Runner beans

We managed to grow 49lbs. 12ozs. this year in garden pots and growbags(cut in half and stood upright like buckets). Hoping to squeeze the last 4ozs. for our record crop.



Thanks for the birthday greeting, and I received this card in addition.

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=2395445536768&source=jl999

 

Sounds like us - 'beans with everything' became my family's mantra for a while there!

 

Well done on your runner beans Devongardener.
I don't grow them anymore. Leave them a day too late and they are rough and tough.
I prefer to grow French beans. Get a great crop. There is only 2 of us and we get all the beans we can eat and some to freeze ( but I do prefer the vegetables fresh).
For people who can't or don't want to erect climbing frames, the dwarf french bean, Sprite, produced a great crop for me this year.
All the beans we could eat for weeks on end, then some.
I might just grow Sprite next year.

 

My Dad always maintained you should orientate all veggie rows 'north to south', so that they got maximum sun during the day - depending on your garden (mine for example) that isn't necessarily possible. This year however, I managed to squeeze a 'row' of 10 runner bean plants in the back of a narrow north/south border and I've picked over 23lb of beans - the 4 plants I had left over, I just stuck in a little east/west facing row of their own. Whilst the main row (if you can call it such) has pretty much finished, those 4 remaining plants are still covered in bloom and are just 'coming into their own' - the bees are busy and whilst there won't be a huge crop, there'll certainly be sufficient to keep my elderly neighbour supplied for a few more meals.

 

Well done Devongardener ! Wonderful crop :thumb:

I think runner beans ( and french beans ) are one of the most rewarding vegetables you can grow. For little effort really, you get a long succession of wonderful meals from them. They go with most things, can be stir fried as well as boiled, can be frozen, and just taste delicious ! A lot of veg come and go faster than the blink of an eye for a lot of time and effort spent cultivating them, but not runners. Mine have kept me going for weeks and weeks. I love runner beans can you tell ? :hehe:

 

Picked off, blanched & then open frozed all my welsh beans this afternoon. Then fed the plants to see if I can bludgeon them into setting more before the frost comes.

:autlv:

 

Thanks for all your encouraging replies, Ziggy let us know how you got on with that late feed.
We have hit 53LBs. and some more to pick, we might make the half hundred weight.

 

Ziggy what are Welsh beans :cnfs:
I have had mixed results this year ,I sowed my "Armstrong" as per usual but did not get 100% germination,OK I put this down to my fault ,bean seeds a couple of years old so not fertile.:dh:
I bought some replacement plants from my local shop who sells loads of seedlings ,flowers and veg. :yez:
I was very unhappy with them ,nowhere near as heavy cropper as my "Armstrong" so I have left the last few"Armstrong" to go to seed for next year. :skp:

So what is everyone elses favourite variety for yield and quality and do you save seed or buy commercial. :luv:

ps I feed every week ,but they are in pots

 

I`m wondering what Welsh beans are too, Pam.:hehe::gnthb: Perhaps they are like French beans only sexier.:gnthb::gnthb:

 

Lol Dai,

Just means any beans from outside england,

Welsh O.E. Wilisc, Wylisc (W.Saxon), Welisc, Wælisc (Anglian and Kentish), from Wealh, Walh "Celt, Briton, Welshman, non-Germanic foreigner;" in Tolkien's definition, "common Gmc. name for a man of what we should call Celtic speech," but also applied to speakers of Latin, hence O.H.G. Walh, Walah "Celt, Roman, Gaulish," and O.N. Valir "Gauls, Frenchmen" (Dan. vælsk "Italian, French, southern"); from P.Gmc. *Walkhiskaz, from a Celtic name represented by L. Volcæ (Caesar) "ancient Celtic tribe in southern Gaul." The word survives in Wales, Cornwall, Walloon, walnut, and in surnames Walsh and Wallace. Borrowed in O.C.S. as vlachu, and applied to Romanians, hence Wallachia. Among the English, Welsh was used disparagingly of inferior or substitute things, hence Welsh rabbit (1725), also perverted by folk-etymology as Welsh rarebit (1785).

Got to be better than our english runner beans, who thought they would be a good idea ? Give me Welsh beans any day.

 

MY wife reports 55,bs. 11 ozs picked so far this season, will we make the half hundredweight?