My beans have reached their zenith!

tuffnelljohn

Hi

My runner beans have reached their zenith! Should I pinch off the leading shoot, or encourage it to go along the horizontal? (Or somehow increase the vertical?)

Thanks

Pete.8

I'd pinch the top off.
It'll still grow taller for a while though.
I do sometimes leave mine to continue growing and the tops become a thicket of tangled stems and the beans that form within the thicket get seriously curled up in the tangle and are difficult to harvest without them snapping..
Pinching the top off will make it bushier lower down (with more beans) which is easier to control.

Lyn

I would pinch it out as well.   That’s why I pinch mine out earlier,  you would have two good leaders going up there now instead of one. 

nick615

Amen to the other two, but a bunching at the top will be good for late season pods to provide 2023 seed.

Lyn

I don’t save seed,  just in case they don’t turn out to be the variety I wanted.