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I give up!
Annie2810
Posts: 30
For the last 3 years I have tried to grow runner beans. Each year they fail miserably. I'm not after the rows and rows of 8' tall plants that my dad used to have which gave a colander full of beans per day. I just want a few plants to make it. Year 1 slugs and snails. Last year and this year, millions of black fly. Sacrificial nasturtiums were sacrificed, but it appears not enough! Tried spraying with soap which slowed them down but not stopped them. Have cut the affected leaves off so I can get to the rest of the plant to spray and I think that was the wrong thing to do. It doesn't look too healthy. So, I give up. No runner beans for us.
On a happier note, the peas are doing fabulously this year only inches away from the runner beans!
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There is still time yet Annie. Mine have only just started producing beans - enough for supper yesterday. So give them lots of water to drink and while you enjoy your pea crop you may find the beans suddenly start producing.
Annie, dont be too disheartened, my peas always get pea moth grubs in them, and i cant grow a cauli to save my life! Keep trying, you will crack it, and like Edd says, relax and enjoy the garden
I have black fly for the first time ever, maybe the broad beans nearby?
Thanks all. There are some things that I have had real success with and others that have never worked.... Sweet corn and carrots I'm looking at you! I think maybe I should plant far more than I need and hope. I have a no dodgy chemicals approach to veg growing and I won't change that, but it's not easy at all. If only veg grew like weeds!
So a bit of patience was needed. I have had a harvest so far from the one plant that survived. pretty good considering. Enough beans for two meals for two people and there's a good few more on the plant ripening.
Unless you use effective protection against slugs (which, unfortunately, means pellets as all other methods are only partially effective or worse), insurance by means of multiple redundant spare plants is the way to go. Most decent suppliers put so many seeds in the packet that the average household couldn't possibly consume all of the produce if they were all planted and grew to full production. For one 2 metre row, I sow 15 beans individually in 3" pots in mid April (depends on where you live - I'm in central UK- add or subtract a couple of weeks depending on location and/or weather.) Plant out when 8 inches tall. When planting out, push a bean seed into the soil a few inches away (insurance policy 1.) Take the empty pots and sow another 15 beans ready to replace those which you have planted out and which will inevitably be eaten by the slugs (insurance policy 2.) When you plant these out, push another seed into the ground a few inches away (insurance policy 3.) Most packets have 60 seeds. Now you know why!
Pansyface: I read somewhere (probably on here) that bees don't see red-flowered runner beans. So try a white-flowered variety?
Annie: Good advice above, imho. Plant and sow lots. They don't all survive, One for the slug/One for the snail/One to grow/And one to fail. Seed is cheap.
Painted Lady are said to be good but I haven't grown them myself.
We have the same problem with bees, although the small crops are usually down to late planting.
Last year we tried self fertile "Firestorm" and they were very good.
This year we tried Moonlight, again self fertile, they are also good although the production of flowers hasn't been as good as I had hoped after the first flourish.
Blackfly put in an appearance about a month ago but I'm afraid I dealt with them with chemicals. as 1Runnybeak1 says, sometimes we need a little help
I am now plagued with a tiny black bug which I can't identify, there is another post about them here......
http://www.gardenersworld.com/forum/problem-solving/black-bugs/463932.html