I know it's too early to plant runners but now is the time to think about
how you are going to manage if there's a water shortage later in the year.

I had a wonderful crop last year and two water butts supplied my beans and
two pumpkin plants even though we had little rain.

If you are planning to have, say, 10 runner bean plants make sure you have
10 eight/nine inch plastic flower pots handy at planting time. I grew my
beans in a wigwam and left tying the canes together at the top until after
planting. Cut between the drainage holes of the pots so that you have just
one large hole in each. Plant your bean plants, place a flower pot
upsidedown over each cane and plant then "screw" each pot about an inch into
the soil. You can then get a good idea of how much water actually gets to
the roots. I put about an inch of water in each pot twice a day and giving
a liquid feed was made easy.

Added bonuses were that ants did not seem to be able to get on the plants so
spreading aphis around, ladybirds were not chased off by ants and attacks by
snails were minimised.

Good luck

Lionel

In message , Lionel
writes
I know it's too early to plant runners but now is the time to think about
how you are going to manage if there's a water shortage later in the year.

I had a wonderful crop last year and two water butts supplied my beans and
two pumpkin plants even though we had little rain.

If you are planning to have, say, 10 runner bean plants make sure you have
10 eight/nine inch plastic flower pots handy at planting time. I grew my
beans in a wigwam and left tying the canes together at the top until after
planting. Cut between the drainage holes of the pots so that you have just
one large hole in each. Plant your bean plants, place a flower pot
upsidedown over each cane and plant then "screw" each pot about an inch into
the soil. You can then get a good idea of how much water actually gets to
the roots. I put about an inch of water in each pot twice a day and giving
a liquid feed was made easy.

Added bonuses were that ants did not seem to be able to get on the plants so
spreading aphis around, ladybirds were not chased off by ants and attacks by
snails were minimised.



That sounds like good advice. I have grown runner beans for many years
but over the last few years we have been plagued by bullfinches pinching
the flowers. They are so damned cheeky! I have two cats but that
doesn't throw their confidence in the least.
--
June Hughes

On Sun, 11 Mar 2007 19:25:53 GMT, "Lionel" lionel
wrote:

Cut between the drainage holes of the pots so that you have just
one large hole in each. Plant your bean plants, place a flower pot
upsidedown over each cane and plant then "screw" each pot about an inch into
the soil. You can then get a good idea of how much water actually gets to
the roots. I put about an inch of water in each pot twice a day and giving
a liquid feed was made easy.

Lionel, this is obviously something which works for you, but I am a
little confused about how it works.
The pot, with the large hole cut in the base, goes upside down over
the cane and the plant?
The rim of the pot is then screwed into the soil?
How does this help watering?
Will the pot not make a good hiding place for slugs and snails?
I have sunk a flower pot into the soil next to such things as
tomatoes, and watered into the pot, but I cannot quite get my head
round your instructions.
Please can you put me on the right track.

Pam in Bristol

How detailed must one be?

Imagine an 8/9 inch plastic flowerpot with 6/8 drainage holes in its base.

Now imagine a sharp knife cutting through the shortest distance between each
of the preformed drainage holes to create one large oddly shaped drainage
hole.

Now imagine that the tops of each of 6/8 such flowerpots equally spaced in
a 3 or 4 foot diameter circle are sunk into the ground to a depth of about
an inch.

Now imagine small runner bean plants inside the upside down pots striving to
reach the light above them.

Now imagine a 7 or 8 foot long vertical bamboo cane going through each of
the pots' large drainage holes and stuck into the ground to a depth of
about 12 inches.

Now imagine the six or eight bamboo canes being tied together at the top so
as to form a wigwam.

Now imagine some very dry weather also that somebody pours water through the
large drainage hole to a depth of about an inch twice a day direct to the
roots of the bean plants so as not to waste water on surrounding soil..

If the stems & leaves of the plants and the canes are not too close to any
part of the flower pots, snails will not reach them and ants (which are
blind and follow scent trails left by their fellow wandering ants) will have
their scent trails washed away very often if indeed they ever find their way
in the first place!!.

Q.E.D.

On 12 Mar, 17:03, "Geoff" wrote:
How detailed must one be?

Imagine an 8/9 inch plastic flowerpot with 6/8 drainage holes in its base.

Now imagine a sharp knife cutting through the shortest distance between each
of the preformed drainage holes to create one large oddly shaped drainage
hole.

Now imagine that the tops of each of 6/8 such flowerpots equally spaced in
a 3 or 4 foot diameter circle are sunk into the ground to a depth of about
an inch.

Now imagine small runner bean plants inside the upside down pots striving to
reach the light above them.

Now imagine a 7 or 8 foot long vertical bamboo cane going through each of
the pots' large drainage holes and stuck into the ground to a depth of
about 12 inches.

Now imagine the six or eight bamboo canes being tied together at the top so
as to form a wigwam.

Now imagine some very dry weather also that somebody pours water through the
large drainage hole to a depth of about an inch twice a day direct to the
roots of the bean plants so as not to waste water on surrounding soil..

If the stems & leaves of the plants and the canes are not too close to any
part of the flower pots, snails will not reach them and ants (which are
blind and follow scent trails left by their fellow wandering ants) will have
their scent trails washed away very often if indeed they ever find their way
in the first place!!.

Q.E.D.

I can't see why you would want to grow bean plants through the holes
in a flower pot, if you are trying to conserve the water around them
then growing through a black polythene mulch would be easier.
Also if you are watering twice a day then you are going to have the
bean roots close to the surface and thus prone to more stress which
can cause flower drop.
Why not punch some large holes in the bottom of 2litr Pop bottles and
sink these into the ground with just their tops showing then when you
fill them you would be giving 2 litres or so of water each time and
encouraging the roots to go deep.

David Hill
Abacus Nurseries

On 12 Mar, 18:23, "Dave Hill" wrote:
On 12 Mar, 17:03, "Geoff" wrote:





How detailed must one be?

Imagine an 8/9 inch plastic flowerpot with 6/8 drainage holes in its base.

Now imagine a sharp knife cutting through the shortest distance between each
of the preformed drainage holes to create one large oddly shaped drainage
hole.

Now imagine that the tops of each of 6/8 such flowerpots equally spaced in
a 3 or 4 foot diameter circle are sunk into the ground to a depth of about
an inch.

Now imagine small runner bean plants inside the upside down pots striving to
reach the light above them.

Now imagine a 7 or 8 foot long vertical bamboo cane going through each of
the pots' large drainage holes and stuck into the ground to a depth of
about 12 inches.

Now imagine the six or eight bamboo canes being tied together at the top so
as to form a wigwam.

Now imagine some very dry weather also that somebody pours water through the
large drainage hole to a depth of about an inch twice a day direct to the
roots of the bean plants so as not to waste water on surrounding soil..

If the stems & leaves of the plants and the canes are not too close to any
part of the flower pots, snails will not reach them and ants (which are
blind and follow scent trails left by their fellow wandering ants) will have
their scent trails washed away very often if indeed they ever find their way
in the first place!!.

Q.E.D.

I can't see why you would want to grow bean plants through the holes
in a flower pot, if you are trying to conserve the water around them
then growing through a black polythene mulch would be easier.
Also if you are watering twice a day then you are going to have the
bean roots close to the surface and thus prone to more stress which
can cause flower drop.
Why not punch some large holes in the bottom of 2litr Pop bottles and
sink these into the ground with just their tops showing then when you
fill them you would be giving 2 litres or so of water each time and
encouraging the roots to go deep.

Your method is great and I've used it but I think the added bonus with
Lionel's method was minimising pests. Though as Pam said, slug/snails
can hide in the pot (I've never had problems with ants (touch wood)).
I start all my beans and peas with 2 litres pop bottles cut in half
and I trim the edges badly and therefore they become sharp. Then I
screw these into the soil over my plant. I water solely the plant and
don't flood around and pest don't go over the sharp edges. I've been
happy doing this for years.

In article , Geoff
writes
How detailed must one be?


It wasn't clear to me either Geoff. I got the upturned flower pots with
large holes and the beans coming out of the top with the sticks and the
tying of the canes together but you lost me with the watering.


Now imagine some very dry weather also that somebody pours water through the
large drainage hole to a depth of about an inch twice a day direct to the
roots of the bean plants so as not to waste water on surrounding soil..


Do you mean pour water down the holes in the upturned pots? If so how
does that get to the roots? Or do you mean that having buried the pots
around the roots of said beans that the water will be confined to each
individual bean and not run off for the first two or three inches?

Sometimes what is clear to you isn't always clear when reading it in an
email!

janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk