Kitchen Garden Forum

I am not having much luck this year re my runner beans. I recently posted a topic headed "Blackfly on the runner beans" which attracted a number of helpful replies. Thanks to all who answered. In the end I bought a litre bottle of a suggested product called Savona (not cheap at £16 a litre but at least it can be diluted at 1 per 50 parts so it should last me some years) It does work though.

However, I am now starting to wonder if I have wasted my money as I have now lost every single flower on all the plants (58) through birds pecking at them.Even the denuded flower stalks have been snapped off ,presumably by the weight of the birds (mainly sparrows)

I tend to plant my beans late each year as I prefer them to be ready for picking/eating when the weather is cooling and hot meals start to be the norm. I grow the variety, Lady Di,which produces a red flower and I am wondering if perhaps a) I should plant them earlier or b) choose a variety with white flowers which , I understand may be less attractive to birds.

Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.

Hi Mike, as your runners have not produced seed they might produce more flowers and if we get an indian summer then you might still get some pickings. We have cats so birds tend to be more wary, but the downside of that is the cats tendency to scratch up seedlings, i have to protect them while small. Next year you could plant some nasturtiums the blackfly really do seem to prefer them, cabbage whites do too. I usually opt for the short variety, the climbing ones can grow out of control and overshadow other crops. I guess a lot depends on your soil though, most things grow well here , my teazles are towering over 6ft but I noticed more teazles in another
garden further down our lane only 2 - 3 ft and flowering like ours

Mike, I wonder whether it's the red flowers on your beans which are your downfall. I suffer from blackfly on my runner beans every year and have found nothing which really gets rid of it. I also find the flowers often just don't set well until very late in the summer for some reason. Yet on my adjoining climbing French beans (Cobra & Blauhilde) with white & purple flowers respectively, I've got no blackfly at all.
I tend to sow my French climbers beans earlier rather than later, usually in two batches for succession although picking times tend to overlap. t, I always get a good crop and open freeze my surplus crop in chunks until they're hard and then transfer them into freezer bags, where we can take out a handful whenever we want them. I've found the beans keep well frozen in this way, and it avoids the problem of having too many other vegetables all cropping in mid summer where one tends to eat more salad stuff than meals destined to be eaten hot.

Thanks for your replies Natures Babe and Primrose.

Colleagues at work have also suggested that the red flowers could be the problem although I have never experienced birds taking the flowers so aggressively in the many previous years that I have grown the same variety. I might grow a white flower variety next year alongside the usual and see what happens.

Thanks again