[Anton]

Dear Members,

I put in some runner beans two days ago. They seem to be thriving. They are in the paper plant plots rather than being grown from seed. There are two plants in each plant pot, rather close together, and one pot at each station (each cane). Should I cut it down to one plant per station when I see they are doing well or leave them both there? And they are almost a finger high, so should I tie them to a cane?

Anton

[Yorkie]

My initial reaction is to leave both in their pots - they can grow apart; others may well have better opinions though!

As for tying in, they should climb on their own accord, although sometimes I tie in the long shoots to start with (but not when they're only a finger tall) if they're really leggy from being grown indoors.

[Trillium]

For now I'd be tempted to leave both in and see which turns out to be the stronger later. You just never know with nature and critters. 

[DavidT]

Anton, it is normal to grow 2 plants per cane, so as Yorkie1 says, leave them be.

[Salmo]

I would leave them both. They may not produce any more beans than a single plant but they will produce no less and you have insurance if one is damaged.

[Anton]

Thanks for all your tips. So I leave two to a pot even though they are quite close together in the pot?

Anton

[Kristen]

They have each got half the outside of the pot to themselves!

[janiejakemum]

I did not use the paper pots for my runners i planted straight into the ground but i have always planted my beans out quite heavily - up to 6 per cane, mine have always done very well having said that the paper pots can sometimes come out a bit narrow, i would say break the paper as you plant them out to make sure they can grow without having to wait for the pot to break down.