Runner Beans

Runner Bean's are excellent tasting vegetables, their plants produce beautiful white and red flower which look appealing. They are easy to grow and are guaranteed to taste better than shop bought ones as they are sadly rough and stringy in texture. Each pod will typically grow to 30cm in length and should be picked young to remain smooth and firm. Cold winds can damage runner beans so don't plant them outdoors too early.

Runner beans need a support to climb up. The traditional method is to grow them individually up inwardly sloping 2.4m (8ft) tall bamboo canes tied near their top to a horizontal cane. If you slope the bamboo canes so that they meet in the middle and tie them here so that the ends of the canes extend beyond the row you will find picking is easier and the yield is usually better.

When growing in beds and borders a wigwam of canes takes up less room and helps produce an ornamental feature.

Loosely tie the plants to their supports after planting; after that they will climb naturally. Remove the growing point once the plants reach the top of their support.

Keep an eye out for slugs and blackfly that may attack the plants.

Flower set

Runner beans sometimes fail to set and there are a number of causes - and a number of solutions.

Ensuring the soil is constantly moist and doesn't dry out is the first key to success; mulch the soil in June. Misting the foliage and flowers regularly, especially during hot and dry weather, will increase humidity around the flowers and help improve flower set.

Flower set is better in alkaline, chalky soils. If your soil is neutral or acidic it pays to use lime.

Another way to improve flower set is to pinch out the growing tips of the plants when they are 15cm (6in) high. The flowers formed on the resulting sideshoots usually set better.

If you regularly have problems it would be worth growing pink or white-flowered cultivars, such as 'Painted Lady' or 'Mergoles', which usually set pods more easily.

Start harvesting when the pods are 15-20cm (6-8in) long and certainly before the beans inside begin to swell.

It is vital that you pick regularly to prevent any pods reaching maturity; once this happens plants will stop flowering and no more pods will be set. If you pick regularly, plants will crop for up to eight weeks or more.

Recipes

Nigel Slater recommends serving this runner beans with lemon and garlic crumbs, as a lovely side dish for grilled fish.

Varieties

White Lady AGM:

A top-quality bean with fleshy, smooth, stringless pods.

‘Hestia’:This is a new dwarf runner bean, ideal for containers, only growing to about 45cm (18in), but still producing high quality, delicious beans. As it is short it can be netted against bird attack.

‘St George’ AGM: A heavy cropping, semi-stringless bean, with bi-coloured red and white flowers.

‘White Apollo’ AGM:The long, smooth fleshy pods crop over a long season and are excellent quality.