runner beans
jb5
Posts: 5
for the last 3 years the flowers on my runner beans disappear (hence no beans) but you can still see the small stem where they were originally. the flowers on other climbing beans are never affected as these are white or pale mauve. it is just the red ones
any ideas what it is and how can I avoid this
0
Posts
thank you for that advice. yes the others are French beans but how do you pollinate runner beans? I will increase the watering as well
many thanks.
I think I may have been a bit lax in watering the whole plant including the flowers as needed to spend some time to sort out my spray on the hose. have been watering roots but not flowers. I will definitely spray flowers from now on
will give the ones you suggest a try
if you do what willbara suggests in the life tips thread you will find that your watering problem will be solved, I have done what he says about taking out your runner bean trench out now and putting all your waste material in there instead of the compost heap for years and it works.
also as has been said spraying with water also helps
I had my runner beans completely stripped of flowers by sparrows a couple of years ago. I had to resort to netting them, but then you have the problem of the beans and the tendrils growing through the netting! At least you do get the beans that way.
I've found white flowered varieties generally do better than red flowered ones as far as pollination goes. Also, the (same variety of) runners that I started a few weeks later than the main row have cropped much better than the ones planted as soon as weather conditions allowed, so a successional sowing seems to be a good idea and I'll be doing that every year now.
in hot weather fill up a bucket with water in the morning and leave the water to warm in the sun then in the evening spray the water in a mist onto the beans.
much better than cold water