Stringy runner beans
JanandHarrythecat
Posts: 4
in Fruit & veg
My first post, please be gentle with me! I have grown vegetables in the garden this year for the first time. It has been fairly successful but all the runner beans are inedible because they are so stringy. Any advice gratefully received. Is it something I have done in the growing or have I picked the wrong seeds.... Thanks in advance.
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Thank you for replying. The variety is Polestar and Instarted them off in a propogator and moved them out into growing bags containing compost late May. Could it be the quality of the compost?
Are they stringy all over, or is it just at the edges of the pods - I always trim off the edges of runner bean pods like on here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsBghwRfoeY
Sorry if I'm teaching my grandma to suck eggs, but I've met plenty of people who've never used fresh runner beans.
I grow Polestar and find them reliable. Rarely stringy. But if you are trying to grow them in growbags, then this is probably the cause of your problem.
They need a good root run, with lots of organic matter dug into the soil. They are thirsty plants, so need a lot of moisture.
For the rest of this season, pick them small and young, before they can get stringy. Next year, plant them in a prepared bed, enriched with compost etc. and you will be rewarded with an embarrassment of beans! (My neighbours disappear when they see me on the horizon with yet another bag or three of runner beans
)
Pick them early. I pick them when they are easily less than half the thickness of the ones you buy in the shops. To test them for tenderness, snap the little pointy tail on the bean. If it snaps cleanly without a hint of lingering on the bean you know that it won't be stringy.
If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
Many thanks for all the replies. Yes I have been trimming them, daughter of an old fashioned greengrocer!
It looks like I need to pick them early this year and prepare much better next.
Wise words Verdun.
How often do you water?