Young runnerbeans are starting to show flowers

tuffnelljohn

Hi
Ive never grown runner beans before. Ive got a few young plants starting to climb up the canes. I noticed they are starting to flower. Should I pinch of these flowers or let them grow?
Thanks

Dovefromabove

Mine are flowering too 😊

Leave the flowers … they may or may not set, depending on the weather and pollinating insect activity, but they could be going to produce your first ever home grown runner beans!  

Even if they don’t set no harm is done by leaving them. 

Which variety are you growing?  

tuffnelljohn

Oh dear - Ive been picking off the flowers thinking that they were bolting!   

Im not sure what variety they are tbh, I was given the seeds. (in a brown paper envelope - very suspicious!)

Dovefromabove

Oh dear ... but don't worry, it's early yet ... there'll be lots more.

Basic botany ... beans are seeds in green fleshy seed pods, so the sequence is ...

Flowers - pollination by bees etc - little tiny bean pods appear ... and grow into runner beans 

Bolting is when the aim is to get a vegetable to produce leaves (or roots like beet/carrot) for us to eat ... but, because of the wrong growing conditions (usually drought) the plant thinks it's going to die early so quickly produces flowers and seeds to perpetuate its genes ............... basically, gardening is all about 'reproduction'  and the gardeners' attempts to delay or encourage it. 

An occasional dose of tomato feed can encourage more flowers during the season, and don't forget the most important thing for runner beans is water ... they need their roots to be able to access lots of it ... but if you're on Dartmoor that's unlikely to be a problem. 

tuffnelljohn

Thanks @Dovefromabove ! Its my second year of growing, so still very much learning.

Dovefromabove

We were all beginners once upon a time ... just ask ... the only stupid question is the one you don't ask 👍

Lyn

There’s a big difference between John’s  weather and ours @Dovefromabove. Like a different country😀
I do pick off the first flowers,  but then I pick out the tops of the plants to get two strong growing stalks, I don’t think anyone else does that,  just what my dad told me,  he used to watch a gardening programme, many years ago, and the old gardener said to do that. 

Dovefromabove

I see no reason to pick off the first flowers ... they either set or they don't ... if they don't they aren't using any of the plants resources and if they do, well that's what you want isn't it ... beans 

Picking out the growing tip is just a way of delaying the growth if you've sown indoors and the weather's too  cold to plant them out.  Two side shoots are only going to equal one main shoot ... there's only one set of roots to feed them. 

Lyn

I did say to dad once that those old gardeners didn’t really know a lot,  but you what old gardeners are like.😀

nick615

Lyn  I bet your Dad was watching Percy Thrower, but the thing to do with runner bean flowers is to fill a household spray with water and spray it finely over the flowering area.  Helps to set the flowers, I'm told.