h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

No need to alert the media, but I picked my first pole beans today -- four all told. An equal number are still on the vines and growing. About a half dozen blossoms are visible, so more will be coming along.

Are they magic beans?

They must be - suddenly I could't spel my own mane

Do you have bees? Maybe more bees would help your bean crop.

Every blossom has resulted in a bean pod. The bees are lured to my porch by numerous kinds of flowers, which I keep watered and groomed. I have some liquid fertilizer which I hope to add to the bean roots tomorrow.

Be very sparing with the fertilizer.

Please tell me why, not that it's easy to squeeze much from the bottle.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow-Your-Own/Veg-A-to-Z/Runner-bean

any use ?

Well, the seed company calls my variety "Kentucky Wonders," but they're probably pretty similar to British runner beans. I added my handful of beans to the salmon chowder I just made for supper.

It's been my experience that peas and beans are most susceptible to fertilizer burn when they start flowering, better to wait till the flowering subsides and then be very sparing.

That's a relief! I haven't fertilized the beans yet. Just the pumpkins and squash. Pole beans seem to be in a continuous state of blooming. Once they stop, that's it for the season. I was thinking of squirting a little bit of liquid fertilizer into a watering can and adding about a ogllon of water to dilute it. Then I would water everything - beans, flowers, etc - with this diluted stuff.

http://www.the-organic-gardener.com/growing-runner-beans.html

scroll down for:-

Don't add Nitrogen rich fertilizer e.g. no manure... Nitrogen fixing bacterial grow in root nodules of beans.

Hey, ITI, do you know anything about ? F74902?thread=8303832





I learned the hard way that sunflowers inhibit bean growth--using sunflowers to support bean vines seemed like such a great idea, too.

That IS a great idea, Amy, thanks for warning me, because I might just have done the very same

I had considered using sunflowers to support bean vines, but cornstalks work better. Next year, I'd like to use a "Three sisters" approach: using alternating hills of pumpkins/squash and corn/beans.

It's too damp/not sunny/hot enough for corn here... Not only did the sunflowers inhibit bean growth, the beans didn't even germinate. And the rest, I planted too close to the zucchini, so they got shaded out Well, at least seeds are cheap, and I learned a lesson

Did you at least get corn and sunflowers?

I didn't plant any corn, because the climate's wrong. The sunflowers are up to my nose, though--and it looks like the buds are forming.

Sunflowers are much like sundials: They always face the sun and only count the light hours

My parents didn't plant corn because the soil wasn't right. That didn't stop them from growing pole beans, though. They just stuck posts in the middle of each hill, and the beans climbed them.