[juvenal]

Leave your selected runners on the plant to dry, or pick them off when still green and dry them inside shed/garage etc?

[Audy70]

I've left mine on the vine but with it raining every few days, I'm thinking of harvesting them to dry indoors. I just found this from another website.

Leave drying pods on the plants as long as you can, but harvest them before a period of prolonged rain. If damp weather sets in just when your beans should be drying, pull up the plants and hang them upside down in a dry place until the beans are dry enough to pick and sort. Collect drying pods from pole varieties and runner beans as they change to tan or brown, and let the pods dry until crisp in a shallow tray or box kept indoors.

I hope this helps

Moderator's note: please quote source when copying and pasting from other websites to avoid potential copyright issues.
Above quote is from: http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/vegetables/growing-dry-beans-and-peas-zm0z14amzsto.aspx?PageId=3#ArticleContent

[Ema]

Mine are still on the plants, they look vile for eating but too green for seeds yet. Annoying as they are casting a lot of shade on my curing squashes.

[Blackpool rocket]

I used to save seeds but now I only grow two specific varieties Moonlight (this year) and Firestorm (last year & next year)
I could save the seeds but I couldn't be sure that they were 'true' because you can't know what has pollinated the bean & via what.

Actually, now I think about it, both those varieties are self-fertile, which is why I buy them! so could they in fact be pollinated by a different variety & mutate or would the process already have started before nature arrived

Br

[heygrow]

I picked a couple of runner pods that had got very fat, but still green and removed the beans,  which are a good size. I have put them in an envelope to dry with a view to seeing if they will germinste next year.
I have not tried this before. Is there a reason they need to dry in thd pods, rather that what I have done?

As an aside, I have a couple of broad bean plants that germinated in my plot from beans that must have dropped in the soil from this summers crop. So they just did the natural thing they were designed to do. I could have left them, but they were not where I wanted them and there were only two.

[Maarten]

I think the beans that are taken before the pod ripens, are very vulnerable to fungus and drying out. Their skin probably needs to harden to be able to withstand the outside world.

[Salmo]

Moonligh and Firestorm I think are hybrid varieties (may be wrong) in which case they will not breed true even if self pollinated. You will get a mix of their parents and as they are a cross between French and Runners the results may be interesting.

[surbie100]

As far as I can see neither Moonlight or Firestorm are F1s. They are the result of a cross between a runner and a French bean but the cross is stable.

[JayG]

The bean seeds need to be left long enough to develop to their full size if you intend to sow them, although that doesn't necessarily mean you need to leave the pods on the plant until they go brown.

After harvesting, I shell the beans and dry them for about a week in a tray in a warm place before storing in a cool dry place in a paper envelope to avoid any condensation forming.

Even though there are very few people in my neighbourhood growing beans of any description, I have occasionally managed to get a red flowered 'White Lady' plant from saved seed  - cross-pollination is much less likely to happen with good self-pollinators but it can still happen.

[Salmo]

As far as I can see neither Moonlight or Firestorm are F1s. They are the result of a cross between a runner and a French bean but the cross is stable.

In that case I shall save some of my firestorm. You will be in trouble JayG if my beans are a bit odd next year