Runner beans

[GardeningMike]

Spraying with water will not pollinate Runner Beans

I have been told that fine spraying with water will pollinate the beans. Is this true as we have no bees or even bumble bees in quantity here because I think of lving at the dge of the ocean.

Nope hillyannie, this will not work. Neither will spraying with weak sugar solution as some advocate! If bees are very sparse, and you want a climbing bean, why not try some climbing French beans. French beans (dwarf or climbers) self-pollinate (no need for insects)

[GardeningMike]

You spray the flowers with water to puff them up (they can get too limp and floppy if it's really dry, so bees can't get inside them).

If your flowers are getting limp and floppy it either means they have either come to the end of their brief life (only 24 to 48 hours in warm weather) and may/may not be already pollinated, or the plants have become dehydrated in which case no amount of spraying will recover them [the wilted flowers] and this will be followed by a copious shedding of young pods over the following 7 to 10 days.

Runner beans are very sensitive to even mild water stress. If you are using pot grown runner beans, ensure the pot saucers ALWAYS have water or weak fertilizer solution in them and NEVER dry out. Always water from above (potting compost surface) till saucer overflow on a daily basis. If saucers dry out, even if leaves & flowers do not show wilting, serious pod drop can follow.

[GardeningMike]

Failure to set pods

hello Gardening Mike
I am new to gowing runner beans and I am in the West of Scotland (Oban).. I tried them a few years ago and had great success with the germination and flowering. However, I only ended up with 1 runner bean and very tasty it was too. I would have liked a lot more of them. Where did I go wrong?

Well, I'm afraid I can't say exactly. It seems though that the problem was clearly to do with pod setting as you had flowering. Problems with pod set can be due to any one of , or a combination of, the following:
- lack of bees visiting flowers to pollinate (persistent wind can keep bees away)
- insufficient moisture in the soil
- night temperatures being greater than 14 C during pollination
- being too cold
- too much shade

[evie451]

this is great thanks folks i am new to the bean family this year. I knew about the bee problem so i was going to put my six hills giant mints near the beans to try and attract them.....i tried bran for the slugs last year and also rings of 2 and 1p pieces as i couldn't afford the copper bands for everything, has anyone else tried the penny trick?

[GardeningMike]

i tried bran for the slugs last year and also rings of 2 and 1p pieces as i couldn't afford the copper bands for everything, has anyone else tried the penny trick?

2 & 1p pieces in a ring around the base of the plants on the soil - now that's an idea, and you get your money back at the end of the season to spend as you wish which is something you can't do with copper tape!!!

[Two_Sheds]

i tried bran for the slugs last year and also rings of 2 and 1p pieces

Copper-coated steel coins. Interesting, do they work? Or do they get buried with soil? UK coins

Bran does work, but you need to renew it after rain.

[evie451]

yeah they did work two sheds, seems to be enough copper to do the trick i found that you needed to keep an eye on the bed and keep the ring in shape but they seemed to work i ended up with two rings round some things as some of the evil molluscs were so big the single ring didn't seem to bother them! They love the bran though, does anyone know does it harm them or do they just prefer it to the plants?

[Two_Sheds]

Bran kills slugs

[Flummery]

Bran kills slugs

I suspect it's toxic to people too! I know it's really good for the system but it's just vile!

[GardeningMike]

Exploding slugs...

I have heard that dry porridge oat flakes, relished by slugs, makes slugs explode (what a way to go!) Haven't tried it myself though (no... I don't mean me eating dry oat flakes ). Not sure how that works... anyone heard anything similar or tried it?

[Victoria26]

back to the runner bean thread...

I've put one lonely little one in the plot to experiment. So far its doing really well... I've named him Hardy! Lol! I know I'll lose him and its too early to have sown them but i've not grown legumes before.

[Eyren]

I have heard that dry porridge oat flakes, relished by slugs, makes slugs explode (what a way to go!) Haven't tried it myself though (no... I don't mean me eating dry oat flakes ). Not sure how that works... anyone heard anything similar or tried it?

I haven't tried oat flakes (I think my Scots husband would object!), but fine woodshavings do a similar job, at least in so far as slugs don't like to crawl on it. This year I'm going to try the bran, as I picked up a big bag from the country store quite cheaply.

I'm guessing that the exploding thing works because the dry food absorbs moisture from the slug's body and swells up. If the slug eats too much of it - well, it's Mr Creosote time