Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: samnorfolk on April 18, 2013, 01:10
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Hi my wife keeps on at me to get some runner beans on the go but i dont have much room i was wondering if they can been grown in grow bags at all??
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You'll have a bit of a job supporting them if grown somewhere where you can't stick canes on the soil.
You only need a bit of ground 2' x 2' to grow 16 plants in a wigwam formation.
Looking down from the top, put two plants in where each of these stars is with 1' spacing between each, an 8; cane at each station, pushed well into the ground and tied together at the top.
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c182/G4IAR/Publication1-5_zpse464403e.jpg)
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Grow bags are usually too shallow to grow runner beans in them, as well of course being difficult to support them as DD indicates.
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If you don't have a patch of garden available use a deep planter rather than a growbag - if it's smaller than in DD's diagram scale down the number of plants accordingly.
Keep well watered and locate somewhere either sheltered or near something you can guy the "wigwam" to to stop it falling over in windy conditions.
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I grew them in a grow bag against the wall of my house. You can get plastic ties with a putty substance so the ties can be stuck to the wall and you fasten the bean sticks to them. I put three beans per grow bag and had two grow bags. We had two meals a week from them. I did this for years until the acquisition of my plot this year. You have to water sometimes twice a day and feed weekly with liquid fertiliser. Good luck.
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You could try any deep pot or I've even seen them grow in the plastic trugs. The canes will need to go to the bottom of the container, but my gran used to get a reasonable crop in deep pots.
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I've grown them with great success in a 20L pot. 6 plants around the edge of the pot and it's deep and heavy enough when filled to put in canes to support them. It dries out very easily though once the plants get large so you have to water it every day, even in cool weather. I mixed in a load of chicken manure with the compost I used and didn't need to feed them though.
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last year I grew mine in flower buckets and let them ramble up a trellis and the side of my cat run. Wasnt keen on the beans, although they did grow well...I might do the same again this year just coz they are a very pretty climbing plant!
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You could try using the ring culture method with growbags that have been turned on their sides.....cuts down on the amount of compost you use too.
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ive got a container i made up which is a circle about just under a metre in diameter and a footor so deep im guessing i could get some going in this??
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and use the wigwam thing with the canes??
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Yes to both - you should be able to fit quite a few into a container that size.
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ok excellent and what sort of soil is best, do they like some rotted muck etc??
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They should do well in a mixture of well rotted muck and soil - although they can be grown in just multi-purpose compost the soil will improve the overall properties, including moisture retention, and also increase the weight which will help keep it upright if it's windy.
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We did runners in a black bin with a wigwam above, worked fine before we had an allotment. All you need to do is remove the rubbish bags first. :lol:
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Not disagreeing with anything that has been said, but a comment on the 'wigwam' system. In recent years my beans have produced the best crop in the top half of the cane. The bottom half flowers have dropped off due to weather conditions chiefly rain. Consequently the plants all grow towards each other and become a tangled mass.
Last year I grow my early beans in 1' square pots and put a cane in each corner following the line of the pot, i.e pointing outwards, and the situation was improved.
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You are absolutely right Ivor B - a wigwam is probably the least runner bean friendly arrangement there is, for the reasons you suggest.
It's probably the most stable for growing in a container though, and if you don't have any worries about people poking their eyes out an "X" arrangement (the canes crossing over near the middle) gives them more room.
I'm sure having them sloping outwards individually works very well too, although I'm surprised they don't wave around and come loose when it's windy unless tied together with shorter canes at the top? :unsure:
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So all points taken on board but what would the best solution for my runners?
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when I took over my plot there was a 2 foot square raised bed. In the middle of the bed was a piece of 2" x 2" timber about 7' long knocked into the ground. Fixed onto the top of that was an old bicycle wheel. The guy before me used to grow his beans up strings buried into the ground and tied to the wheel. I'm about to reassemble it in the next few days and do the same :)
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So all points taken on board but what would the best solution for my runners?
Plenty of relevant advice given look at replies# 3,4,5,6 and 7, for starters, the choice of container is up to you and your pocket ;)