Wigwam for runner beans

[SusieG]

If this is covered somewhere else, apologies!

I'm making my wigwam for my runner beans this weekend.

I have 8 runner bean plants. So, eight bamboo canes tied together at the top. I've seen some that have twine running around the circumference of the wigwam in stages. Is this bit necessary, and why, if so, for runners as I thought they just grew straight upwards?

Stick wigwam in prepped patch then: 1 plant per pole (planted right next to it?) and water in. Anything else I'm missing, please?

[muddled]

Beans need a little encouragement to cling to canes and its easier to 'catch' them round string at first. You don't want them lounging around on the floor like slugbait.

As for the wigwam (I use a munty myself) I always put one plant AND one seed at every station to give me some succession.

[Containergardener]

Does the slug not just munch the new beans growth ? I havnt tried that approach as I do in containers.

[Jay22]

I grow mine in pots with wigwam supports. Used copper tape round the pots last year and had no slug damage after I did this!

[Jay22]

Never thought of doing that muddled...will try this year! . Always learning new things on here.

[SusieG]

Does the slug not just munch the new beans growth ? I havnt tried that approach as I do in containers.

I've only ever grown them in containers too, so slugs have never been an issue .....
Hmmm, problems on the horizon ... Maybe should've grown extras as back-up, but it's a bit late now, right?

[Chippy Minton]

Not too late. Beans don't like the cold so I'm only just starting ours. Maybe it's me though, ma�ana....

[SusieG]

Beans need a little encouragement to cling to canes and its easier to 'catch' them round string at first. You don't want them lounging around on the floor like slugbait.

As for the wigwam (I use a munty myself) I always put one plant AND one seed at every station to give me some succession.

Just re-read your post muddled - so if I put a seed right next to the plant, the seed will grow in situ and grow up next to its 'older' partner?

[muddled]

yep.

and now I'm waffling because the message said my post is too short.

[Jay22]

Nope...I'm sure you can sow seed where they are to grow until June?

This was in answer to Chippy!

[SusieG]

So all's not lost then, yippee!! Excellent news

[Penellype]

I sowed runner bean seeds on 24th June last year and they were fine. Just started producing beans as my earlier ones gave up the ghost.

I also put a seed in beside seedlings I am planting out, although like direct sown peas there is always the risk that mice will eat them.

[Cadalot]

Mine are just pushing their heads up from the top of the loo rolls that they have been sown in, bamboo BBQ skewers provide support as they grow, when they reach the top of the skewer they go into the ground. Then two weeks after I sow a bean next to each string for a second plant to follow the first.

[Bigmallly]

I'm wondering if when you have seen wigwams with string around them, they have been used for growing peas up as peas have tendrils & need something extra to grab onto. Runner & French Beans don't so they just wind themselves around the canes.

[mothhawk]

I don't have room for a munty, and I got fed up of the horrible tangle at the top of a wigwam where all the beans eventually run out of cane and twirl around each other making a thick clump where you can't find the beans. So now I grow them up vertical canes, spaced about 6" apart, one bean per cane. I tie the vertical canes in to a horizontal cane about 3 feet up to provide some stability to the row. I find them much better behaved this way in my small garden.