Runner Beans Query

[Kayt]

I've just taken on a new allotment and there is a 'bean cage' very firmly in place. Can someone answer the following questions:
Is it ok to plant runners in the same place each year?
If it is, do I need to add anything specific to the soil?
Or is it best to move the cage each year - not an easy task as it appears to be well and truly constructed.

Thanks

[Hans Mum]

some people do grow them against static frames, the secret is to dig a trench along the base of the frame and fill it with organic material over the coming months,and back fill it with the soil dont worry if you end up with a mound (like a filled in grave) it will rot down beans are very very greedy if you make sure they have plenty of organic matter every year you should be ok

[Flummery]

Some of the old chaps on our allotment site have grown theirs in the same place since Adam was a lad. Beans actually add nitrogen to the soil so you needn't worry about feeding them. The reason you add lots of stuff underneath is really to act as a water sink for the dry weather. Runners won't set if they get dry.

[snuffer]

Hi Kayt. Although I operate a strict crop rotation for everything else, My runner beans have been in the same place for the last eight years. In all likely hood they've been growing there a lot longer. The previous owner of 'The Cottage' grew her runners in the same spot.

Having said that I do occasionally Take down all the canes and make the classic bean trench. This autumn will be the third time since living here but the canes will go back in exactly the same place.

Editing because I forgot to mention, always have a bumper crop and have never had any problems with desease. Growing in the same place seems to have no detrimental effect at all.

[bluemoon]

I always move mine, but some of the old boys on the lotties have had theirs in the same place for years. Legumes tend not to suffer the amount of pests and diseases that other crops do, so it's safe to leave them. I move them because I have a four course rotation and like the fact that they fix nitrogen for the following crops, but I think it's largely a case of your own personal preference and convenience.

[Two_Sheds]

If you're digging a bean trench every autumn and filling it with compost every winter: then it's going to be "fresh ground" every year isn't it?
You're in effect rotating the soil, not the crop.

[Kayt]

Thank you everybody. The bean cage will stay where it is I think. I'll do the trench this year and get into a pattern of doing that ever few years. Thanks again

Have just read your comment Two Sheds and thats very true so probably good idea to do the trench each year then. Thanks

[bobleponge]

Two Sheds
It must have been while you were kissing me, for you took the words right out of my mouth.
I grow my beans in the same place and have done for 3 years, bit of a bad year last year to be fair, but will continue on in the same place as the old woman who has a potager I pass every day told me she has grown hers in the same place every year since she started growing.
She of course may have only started growing last year, but I dont think thats likely.

[rustylady]

Beans are one of the few crops that don't seem to suffer from soil-borne disease, so they're fine in the same place year after year. However they do appreciate lots of organic matter (mainly as a moisture reservoir), so I dig out a trench under my frame in the autumn and fill it with part-rotted compost. It really does improve the crop.

[Snadger]

I don't paricularily like runner beans so I don't grow em anymore myself!

If you are going to grow any vegetable by a monoculture regime you have to be prepared to do a lot work, i.e. digging trench, adding organic matter and filling in trench before sowing/planting.

To be honest, when I did grow runners I rotated the crop as with everything else as I couldn't be bothered to leave a trench full of rotting vegetation all winter!
The trench CAN be lined with polythene with holes punched in it for drainage first, then the water retaining material then the soil. This way the polythene is dragged out each autumn and soil/manure mix is consigned to the area you take next years soil from. This way you are still rotating crops!
The main beauty of the system, I suppose, is that the main end supports can be concreted in permanently giving a very stong support for the canes!

[fwuffydragon]

Personally, I move mine around the plot as I rotate everything else. It also means that I plant a little wigwam of about 4-6 plants every few weeks where I have room, rather than planting a huge row all at once!

[Adel]

beanfeast

this year has to be the best so far for runners..30 washing up bowls I filled so far with beans almost 20 inches long and thousands of flowers left.

I dig a 3 mtr trench about a spade depth around 14 inches and fill this with the previous year's compost consisting of weeds, grass etc etc topped with nettles which helps to rot the greenery faster. On top of that layer goes lawn clippings trampled in as not to leave "holes" then fill the trench with all the soil. Then I dug a hole on the left side of the pole, added a small handful of growmore and the plant, same goes for the other side, and so on to the remaining poles
I double up every plant on one pole 100 in total