Sue da Nimm wrote:
I have been told I could improve my runner bean crop by planting
seeds in cardboard tubes, such as toilet roll cores, to give a
better root. Has anyone tried this and does it work ?

Yes, that's what we do. Also the cores from kitchen towel. (We
never
have enough, but you can get rolled black paper tubes from the big
Sheds to make up the deficit).
If you stack the tubes upright in seed trays, loosely tied around
with
string, they are easy to water and support each other.
We start all our runner beans this way and also half of our sweet
peas.[...]

A friend always used to start his beans and sweet peas in tubes he
made out of rolled-up newspaper. IIRC, he secured the tubes by simply
tucking the ends in, but a stapler would do it.

Mike.