Wednesday 19 October 2011

Mid-October Runners

This year we have had better weather in September and October than we had in July and August. Because of this the Runner beans decided to produce a second crop, which is very welcome since by this time of year I have normally had to dismantle my bean-support poles on account of gales and heavy rain.


Runners are supposed to be long and straight, right?


Wrong! This one decided to buck the trend.




Unless there is frost within the next week or so, it looks as if I will be able to harvest a worthwhile quantity of pods.


The late-sown "Cobra" climbing French Beans are proving to have been a good investment too...


The "Cobra" beans grow much bigger than most of the other French beans, without going tough. Look at them here, compared with the few purple "Amethyst" ones.


I love beans, but this post is too green, so I'm going to end it with a photo of a nice ripe red chilli.

8 comments:

  1. Cover those beans, I think frost is on its way!

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  2. Of course you would end with a chilli! I love beans and am growing them for the first time this year. Hope I have as much success as you... and I want a curly one too.

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  3. The beans look really good. I still can't believe the deer ate all mine. Beans are usually something I can grow here even when nothing else grows. Oh well, this weekend we will set up the deer blind in the front yard, lol.

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  4. Those beans look fabulous - did you grow them from seed? If so what was it called? I have looked everywhere here for runner bean seed and not found any. I'm thinking perhaps its called something else? Or perhaps no one grows them in Australia - strange anyway.

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  5. Liz, my Runner Beans are the varieties "Aintree" and "Red Rum". The Runner is sometimes known as the "Stick Bean", I think, but I've always known them as Runners. I'd be surprised if they are not available in Australia, since there is such a big ex-pat British community there.

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  6. I'm harvesting loads of runner beans at the moment too, and my late sowing of climbing French beans are producing as well. They probably wouldn't have if we didn't have the mini heatwave to help them along, and I don't think they'll go on much longer as we must be due a frost soon.

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  7. Wow those French beans are enormous. I think I'm just going to do dwarf beans next year. My plot is really exposed and the leaves were tattered and torn to shreds by mid September. The crop was ok but the dwarf beans were less hassle and really prolific.

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  8. Aintree & Red Rum? Ooo I do like a plant breeder with a horse racing obsession. Yeah I would have thought they'd be easy to find but its seems that somewhere between Heathrow and Tullamarine everyone has decided they prefer French beans - actually maybe its a climate thing and we get too warm.....

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