On 13/10/2012 15:36, Judith in England wrote:


I have grown runner beans for years - always very successful. I have always
used bought beans as seeds. This year I have left some beans unpicked - they
are quite long and quite big beans inside them now.

I intend to harvest, dry and us as seed for next year.

Any comments or suggestions please.


I've always used beans saved from previous years. The variety was
originally 'Streamline' bought in England around 10 years ago! As others
have already mentioned, they need to be dry before harvesting. I simply
wait until the frosts have killed the plants and while clearing the
patch I pull off and shell the ripe pods - they are brown and like a
stiff paper.

The important thing that others haven't mentioned is to keep the bean
seeds in a cool, dry airy place over Winter. I once made the mistake of
putting them into a sealed plastic tub and the following Spring it was
just a rotting mass. What does work very well is to put a good handful
of beans into some old tights and put a knot in them, snipping off the
little bag of beans and hanging it in the attic.All my saved seeds keep
perfectly this way - they need to be hung to stop any mice scoffing
them, it also helps the air to circulate and keeps them in good condition.

If I've got lots of bean seeds to save (some for stews etc) then I can
use a whole leg off a pair of tights, putting a knot between each bunch
of beans (like a long string of sausages) this makes it easy to just
snip off the lowest hanging 'sausage' when some beans are wanted.