Grow beanpole beauties
Get best results from runner beans by harvesting them young and fresh, says Helen Billiald
Grow beanpole beauties Get best results from runner beans by harvesting them young and fresh
Wigwam and A-frames decked with hundreds of red or white runner bean flowers are an emblem of British summertime. Despite their heritage as a Central American plant, they’ve made themselves perfectly at home straddling front gardens and vegetable patches across the nation. If you hope to eat runner beans at their best, then growing your own is a must. Picked young, they snap between your fingers and need only a brief amount of cooking. These have none of the limp stringiness associated with over-mature runners – those poor beans that have had the indignity of being left too long on the plant, too long in the shop and too long at a rolling boil.
The secret to a good crop of runners is choosing a sunny or lightly shaded site with fertile soil that has been extravagantly improved with well-rotted organic matter several months before planting. The organic matter holds on to moisture and ensures the plants don’t dry out – crucial once they’re flowering. Runner beans are tender and loathe cold, wet ground, so it makes sense to sow inside and plant out after all risk of frost has passed, once the ground has had a chance to warm up. If you’re seeking an enormous crop, try two lines of supports joined into an A-frame. A circular wigwam of six or eight poles works well in a smaller space, or try one of the dwarf cultivars in a container. Whatever your choice of support, make sure it’s beautiful and strong – about 2.5m (8ft) tall. Once plants start to crop, you need to pick young pods every couple of days. Try not to let them grow large and fat on the plant. Eat them, give them away, freeze them… just don’t stop picking – unless you’re growing a cultivar like ‘Greek Gigantes’ for dried beans. Poor set, when flowers fail to form pods, can occasionally be a problem with runner beans (see right). If this is caused by very hot weather, there’s not much to be done, but it’s worth doing all you can to entice lots of pollinators into your garden and ensure the plants never go short of water. You could also choose a self-pollinating cultivar (brought about by crossing runner beans with French beans) such as redflowered ‘Firestorm’ or prolific cropping white-flowered ‘Moonlight’.