"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
k...
snip
Runners are a perenniel, but very unhardy.

Each year, if you overwinter the roots in sand (or similar - I guess
vermiculite would do), you get a growing number of shoots from the base,
so instead of the single vine you get from a bean, you get several stems
the next year, and a whole bunch of them the following year, and so-on.

Not only do you get more beans that way, but you get them a great deal
earlier too.

Which prompts the next question:

if you get a bunch of roots with several shoots, can you divide this to get
several plants, or is it still a single stem with a lot of shoots low down?

Lifting and dividing your beans each year would be a slightly different way
of growing beans :-)

Cheers

Dave R