Runner beans - no beans this year

Can anyone suggest why my runner beans have no beans this year - they have hardly produced any flowers but have healthy looking foliage. They are grown in Focus branded growbags in the same position as previous years, have been watered and fed well with tomato feed. Could it be the hot July we have had and do you think there is still time for them to produce a late harvest? The only thing I have done different is changed the brand of growbags - has anyone else had problems with "Focus" growbags?

 

My runner beans haven't been as near as good as in previous years.

Another plot holder however has a wonderful row with simply loads of flowers....he tells me that although there are flowers the bees have entered the flower by the back door...through the base of the flower

This is the second time I have heard of this recently....have the bees been reprogrammed?

 

Hi AnnM

What Shiney says is true that too much fertiliser is bad for the plants and will make them produce too much foliage at the expense of the flowers.

Feeding as Shiney points out is best done when the beans are starting to form,and they also need a lot of water especially when it is dry.

Tipsy.I too have heard of this with the bees going through the back door to collect the nectar.
It is a certain type of bee,which has learnt this method,so stops the grower from getting a crop.

Our beans are only just starting to produce a good crop of beans,after the heat wave we had in July.
By now they should be starting to slow down production as the nights are getting cooler and the light levels are dropping,but our plants are full of flowers and hopefully the bees will be able to do their work.

We also make sure that we have fowering plants close by even though they are on an allotment,so that it encourages bees to pollinate the bean flowers.

Kandy

 

Hi AnnM,

My neighbours have had the same problem, in fact they have all pulled their beans and cleared the ground. Personally I've had a good crop and the only thing that I did differently was to spray/mist the plants in July, I read somewhere that this helps ' set ' the flowers. This is the first year that I have done this, but I think I will now make it part of my normal routine, since it seems to have worked, at least for me. Hope this helps.

 

I've nearly always found that the first two or three weeks of flowers don't produce beans. Thereafter they crop fine. No idea why. Maybe lack of insect pollinators early in the season?
This year I grew sweet peas with the beans but it didn't seem to make a lot of difference to the fertilisation of the early bean flowers.
We've had a super crop this year from late July. Only three plants, but more beans than we can use.

In previous years I've tried misting morning and evening, but after reading recently that this gardener's tale is a myth I didn't do it this year. Didn't seem to make any difference.

[ 30. August 2006, 10:06 PM: Message edited by: Dave W ]

 

Hi Dave W,
Point taken, the RHS also say that spraying dosn't help much either. I found this out after I had been spraying my plants through July, but as I have said I'm the only one with runner beans in my neighbourhood. I only did this when I was watering the runners anyway , so it was really no extra trouble.
The RHS give the following as possible reasons for the flowers failing to set.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0800/runner_beans.asp

[ 01. September 2006, 09:50 PM: Message edited by: MikeB ]

 

Thanks for that RHS link Mike. Interesting stuff!