I’ve always grown Firestorm, self pollinating, I have picked beans for one day so far and they weren’t really ready. They are covered with flowers and 1inch long beans, I don’t expect them until September.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
bédé I've given up being variety specific because every year I finish up with several hundred seed saved which are a mixture of what I've grown before. I therefore start by planting a tray of them around mid-March and wait to see what happens. While they're sorting themselves out, I create my circular pit of a metre diameter and fill it with a glutinous mess of kitchen bin compost, saved in a 200 litre plastic water butt since I dismantled the previous year's rig. I have 12 'sticks' for them to climb up @ two per stick and keep planting more seed on a periodic basis until I have my 24 plants. I always dust round the plants with fine slug pellets as I plant them out. If the weather's right to support an early crop, I get the advantage from early planting but, if not, I've got plenty of seed anyway to repeat the exercise.
I have always grown Enorma because the beans grow straight, do not like slicing curly beans and have always had excellent crops. I am blaming the vagaries of the unusual weather we have been having this year for the almost total failure of my crop. I have always given away loads and made chutney and pickle with the huge crop I had from 10 plants. This year I decided to only grow 4 plants, waited and waited for the weather conditions to improve before sowing and planting out and so far have only found 3 beans set, halfway up the 6ft cane wigwam. There have been plenty of flowers but the beans are just not setting.
I agree that bean trenches are not necessary ... I grew them successfully for many years without ... but I find that using a trench or pit certainly reduces my plants' need for frequent watering, and the yield is as good if not better than without. As I get older any reduction in watering requirements in hot dry weather is a definite plus in my book.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
...... not forgetting to line the pit/trench with 1-2 inches of newsprint first? Traps moisture nicely.
torn up cardboard from delivery boxes this year as we had no newspapers
Then when we're ready to plant out we fill the pit of semi-decayed compost with water before filling in with soil ... inserting a large upturned plastic bottle with the bottom sliced off into the centre ... when the beans need watering the hosepipe is inserted into the bottle and left a while ... works fine for us
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
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it’s quite a common abbreviation on t’internet … along with FIL, BIL, SIL and DIL … although SIL can be a bit ambiguous …
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Not overly fond of frozen runner beans, I use some of my excess to make green bean soup. It’s very nice.
As I get older any reduction in watering requirements in hot dry weather is a definite plus in my book.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Then when we're ready to plant out we fill the pit of semi-decayed compost with water before filling in with soil ... inserting a large upturned plastic bottle with the bottom sliced off into the centre ... when the beans need watering the hosepipe is inserted into the bottle and left a while ... works fine for us
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I tried the modern variant on that, but discovered that iPads don't retain the moisture well.
I think I'm a lone voice on the forum - I hate the things!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...