Runner Bean question

[Mi Jardín]

Hi all,

I have a question for you....which runner bean variety do you prefer?

I grew White Lady last year, but cannot decide whether to use the seeds I saved from them or try another one. I was thinking of a stringless one maybe.

[TEB]

I tend to check on the RHS site and look for varieties that have the RHS Garden of Merit award, I think I sowed The Prince last year, got a huge crop and still some left in the freezer.

Just checked and they werent The Prince (Dwarf French) it was Enorma

[toastie]

We also grew White Lady last year and still have a freezer full of them. Saved seeds last year which we plan to use this year but we are not going to plant as many. Have dug a trench, filled it with veg peelings etc and horse manure (which we also did last year) so hopefully we will have another good year.

[Storming Norman]

I grew white lady last year - it seemed not to be quite as a tasty as others I have previously grown - my mother was very sceptical about them.

Usually I grow seeds my mother buys as she seems to know what works and tastes best - she swears by T&M runner bean seeds and says no others match them. She particularly liked butler and grew them for years.

Last year I saw Wisley Magic growing in the veg garden at Wisley Gardens. I went back several times over the summer and it was far ahead of anything other variety they were growing - really prolific, and robust in the poor weather. I will be trying this variety this year [as well as Lady Di]. There is a drawback to this variety - they are not stringless, so need to be picked smaller.

Ann

[Jardiniere]

they dont sell runner beans here (or if they do, i've not seen them)so i grew cobra last year which is a climbing haricot ,,,(french) bean and they are brilliant .

[GardeningMike]

Yes, I think there is a lot of hype around White Lady, a marketing ploy I guess. It's been around for some time but just don't understand why it's suddenly being advertised so much by some seeds producers.

In 2007, I compared two varietes in a trial in my backyard. Using my growth/cultivation conditions (in pots) White Lady averaged around 1.3 Kg of harvestable pods per plant while Painted Lady (been around since the 1860s) yielded 2.0 Kg of harvestable pods per plant on average, the latter bearing pods from mid-July to October.

Celebration, St George, Red Rum appear to be the highest yielding in RHS trials (you'll find these online). Red Rum is the only variety I've heard of that apparently self-pollinates (you wont need bees for pod setting). It is also supposed to be more tolerant to hot weather and have better disease resistance than other varieties. I am curious to try Red Rum this year to test this out for myself - will believe the self pollination thing if I get harvestable pods in my yard before July.

I found the pods of Painted Lady very tasty, and the red&white flowers very attractive, more so than White Lady. I saw a variety today called Liberty on sale in small packets at Wyevale - it was advertised as having 60 cm long pods. The longest I'm used to getting is around 30 cm!

[Pickle]

I'm trying out Hestia this year which is a stringless dwarf variety and I think it is supposed to be similar to Painted Lady. Has anyone else tried these? What did you think of them? Still haven't decided whether I should be sowing the dried beans I have from my climbing runners that I harvested last year (can't remember what variety they were)

[Pompey allotmenteer]

Yes I did grow Hestia last year on my terrace but I got virtually no crop at all. However, it was not really a fair trial as the summer was not great and although my terrace is a sun trap around middle of day there is no sun first thing and then from 4pm so perhaps that was the problem. I'm not sure the dwarf form is very natural for a runner bean... they like to run I'm not going to bother again and will be growing Polestar and another variety at the allotment.

[kate&rob]

i grew white emergo last year and was overrun with beans, growing them again this year. didn't feed them particularly. kept going till almost the first frosts.

[-pat m]

Someone recommended painted lady on here for growing in poly tunnel and I have taken them up on that advice. The seeds have taken ages to germinate but are forging ahead at a rate of knots now

Regards

Pat

[SarzWix]

We grew Enorma and Scarlet Emperor last year. The Enorma did really well, and were even edible when forgotten/missed in the foliage. The Scarlet Emperor did ok considering the weather, and were tasty, but didn't do quite as well as the Enorma. I'll be doing them both again this year because I still have seeds left, but I'll do more of the Enorma

[Eyren]

I've grown Painted Lady in the past - very pretty flowers, and nice beans too as long as they are picked fairly young. However I've run out of the seed (didn't bother to save any from my plants as I know runners cross very easily), so this year I'm trying two stringless varieties: Desiree (white flowers) and Red Knight (red, obviously!). Both are supposed to be well-flavoured, especially Desiree.

As Jardiniere says, runner beans aren't common elsewhere in Europe where summers are drier - they are known to need plenty of water, which is rarely a problem in our climate!

[Mi Jardín]

Hmmm, there seems to be a lot of Painted Lady growers out there. Maybe I'll give them a go too, and the red flowers will brighten up the veggie bed too!
I guess its trial and error.....

[selfraising]

I grew Flamenco last year which is a dwarf variety, a cross between Hestia and (I can't remember the other variety), it was ideal for containers, pretty flowers and quite prolific

[vegnut]

I grew Merit last year and was rewarded with very tasty pods. But i found them to get stringy quite quickly, so had to pick them young. I have a few seeds left, which i will sow to use up. Then i will pick a stringless variety (not sure what yet) to try out, it doesn't matter what ones, i find that they are all much of a muchness, especially if you cut them off and throw them all in the same bag. Still very yummy though.