Beans in pots

[Flummery]

Many thanks to all of you.

I think I'll join you in trying the dwarf beans on the windowsill Flummery. How many do you plant to a bucket?

I put 6 in. There are 2 of us and we only got a couple of meals from it but I love an early crop!

[Sylvan]

SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED. Leo Mc something or other TV barrister.

Colin

Ooh, better not let Grumpy see this, or he'll start calling me that!

[Sylvan]

I put 6 in. There are 2 of us and we only got a couple of meals from it but I love an early crop!

Me too. I did that with peas one year.

Did you sow them straight into the bucket or start them off in little pots?
(The only beans I've grown so far have been broad beans).

[Snadger]

I grew Kfine beans in a large pot (18" diam) last year and the same pot whence cleared of beans was planted up with Japanese onions. Onions are doing well but I haven't decided yet what I will plant the pot up with come June/July when the onions are harvested......maybe a few celery plants?

[Sylvan]

I have some pots of around that size (Asda was selling them at a very good price a few years ago) but I'm keeping them in case some more irresistible fruit tree offers come along.

It's a good thing Grumpy has the patience of Job!

We have scores of flower buckets though. At one point we couldn't make it back from a shopping trip without another batch. They've had peas, mange-tout, toms, courgettes, tetties, garlic and baby trees in them so far.
They also get filled with mpc and brought inside so I can use the dining table for seed sowing and potting on ('cos I can't manage a whole compost bag), then they somehow find themselves filling up with kitchen scraps and weeds on the way back down the garden... and there's a long line of rainwater-filled ones outside the sheds.

And they do fit nicely on the windowsills.

[Dead Dogs]

I'll probably want to pick your brains about gardening in Caithness at some point - we're hoping to move up there.

Hi Sylvan,

Only move here September 2009 and didn't start trying to grow anythine until spring 2010, so still learning. One thing I have learnt is, it's windy. The few Brussel Sprouts I tried to grow outside were blown out of the ground.

First thing I did was to buy a large polytunnel and this has work fantastic. Xmas spuds were doing great, up until end of November when the snow came. The spud were small, but tasted lovely.

[Flummery]

Me too. I did that with peas one year.

Did you sow them straight into the bucket or start them off in little pots?
(The only beans I've grown so far have been broad beans).

Straight in. (At the deep end - that's me!)

[Sylvan]

Wind I can cope with. Until a couple of years ago we lived at 1500 ft (about 450 metres) on the side of an east/west running wind tunnel.
The polytunnel helped a great deal.
So did the shelter I created using trellis and climbers.

Are you near the coast or up in the hills?

Straight in. (At the deep end - that's me!)

But I can't swim!

[Croila]

Runner beans in pots

Sylvan, as well as growing them in the ground, I grew runner beans in two pots last year - a wee bit bigger than Morrisons flower buckets, but not massively.

I just put "normal" compost in the pots and made sure they were watered enough. And fed them with a bit of organic seaweed fertiliser now and again. And I got a fabulous crop from them!

This photo shows beans in the ground on the right and beans in pots in the middle of the picture. Despite them being different varieties and different growing conditions, I couldn't tell the difference in taste at all.

The beans in pots did blow over once (Edinburgh's horrible for wind) but I just leaned a couple of concrete slabs against the pots and they were fine after that.

I think the biggest things to watch out for are making sure the pots don't dry out and making sure the support canes are tall enough.

Green out of control by croila, on Flickr

[Potstubsdustbins]

Croila,

Nice one shows just what can be done, two or three plants in a pot that big and as you say a very good crop.

As to them being blown over have you thought of a washing line hook or maybe a hinged 22mm plastic pipe clip screwed to the wall and then tie the top of the canes to that.

Colin

[Croila]

That's not a bad idea, anchoring them to the wall ... I absolutely love beans and will grow (loads!) more this year, so I'll have to sort the pots out properly

[Sylvan]

Those beans are very impressive croila. What size are the pots?

[Croila]

Thanks Sylvan ... I think the diameter of them is about 16" (sorry, don't want to go out to the shed to check right now!!)

I had three bean plants in each pot and three poles tied together at the top with string. It seemed a very economical way to get a great haul of runner beans - and they were really pretty growing too.


Last legs by croila, on Flickr
I've got another picture here of the beans' last day, in October when they were all finished. Can't wait to get this year's beans growing!

[Sylvan]

Your pears look lovely too.

[Croila]

Thank you! It's a shame they tasted vile though. We only moved in here a year ago and I "inherited" that pear tree. The pears were so horrible I'm very tempted to rip the tree out and put a plum tree there instead. I wonder if a plum tree would grow there? I put organic fertiliser and compost (for the leeks) at the foot of that pear tree but the pears were inedible.