but I think we may have come a cropper this year: when I picked the last beans earlier this week, they all have small dark brown spots on the outside which looks like bean anthracnose. It may not be, but I will be moving the frame for next year, just in case.

I had never heard of it Monika and looked it up. Hope you haven't got it; it sounds devastating. Thankfully my beans are looking very healthy and a few more still to come.

Beryl.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yar ... den-beans/

That's a little worrying. I've always thought myself lucky that apart from poor pollination in cold or wet weather, climbing beans were easy to grow when it came to being immune from disease. I also have never heard of this problem .. My beans do seem to have been very healthy this year though. I imagine it spreads more rapidly in allotments than in gardens.

My beans had better have been healthy because I have repeated my normal practice of chopping up the haulms and stems and trenching them in next year' s bean growing location. If i have missed any disease I will undoubtedly be back here next year with my Woe is me" hat on asking for advice ,

Thank you everyone for your replies. Something for me to ponder for a couple of weeks