Runner beans for sale

[Allan]

It's silly for Mr/Mrs average to buy plants and put them out yet, but if you wanted extra early beans as I do normally the pattern is to sow in pots on 1st April and plant out under protection on 1st of May. It has to be a variety that sets freely such as Red Rum or Galaxy or the no longer available Earliest of All and don't expect that batch to go on cropping until October, that needs a late sowing in early June. You should have beans to pick in June which if sold command a high price.
Alternatively last year's roots replanted will give an early crop. I understand that in the antipodes they commonly use the old rootstock, even left in the ground in some areas.
It can be an advantage to use the same piece of garden for runners as it will have the nitrogen-forming bacteria still present in quantity.
Allan

[cevenol jardin]

I cut my (late sown) runners down last year in the hope i would get re-growth from the roots, i left in place, about now. But sorry to say there's no sign of activity. So i will just have to sow afresh.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear C.J, it's probably best to dig the roots up in the Autumn, and store the roots the same way you would store dahlia tubers.
I have tried it, but they take up quite a lot of room for what you can gain.

[cevenol jardin]

Thanks OH
I may as well sow again - i was trying to find a lazy way to get beans the next year with no effort - worth a try if it means diggging up and storing i may as well sow again - as you said for what you gain.

[John]

Hello Allan
Although when you talk about the early sowing you say 'don't expect that batch to go on cropping until October', this is possible! What I do with a few of my early cropping plants is to cut them down to a foot or so after the first flush of beans and allow them to regrow. With luck and a late Autumn I can eventually be picking fresh beans into October from these plants.

John

[Primrose]

Allan - I was absolutely intrigued by your comment about "Last year's roots replanted will give an early crop."
I have never, ever heard of this and wonder how it's achieved. Do you leave the roots in the soil, or cut them down in the autumn and repot them under cover until Spring?
And equally importantly, does it work?

[cevenol jardin]

John that sounds like a good tip - i'll give that a go.
thanks

[Allan]

Primrose
To re-use the bean roots you can either take a chance of a mild winter and leave them in the soil or dig up, store frost-freee and replant.It's rather like dahlia tubers, some times they will over-winter outside.
Allan

[Johnboy]

By careful planning and an awning of polythene I was picking beans well into November last year.
I grow my Runners in 7cm sq.pots and when I plant them out I sow another seed alongside then and another in July. I grow Scarlet Emperor and Streamline having tried many varieties over the years these two seem to supply me with many more beans than my use.
I also grow climbing and dwarf French varieties.
This year will be my 16th year growing in the same bed. There have been many thoughts about this over the years and my method has been condemned many times but it suits me and the bed gets a supply of manure each year and is allowed to get saturated and then covered with HD Polythene until last week when it was lightly forked over and covered again until I can erect the Bamboo canes structure to carry them.
It will be late this year. I have yet to sow any beans but hope to be in a position to so next week.
JB.

[Primrose]

Johnboy - see you're still an insomniac and burning the midnight oil while I'm snoring my head off!! I know many people, including my late father, who leave their runner bean structures in situ and grow their beans in the same place every year. My father always got good results and he gardened on light chalky soil without adding much manure, but an annual application of Growmore. I rotate my beans and tomatoes against a south facing fence every year, only because I have so little growing room in my garden but usually get satisfactory results. But this year I've sown my climbing beans in tiny pots which I won't repeat next year. I sowed a little too early, they're outgrowing their pots and it's still risky to plant them outside. Next year I'll either have to sow later or use bigger pots. I never learn !

[Johnboy]

Hi Primrose,
I watched the football and attempted to watch the news and next I knew it was about 2am!!
To beans: I do not have any fences and 5 acres to grow in but beans have a way of shading quite an area so they are in a place where they do not shade anything else that I am growing also the fertility has built up and is simply so easy just to fork over really for appearances more than anything else.
I grow up 10ft canes and have a double 36ft row and I supply many elderly people who cannot grow beans for themselves with all manner of produce. The French Climbing Beans are grown in another part of the plot and do get moved about but these are grown up wigwams dotted about and do not pinch as much light. I always grow Cos Lettuces along the edge of the bean bed as sacrificial offerings to the slugs and snails but I also put slug pellets on the path around the bean bed and generally get some decent Lettuces as well! The Dwarf French go in where there is room. I grow Teepee and Purple Teepee because the crop grows above the foliage and does not drag on the ground and become slug attractants and also because they are higher off the ground you do not have to stoop so far to pick them.
I now germinate all my beans in module trays and as the plumule starts to rise I pot on the best into 7cm sq pots and when they have reached the stage where the second pair of leaves are about to open I plant them out and sow the second seed. There is not setback in the growing pattern and they are up the sticks in double quick time.
I have a watering system down the middle of my beans as I have for many beds but it is manual and you have stop ends and keep transferring the hose about.
Very simple but effective never the less. I always water at or after dusk and then the water has more time to do what it was intended to do and not evaporate all the time.
JB.

[cevenol jardin]

WOW 36ft that must be a lot of beans. I am going to have a go at your method JB it sounds good - but i think my row will only be about 13ft long.

Most peaople around our way say you can't grow Runners wind/dry heat etc. so i am always looking for ways to beat our climate and get some runners as i prefer them to French beans.

An August sowing worked last year so an early sowing would probably work too. Sowing in June / July is out tried that a couple of years and no go.

Hope you are on the mend JB.

[Johnboy]

Hi CJ,
When I worked in a French nursery for a year I tried to grow Runner Beans then and I had the Micky taken out of me by my french colleagues because they failed.
They managed to bloom but they simply would not set.
I was in Tarn and the nursery on the banks of the river Tarn with irrigation taken from the river.
In 1994, the year the river Tarn went mad and flooded the entire valley the Nursery got swept away
and so did one of the hydro-electric dams just above the nursery. Great loss of life sadly and many complete families wiped out.
I felt then that there were insufficient Bee activity and Tarn can get mighty hot and the dear old runners didn't like the conditions at all.
You are certainly considerably higher up and probably the varieties that Allan has mentioned may do well at your altitude.
BTW what is your altitude?
I managed to stay only over night in Hospital but last time I went in I was there for 10 days.
Typing one handed and very sore at present but I hope that when it has all healed that I will be able to use my right hand properly as for the last year it has been withering! Poor old sod!!
JB.
PS My Bean row is a double row of 36ft!

[cevenol jardin]

Hi JB
I've got Scarlet Emperor for this year. Though i think i'll have a go at two sowings so will try and find one of Allans favourites for the second sowing. We are 480 metres above sea level, with lots of bees (a lot of honey made with the bees feasting on chestnut pollen in the cevennes.) but it is windy and very dry in summer, with a hot one and draught predicted for this year.
Tarn is not that far from here just a bit south and west other side of the cevennes - i think!

Look after yourself - sounds painfull.

[Primrose]

Dear Johnboy - do hope your hand is soon sorted out. One handed gardening (and typing) must be pretty frustrating.
Certainly Runner Beans don't seem to set when it's too hot, even if they flower generously and until last year when somebody pointed out to me that runner beans are not self fertile like climbing French beans I hadn't understood that climbing Frenchies don't need bees to pollinate them. This year I will major on French beans but grow a few runners, as it's nice to have a variety.