[mattleys]

Hi all

Couple of questions about runner beans - is it alright to grow them in the same spot as last year? I've got a garden plot, limited space and not many options due to shade etc. But I'll find a space if using the same pot would be disastrous! Same question applies to broad beans and courgettes...

Also - I kept some mature beans from last year's crop (Scarlet Emperor from Mr Fothergill's) - will these grow successfully? And if so, will I be able to keep doing this ad infinitum? Something about Charles Darwin in the back of my mind tells me not...

Incidentally, last year was my first crack at growing my own - total novice - and we had a wonderful crop of runner beans, courgettes, broad beans, lettuces...with a lot of help from this site. So thanks everyone, and thanks in advance on this one.

[Brambles]

Hi...  I'm by no means an expert, just bumble along best I can and find things just grow, some better than others.   I find beans of all varieties very easy to grow..  I have always saved my bean seeds and they have always been fine up till now.   
As for planting in the same spot as last year... I wouldn't unless there is no alternative!  even if you just swap beans and courgette spaces.   Apart from taking the same nutrients out of the ground each year, if you keep using the same spots you will eventually get disease/pests which might blight your plot for a long time  
I am sure that someone will come along soon and tell you exactly what to do!   Good luck with your plantings

[mumofstig]

Some of the old boys on the allotments grow their beans in the same place year after year
 they seem to get away with it They all seem to dig a bean trench so perhaps this sort of counts as changing the soil
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=30392.0
but i would still advise changing your bean space at least every few years....... the other crops .......just pop 'em in wherever you have the room

[sean moore]

another novice here whats the best way to dry / save the seed for the following
year in the pod or out?

[Bombers]

another novice here whats the best way to dry / save the seed for the following
year in the pod or out?

Just leave the last few beans on the plant. As the leaves dye back, and the pods are going brownish in colour, pull them off and store in a cool, dry place. I leave mine on the workbench in the garage. Once they have dried and gone brittle, remove the beans from the pods, and store as you would all other seeds. I've saved mine for years.

[celjaci]

Definately worth saving your own seed  of loads of veg and beans are an easy one to start with. They may cross with other beans grown on the same site but Hey! the're all beans and a little variation is no bad thing.
Some people have been saving there own seed for up to 50 years and kept an old strain going.
Do save seed from a healthy, vigorous plant, and once collected and dried, keep in a cool, dry place

[PAH48]

I've noticed most guys on the plots seem to plant in the same area each year.
Also what most seem to do is dig out the area  one or two spits deep and
add mulch, compost or as I have this year a couple of buckets of manure.
Put the soil back and plant on, also shredded paper I've seen added, moisture
content ect....and most save their seeds.. as described above....

Happy planting....

[Jay Dubya]

Hi, all the above hep is great advice on sites, what i want to add is saving seed i think that where you can save seed do, when you see show seed catalouges and they say reselected it just means they have been saving the seed from the best pod year on year gradually improving the variety, you can do the same. Also i'm convinced that a reselected seed will be happier growing in the same environment and climate it's been used to. 

[johnhar]

Most peas & beans are self fertile so they still come true to variety (about 95% true).
I prefer to change position every year , but only to fit in with my land use, my father used to have a permanent rig ti put his sticks up to, and he grew some very good crops . I grow a variety called Red Rum, it is the best one i have found for setting in difficult weather conditions, and it has a very good flavour.
   John :happy:

[Stripey_cat]

In my experience, runner beans are more promiscuous than French, broad or peas.  You save seeds from a white-seeded strain grown next to a dark strain, and you'll see what I mean!

The second question - so long as you don't keep seed from only a single plant (at which point you might eventually start to get rather inbred, although the pollination parents would still be different initially), you can keep a strain going for as long as you like.  There are a few varieties that are hundreds of years old, after all.

[Jay Dubya]

Hi, i like the old Enorma ( reselected as stenner in the show catalouges ) i think it's very much underrated, a good cropper and stringless if picked young.

[mattleys]

Thanks everyone - very useful advice. I'll plant last year's saved beans in the same plot  year to see how I get on. Fifty years from now I'm hoping to develop a new variety of London N4 runner beans!