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Old 08-11-2004, 06:10 PM
bigboard
 
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Tim Challenger wrote:

On Mon, 08 Nov 2004 15:30:18 +0000, bigboard wrote:

ex WGS Hamm wrote:


"Steve Harris" wrote in message
...
Last year, I dug up 3 runner bean plants, trimmed them to 3" of stem,
planted them in a pot of multipurpose compost, put it in an unheated
bedroom and left them. They died.

This year, a have them in a pot with about a dozen leaves still
attached and I'm hoping to improve :-)

- Should I chop them down to 3" again?
- Should I water them once a month?
- Keep them warm/cold/wet/dry/light/dark?

You don't, you sow new seed every year.


Runner beans are a perennial in their natural environment, not an annual.
It is therefore perfectly possible to keep them alive for more than one
year.


So what *is* their natural environment. Maybe we can help Steve to
recreate the right conditions.


"Runner beans are native to the high elevation mountains of Central America.
They have been domesticated for more than 2000 years by natives of the
region, but wild relatives of the runner bean still occur in Guatemala and
Mexico, where they grow in cool, partially shaded valleys in mixed pine-oak
forests."

How you'd go about recreating that in your back garden, I've no idea!

--
"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to
die in."
-- George McGovern