Runner Bean trough

Posts

• Dovefromabove Posts: 88,147

  3 March edited 3 March

  I now do that (either a trench for a row or a pit for a wigwam)  … I line it with newspapers etc and then put in lots of semi-rotted compost (veg peelings etc), then when the bean plants are ready to be planted out I fill the trench with water and top it off with about 6” of the soil dug out from the trench. I also put a couple of plastic bottles with the bottoms cut out upside down in the trench so that I can put a hosepipe into them to get water to the roots of the bean plants later on. 

  
  

  Then I erect the beanpoles etc and plant the beanplants. 

  
  

  It really helps with moisture retention at the roots and we get lovely heavy crops of tasty beans. 

  
  

  Good luck 👍 

  
  Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
  
  
  
  
  
  

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• nodlisab Posts: 414

  3 March

  Thank you for the help

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• BenCotto Posts: 4,718

  3 March edited 3 March

  I’m the opposite. I’ve not bothered to dig a bean trench for 30 years but still get excellent yields. I water the plants with a hose when necessary, and not having a water meter helps in that respect.
  
  May I suggest @nodlisab you dig half a trench and compare the results between the trenched half and the untrenched half.

  Rutland, England

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• Dovefromabove Posts: 88,147

  3 March

  I suppose that it depends to some extent on your soil @BenCotto 😊 
  We’re on very free-draining gritty loam over chalk … anything that can increase the moisture retention for my beans is very helpful here.  I suspect your soil is more water retentive than ours?  

  
  

  I’ve found that planting my courgettes and squashes where the beans were in a previous year works well for them too. 

  
  Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
  
  
  
  
  
  

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• BenCotto Posts: 4,718

  3 March

  You’re right, Dove. We have rich, crumbly water retentive loam that has had plentiful compost and manure added to it over the years.

  Rutland, England

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• Dovefromabove Posts: 88,147

  3 March edited 3 March

  BenCotto said:

  You’re right, Dove. We have rich, crumbly water retentive loam that has had plentiful compost and manure added to it over the years.

  Thought so @BenCotto … you’re not that far from my dear mother-in-law … I’m very envious of her garden soil.  If you stuck a wooden pencil in the ground there it’d grow  😉 

  
  Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
  
  
  
  
  
  

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• nick615 Posts: 1,487

  5 March

  @nodlisab For sheer economy of space/effort, a pit can be better. I grow 24 plants in one square yard/metre as per attached pic.

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• nodlisab Posts: 414

  5 March

  Brilliant

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• nick615 Posts: 1,487

  5 March

  You're  too kind but my motive(s) in the garden have always been food @ minimum effort and minimum cost.  The rig inside my pic cost, I think, around £30 some 13 years ago and, having saved my own seed, my runner bean crops have cost absolutely Nil in the intervening years if I discount a couple of handfuls of chicken manure pellets and some granulated lime occasionally.  The structure will last ad infinitum!
  
  The one drawback from this admirable Forum, unlike another (non gardening one) that I came across, is that it doesn't boast an 'Articles' section where more explanatory ideas can be set out.  However, I grow my peas (pic attached) and broad beans to a similar pattern and would be glad to share details if you can unearth a 'Personal Message' facility I can use?

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• SueAtoo Posts: 380

  5 March

  @nick615 what support are you using for your runner beans?

  East Dorset, new (to me) rather neglected garden.

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