In article , Granity.bd0a336
@gardenbanter.co.uk says...

kay;980066 Wrote:
Oh good! I thought I was being foolish having purple sprouting in the
greenhouse (but I had the space, and it seemed the best defence against
pigeons)

I'm seriously considering trying some runner beans in the greenhouse
this year, put the containers on the bottom of the staging and removing
the top trays. Bit of well rotted manure forked into the containers and
regular feeding works well outdoors so it should be ok in the
greenhouse.

How are you going to ensure pollination?

Janet

On 02/04/2013 17:47, Janet wrote:
How are you going to ensure pollination?

Janet


as far as i know Janet white flowered beans are self fertile and red
ones need pollination. Sparsholt college grow them with students and
always put a row of white flowered ones along the edge to prove to the
students that they are much the best croppers in a bad insect year!

--
Janet T.
Amersham

In article , says...

On 02/04/2013 17:47, Janet wrote:
How are you going to ensure pollination?

Janet


as far as i know Janet white flowered beans are self fertile and red
ones need pollination. Sparsholt college grow them with students and
always put a row of white flowered ones along the edge to prove to the
students that they are much the best croppers in a bad insect year!

Interesting article about self pollinating varieties by Graham Rice

http://tinyurl.com/cm47gk6

http://mygarden.rhs.org.uk/blogs/gra...02/20/two-new-
self-fertile-runner-beans-set-pods-in-all-weathers.aspx

Janet B

kay wrote:
I have a white sprouting broccoli in the greenhouse that is
starting to sprout away very well.

Oh good! I thought I was being foolish having purple sprouting in the
greenhouse (but I had the space, and it seemed the best defence against
pigeons)

Mine was kind of accidental, but I've decided it's doing very well
and I'm going to try and put a whole load in next year! (And more
importantly, cauliflowers - gives them that rain damage protection
too)

David Hill wrote:
You would do better growing climbing French beans inside, they will crop
2 to 3 weeks earlier than runners and being string-less will not go
stringy, also you wont have the pollination problems.
But watch out for red spider.

Hmm, I may do some dwarf beans under the tomatoes ...

On 02/04/2013 22:22, Janet wrote:
Interesting article about self pollinating varieties by Graham Rice

http://tinyurl.com/cm47gk6

http://mygarden.rhs.org.uk/blogs/gra...02/20/two-new-
self-fertile-runner-beans-set-pods-in-all-weathers.aspx

Janet B


Ray Boughton who teaches at Sparsholt told us that all white flowered
runner beans are self fertile, it's the red ones that need the inscet
pollination.

Not sure that some of the varieties I have seen have sounded ideal as
culinary choices but I am going to try and have both if possible to compare.

--
Janet T.
Amersham

I've been growing both climbing French and runner beans in the greenhouse for the last few years, again to keep them away from slugs. I leave the doors open during the summer to allow freer flight of bees. French work very well, runners start producing beans after the first few flowers, but I often put them outside about August, when they're about 8ft tall.

It's worth planning in advance - if you're sure that you're not going to take them outside, then you can let the vines clamber along the structure of the greenhouse (in my case along the poles I use for draping bubble wrap in winter).

Many problem is discouraging them from going out of the windows and producing beans in inaccessible places on the roof. Oh, and keep an eye out for red spider and whitefly (although if you have tomatoes, the whitefly will prefer those)

You can get stringless varieties of runner.

Warning over brassicas in the greenhouse.

I tried cabbage and broccoli last year and they were infested almost beyond
use with
slugs and whitefly respectively. Caterpillars also joined in the feast.

I can recommend trying leeks, as above in old growbags , very hardy with no
known enemies - yet !

Pete

Pete wrote:
I tried cabbage and broccoli last year and they were infested almost beyond
use with
slugs and whitefly respectively. Caterpillars also joined in the feast.

I had that problem with everything /outside/ the greenhouse. At least
inside there aren't quite so many places to hide.

I can recommend trying leeks, as above in old growbags , very hardy with no
known enemies - yet !

Surprised they're deep enough. I tried salad leaves after tomatoes, but
they didn't thrive as it was too late in the season.

wrote in message ...

I can recommend trying leeks, as above in old growbags , very hardy with
no
known enemies - yet !

Surprised they're deep enough. I tried salad leaves after tomatoes, but
they didn't thrive as it was too late in the season.

Yes they are on benches that previously hosted strawberries which I have got
fed up with doing now !

No problem with the depth, as they were well fluffed up in the first place.
I just freshen up each hole
with a trowel- full of fresh compost - mucho chicken sh1t helps too !!

Pete