[Li]

Morning all I have grown quite a few beans and they are at a height of 30cm's  :ohmy:is it too early to plant out on lotty. Much appreciate any help, I am growing out of room lol xxx

[BabbyAnn]

yes and no - you could plant them out and a frost may kill them off.  Then again, you might get lucky and they survive and you are well ahead of everyone else     You could always plant them and get ready to sow another batch to be on the safe side

[Salmo]

They will start to run upwards and take a lot of room as well as being difficult to plant out with a yard long shoot . Rather than allow them to do this it is better to pinch the tips out. They will continue to increase their roots and bush out ready to grow away fast when you plant them out.

[rubberfrog]

difficult to plant out with a yard long shoot .

I sowed my runners too early last year and a hell of a time untwisting the stems before planting.  Hands in pockets for me this year.


You could plants some out and offer some sort of protection for them.  I have a couple of lengths of corrugated sheet, I use to break the elements.

RF

[bravemurphy]

For very early sowings I would plant them and wrap them in clear polythene the one on a 5 foot roll.

[Totty]

I'd chuck them and sow some more. You could wrap them in plastic as mentioned, but why bother? Runners don't want to grow away strongly yet as it's too cold. If you sowed some more now, they will grow steadily before going out when weather permits.
My first sowing will be next week, and the rest at the end of May.

Totty

[azubah]

Check the weather forecast in your area. All real gardeners are obsessed with the night time temps just now.

I have finally sown 8 runner beans today in pots. I just could not help myself.
Previously I have sown them as late as the middle of May and still worried about it being too early.
I keep a diary of the temperatures at this time of year in this area, and it is full of comments such as 'frost tonight' and 'cold wind' and 'snow' during April and even part of May.

[beesrus]

Runners and French beans are one of the few plants I never try to sow too early, mainly because there is always plenty of time to get a crop before the Summer ends. Next week sowing for me.
Salmo's advice to nip the growing points is interesting and could be the ideal solution. Regardless of frost, runners get blown about at the best of times when first planted out, let alone being rather too tall for the time of year. I wouldn't plant out yet. If it were me, I would hang on, cut the growing tip somewhat, and sow an interesting different variety as some back up. Might get two crops, as long as you have enough bamboo to spare.

[jsgreen89]

Runners and French beans are one of the few plants I never try to sow too early, mainly because there is always plenty of time to get a crop before the Summer ends. Next week sowing for me.
Salmo's advice to nip the growing points is interesting and could be the ideal solution. Regardless of frost, runners get blown about at the best of times when first planted out, let alone being rather too tall for the time of year. I wouldn't plant out yet. If it were me, I would hang on, cut the growing tip somewhat, and sow an interesting different variety as some back up. Might get two crops, as long as you have enough bamboo to spare.

Excuse my ignorance, but when can you pinch the tips? I planted 3-4 beans in pots indoors just for the heck of it, and one (Cobra French bean) is now 15cm tall after only poking through the soil 3-4 days ago. There is only one pair of leaves right at the top that haven't even fully unfolded. Shall I leave it for a while longer?

[Li]

Many thanks to you all for the imfo i think i will pinch tops as too many to throw

[strider84]

My were sown the beginning of the month in a unheated cheapy plastic greenhouse along with my French beans they are about 6 inchs tall now so I too am thinking of planting them out before they start tangling themselves up.

If frost is expected I'll just chuck some fleece over them.

[azubah]

Runners and French beans are one of the few plants I never try to sow too early, mainly because there is always plenty of time to get a crop before the Summer ends. Next week sowing for me.
Salmo's advice to nip the growing points is interesting and could be the ideal solution. Regardless of frost, runners get blown about at the best of times when first planted out, let alone being rather too tall for the time of year. I wouldn't plant out yet. If it were me, I would hang on, cut the growing tip somewhat, and sow an interesting different variety as some back up. Might get two crops, as long as you have enough bamboo to spare.

Excuse my ignorance, but when can you pinch the tips? I planted 3-4 beans in pots indoors just for the heck of it, and one (Cobra French bean) is now 15cm tall after only poking through the soil 3-4 days ago. There is only one pair of leaves right at the top that haven't even fully unfolded. Shall I leave it for a while longer?

leave them longer.. they will shoot out from where the leaves are.

[Dai]

I sowed some runners way too early which i had to throw on the compost but ive just sown 40 more which havnt shown yet and i think im going to sow in succession this year as ive bought loads of them.

I also sowed some dwarf bean varieties straight into the plot last week which i think was a bit early but what the hell, if the frost kills them then i have an excuse to appease my seed buying addiction.

[Goosegirl]

Runners and French beans are one of the few plants I never try to sow too early, mainly because there is always plenty of time to get a crop before the Summer ends. Next week sowing for me.
Salmo's advice to nip the growing points is interesting and could be the ideal solution. Regardless of frost, runners get blown about at the best of times when first planted out, let alone being rather too tall for the time of year. I wouldn't plant out yet. If it were me, I would hang on, cut the growing tip somewhat, and sow an interesting different variety as some back up. Might get two crops, as long as you have enough bamboo to spare.

Excuse my ignorance, but when can you pinch the tips? I planted 3-4 beans in pots indoors just for the heck of it, and one (Cobra French bean) is now 15cm tall after only poking through the soil 3-4 days ago. There is only one pair of leaves right at the top that haven't even fully unfolded. Shall I leave it for a while longer?

They sound like they haven't had enought light, but not to worry - you could always use some foil behind them to help when the other stems show. I'm not sure how many leaves a stem needs to have before you pinch out the top, but I guess about three pairs?

[Agatha]

I knew someone who always planted his runners out in April - he planted them wigwam style & wrapped several layers of fleece round the base of the wigwam after planting.  Always seemed to work for him so you could try that if you run out of space.