Planting runner beans

How to Grow Runner Beans

23 March 2017, written by Ann Marie Hendry

We all know that beans are a musical fruit, or good for your heart, depending on which version of the rhyme you learned when you were a nipper, but in the UK at least no vegetable garden or allotment plot is complete without a wigwam foaming with scarlet-flowered runner beans.

The reason? Well, not only do they make a delectable vegetable, they are drop-dead gorgeous too.

Sowing and Growing Runner Beans

Runner beans - a type of pole bean - were traditionally planted atop filled-in trenches dug the previous autumn and stocked with well-rotted manure or shredded newspaper. Kitchen waste will work too, because the main reason for doing this is to provide a deep, moist root run that will help runner beans to resist drought. Drought is a major enemy of beans, so avoid this at all costs.

Start sowing runner beans in spring and keep sowing every couple of weeks until early summer to spread out the harvest. Exactly when to sow will depend on your climate, so check out our Garden Planner for customized advice. The earliest seeds can be sown in modules or seed trays in a greenhouse, tunnel or on a sunny windowsill for transplanting later on.

Runner beans dislike cold soil, so wait until the soil has warmed to at least 10ºC (50ºF) before planting them out. You can warm soil a week or so in advance of sowing or planting using cold frames, cloches, row cover tunnels or even just sheets of plastic.

Later sowings can be made directly where they are to grow, but beware of hungry slugs and make sure to protect seedlings from wind damage. Covering them with a cloche (even a recycled plastic bottle will do) will provide all the shelter they need until they establish.

In cool or windy locations you can protect plants and boost pod production by growing them to maturity in a greenhouse or tunnel – just make sure to ‘stop’ the plants, or pinch out the growing tips, when they near the roof.

While closely-related French beans are self-pollinating, runners need help from pollinators such as bees and hummingbirds, so yields will be hampered by a wet, cold summer when insects are unlikely to be flying. A dry summer is bad news too, so make sure to water during rainless spells and mulch to preserve that moisture.

Beans are usually pretty trouble-free, but keep an eye out for black bean aphids infesting the growing tips. If this happens, clip off the tips and dispose of them.

Supporting Runner Beans

Get supports in place before planting your runners. Any frames or trellis need to be sturdy enough to support these lanky beans, which grow to well in excess of 2m (6.5 feet) tall and which will become extremely heavy when laden with pods. Netting is often used along with canes or poles to allow the vines to clamber about freely.

Bean wigwams look just as attractive in the flower garden as they do in the vegetable garden. Runner beans were originally grown purely as ornamental plants, so you can find exciting flower color choices such as ‘Scarlet Runner’ or the ravishing red-lipped white flowers of ‘Painted Lady’.

You may need to tie young plants in to their supports initially, but once they’ve got a grip they should manage on their own. If they’re catching the wind they may need to be tied in at intervals.

When the plants reach the top of their supports, pinch out their growing tips to help divert energy into flower and pod production – and to avoid the plants turning into a jungle of tangled stems and foliage.

Such tall, leafy plants will cast shade, so plan your garden to include shade-loving crops behind your towering beanstalks.

Harvesting Runner Beans

Keeping up with weeding, watering and mulching is important while the beans are growing. Apply an occasional liquid feed too. Harvesting will commence around midsummer and continue until the first frosts. Runner beans will crop slightly later than French beans, so for variety and to extend the season it can be worth growing both.

Pick your beans while they’re still quite small to avoid any stringiness, though having said that modern cultivars are usually bred to be stringless. Pick at least every other day, because you’ll be astounded at how rapidly a bean pod can grow – they seem to go from flat to fat in the blink of an eye!

If you’re going to be away during the summer, invite friends and neighbors to help themselves to your beans to encourage continued cropping for when you return. Alternatively you could use the break as an opportunity to switch from producing fresh pods to maturing beans for drying. Gluts of the whole fresh pods can be chopped, blanched if you wish (I never do, I can’t tell the difference!) then frozen.

Beautiful, productive, and delicious – what more could a vegetable gardener ask for? Share your runner bean growing tips or favorite varieties with us in the comments section below.

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How to grow green beans - Summer advice

Green, French, asparagus, green beans ... as soon as our gardeners do not call this tender beans. Many of us adore this mega-healthy vegetable, grow it easily, naturally and with pleasure, managing to collect unprecedented harvests from several bushes. And someone does not give beans at all. It seems that they are planting and watering, but as a result, disappointment: again something has grown that does not look a bit like green beans.

How to grow green beans without complaining about the harvest? We reveal all the secrets of growing truly wonderful pods! nine0003

String beans

String beans come in several varieties: green, yellow, purple, white with purple streaks, sometimes even with pink pods. But for us, gardeners, it is much more important that green beans are divided into curly and bush.

Both bush and climbing beans have their advantages and disadvantages. So, for example, bush beans are less thermophilic than curly beans, do not require support and, as a rule, give the crop together (it is harvested in 2-3 doses). But curly beans give more pods, due to constant growth, it grows up, so it can take free space between other plants, it can be planted along the fence (or instead of it) as a hedge. nine0003

We advise you to plant several plants of each type as a test in order to decide which one is easier for you to take care of, which one will be more productive, etc. The only thing is that for the northern regions it is better to choose early-ripening varieties that begin to bear fruit two months after planting. Summer residents of the southern regions can afford late varieties.

Planting green beans

Green beans are heat-loving crops, so they are planted quite late when the ground warms up well and frosts are no longer expected. Usually planting is done in late May - early June. nine0003

String bean is a thermophilic crop, so it is best grown in sandy soils. This is especially true of the northern regions, where in cold summers, green beans may not produce pods at all. So we add sand to the beds, place them in a well-heated place or build a warm bed for the beans.

String beans are a heat-loving crop, so a couple of weeks before planting, it is recommended to cover the bed with foil to warm the ground. If you want to plant your beans in a warm bed (which is exactly what you need), soak them with an EM solution and then cover with foil. In well-warmed soil, beans will sprout earlier. nine0003

String bean seeds must be soaked before planting. At least - for two hours, as a maximum - before the appearance of seedlings. Beans planted with germinated seeds will sprout quickly and amicably.

The bed is laid out according to the scheme: 8-10 centimeters between bushes, 30-40 centimeters between rows. For curly beans, you can increase these distances and immediately put the supports. Green beans are planted two seeds in one hole, then to choose the strongest plant. The optimum sowing depth is 3 cm. nine0003

After planting, the bed is watered and mulched with humus, straw or grass. Do not be afraid to mulch the beans (many worry that the soil warms up more slowly under the mulch), we warmed up the bed well beforehand, and the mulch perfectly retains the moisture vital for seed germination. If you are not a fan of mulching, you need to ensure that the bed is always damp (but not overflowing).

In two weeks (maybe earlier) the first shoots of green beans will appear. nine0003

String bean care

String beans or green beans do not require special care. It is not even necessary to feed it, especially when grown in warm beds under organic mulch. The only thing that this plant desperately needs is heat. We repeat and remember once again: green beans are a thermophilic culture. It grows best at a temperature of + 20-25 ° C.

So, as the seedlings grow, we choose the strongest ones, and pinch their neighbors under the root (no need to pull out, why disturb the root system once again?). For those who do not want to mulch, it would be nice to spud the beans when the bushes grow up to ten centimeters in order to create all the conditions for the development of the roots. nine0003

In the future, we are required to provide the plants with moisture either through regular heavy watering, or through mulching and watering during especially hot periods. A couple of times during the season, you can water the beans with infusion of ash.

When the curly beans reach two meters in height, boldly pinch the top to stop the growth of the stem and direct all the juices to fruit set.

Harvest of green beans

Harvesting of green beans must never be delayed. As soon as the beans are finally formed and ripened in the pods, the bush will stop developing. When the plants are "sure" that they have produced seeds for procreation, they stop growing. Our task is to track the appearance of pods. Yeah, we started ... in a week we are harvesting the first crop. The more often you cut the pods, the more ovaries the bush will give out. Therefore, after 4-6 days, we again examine the plants - most likely, we again have something to collect. nine0003

By the way, the best time to harvest green beans is on a cool morning. This way the blades stay fresh longer. String beans are usually stored frozen. Immediately after harvest, the pods are cut into several pieces, placed in bags and placed in the freezer until winter.

When the freezer is full and the lobio for lunch is completely tired, you can leave the last bean pods hanging until full maturity and take seeds from them for the next year.

We wish you success and great harvests! nine0003

Growing green beans. Planting, garter, harvest

Who is used to calling such beans - string, asparagus, green. You will not find it in every garden, although it is very tasty and healthy, besides, the bean plant saturates the soil with nitrogen. That is why everything that is planted in the place where the beans grew grows well.

This plant is quite unpretentious, grows well on any soil. You only need to meet 2 conditions: provide her with one of the sunniest places on the site and water it in a timely manner. If you have only a shaded place left for the beans, then at least make the bed higher so that there is no stagnation of moisture. nine0065 Naturally, any plant grows better on fertile soils and beans are no exception, but this is not critical. The only top dressing we use for beans is ash infusion.

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  Planting beans

  Asparagus beans are afraid of even short-term subzero temperatures, so they should be planted in the middle lane and northern regions no earlier than the end of May-beginning of June, when the threat of return frosts has passed.
  Beans are planted in the same way as beans or peas. That is, you can use dry seeds, or you can pre-soak them or even germinate them.

  To do this, the seeds are poured with warm water (25-30 degrees) for several hours and then planted in the garden. Make furrows at a distance of about 30 cm from each other. The seeding depth is 2-4 cm. The distance in the row between plants is about 15-20 cm. Until sprouts appear, the bed must be kept moist. You can even cover it with foil. nine0065

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  Growing seedlings of beans

  To get a harvest a little earlier, it is necessary to grow seedlings. Planting for seedlings begins a month before planting in the ground, that is, for the middle lane this is the end of April. Bean seeds are pre-soaked for several hours or a day. During the day, sprouts are usually already visible and bad seeds can be easily rejected. Beans are planted in separate cups, deepening into the ground by 2-3 cm. That is, timely watering and a well-lit place. nine0065 Seedlings are planted in the ground when the temperature is above zero both day and night, usually this is the beginning of June.

  String beans grow best when the soil is warm, so take your time to mulch the plants.

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  Ways of growing green beans

  There are 2 types of green beans: bush and climbing. Bush beans are easier to grow, they are undersized, usually a bush 30-40 cm high. They are planted both on separate beds and among other crops. Very often you can see bean bushes among potato plantings, and even more often along the perimeter of a potato field. nine0003

  Curly beans are another matter. For it, it is necessary to build supports along which it will grow upwards. Usually these are trellises, as for cucumbers, or all kinds of tall structures such as a hut, pyramids, etc. Some gardeners grow curly green beans along a grid, for which it clings to itself and stretches up. Curly beans tie pods along their entire height (and this is more than 2 meters), so its yield is higher.
  String beans begin to bear fruit 2 months after germination. nine0003

  Both beans are harvested not at once, but as the pods grow, that is, several times during the summer.

  They are removed in milky ripeness, when the formed grains are still invisible in the pods. At this stage, green beans are tastiest and tender, with no coarse fibers. A variety of main dishes, salads are prepared with it, and they are also preserved for the winter. Many people prefer to freeze beans for the winter, for this they usually cut the pods into 3-4 parts and arrange them in portions in bags. Currently, frozen green beans are sold in any supermarket, but their own is much tastier and more tender. nine0003

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  String bean seeds

  For seeds, a plant is usually left, from which the pods are not removed. The pods fully mature on the bush. Then you can collect these pods and dry them and store them in a linen bag, or you can cut the whole plant and hang it somewhere in the barn.

  Why cut the plant instead of uprooting it? It is important! On the roots of beans (as well as other legumes) a special type of beneficial nodule bacteria is formed that can saturate the soil with nitrogen taken from the air. Under good conditions, up to 700 nodules are formed on the roots of 1 plant! As a result, enriched soil remains after harvesting the beans. And the roots and residue of the plant remaining in the soil will be food for earthworms. nine0003

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  Varieties of string beans

  There are varieties in which only tender shoulder blades (pods) are used for food, as well as shelling varieties, in which only grains from the pods are used as food.

  The most popular varieties are Saksa 615, Zolotaya Gora, Triumph Sakharny, Dialog, Vestochka, Sakharny 116.

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  Bush, asparagus and curly beans on video