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#1
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Overwintering Runner Beans - best method?
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? Thanks! Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com A useful bit of gardening software at http://www.netservs.com/garden/ |
#2
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"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. |
#3
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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. -- Everything you've learned in school as "obvious" becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids in the universe. There's not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines. -- R. Buckminster Fuller |
#4
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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. -- Tim C. |
#5
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"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? I thought runner beans were annuals, but I am willing to be corrected. Franz |
#7
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The message
from "ex WGS Hamm" contains these words: "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. Not if you know what you're doing, you don't. 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. -- Rusty Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar. http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/ |
#8
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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 |
#9
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Steve asked ".... Should I chop them down to 3" again?
Should I water them once a month? Keep them warm/cold/wet/dry/light/dark? ....." Store them as you would Dahlia tubers. I have always found that the 2nd year they are not as good as the first year, but they are earlier. I would treat them as "ground beans", that is take the tops out of the shots when they are about 12 to 15 inches high, you will get earlier beans than if they are left to climb, though they will be curved as they will be in contact with the ground. -- David Hill Abacus nurseries www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk |
#10
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The message
from "David Hill" contains these words: Steve asked ".... Should I chop them down to 3" again? Should I water them once a month? Keep them warm/cold/wet/dry/light/dark? ....." Store them as you would Dahlia tubers. I have always found that the 2nd year they are not as good as the first year, but they are earlier. I would treat them as "ground beans", that is take the tops out of the shots when they are about 12 to 15 inches high, you will get earlier beans than if they are left to climb, though they will be curved as they will be in contact with the ground. -- David Hill Abacus nurseries www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk I have had them survive in the ground perhaps three or four years ago and, as far as I remember, it wasn't a particularly mild winter. I presume this is not to be counted on though, and I agree that they are earlier but not as good. Janet G |
#11
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"Janet Galpin" wrote in message ... The message from "David Hill" contains these words: Steve asked ".... Should I chop them down to 3" again? Should I water them once a month? Keep them warm/cold/wet/dry/light/dark? ....." Store them as you would Dahlia tubers. I have always found that the 2nd year they are not as good as the first year, but they are earlier. I would treat them as "ground beans", that is take the tops out of the shots when they are about 12 to 15 inches high, you will get earlier beans than if they are left to climb, though they will be curved as they will be in contact with the ground. -- David Hill Abacus nurseries www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk I have had them survive in the ground perhaps three or four years ago and, as far as I remember, it wasn't a particularly mild winter. I presume this is not to be counted on though, and I agree that they are earlier but not as good. Janet G We certainly agree with you but I suppose if you're an expert it could work, but we only kept them once and they weren't as good, so we now sow them every year. I also suppose it depends where you live as we have quite mild winters in the south compared to the cold winters up in Scotland for example. Angus |
#12
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The message
from Janet Galpin contains these words: I have had them survive in the ground perhaps three or four years ago and, as far as I remember, it wasn't a particularly mild winter. I presume this is not to be counted on though, and I agree that they are earlier but not as good. One spare plant I had planted to grow up the ablutions block wall survived last winter, and though the top of the root was killed, it sprouted from the deep and appeared sometime in July, bearing a reasonable crop. -- Rusty Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar. http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/ |
#13
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The message
from "Angus White" contains these words: I have had them survive in the ground perhaps three or four years ago and, as far as I remember, it wasn't a particularly mild winter. I presume this is not to be counted on though, and I agree that they are earlier but not as good. Janet G We certainly agree with you but I suppose if you're an expert it could work, but we only kept them once and they weren't as good, so we now sow them every year. I also suppose it depends where you live as we have quite mild winters in the south compared to the cold winters up in Scotland for example. I have found that as long as you plant them in well-prepared soil and water them in well, like you would with a bare-rooted tree, the crop exceeds that of a first-year bean, and the quality is no different. If I get round to it, I'll try a controlled experiment planting both in as like conditions as I can manage. -- Rusty Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar. http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/ |
#14
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"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 |
#15
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The message
from "David W.E. Roberts" contains these words: 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? You don't. They form a fleshy lump with radiating fleshy roots, a bit like a rhubarb crown (but smaller), but unlike rhubarb, all the next year's growth comes from the centre. I've never kept them long enough to discover whether they can be propagated by division, but after three years, they can't. Lifting and dividing your beans each year would be a slightly different way of growing beans :-) Certainly not each year... But why bother? Plant the previous year's roots for an early crop, and plant some beans later for a late one. I took what is probably the last picking from my runners this morning. -- Rusty Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar. http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/ |
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