Weak runner beans
I planted a lot of little runner bean plants a few weeks ago that I had grown from seed at home.
A few of them are really sturdy but most seem quite weak and aren't winding round the poles properly. Does anyone know why?
Did you harden them off before planting out?
Did you put plenty of well rotted manure in the trench?
If you did all the right things then I would say it is the weather and that they will catch up once it settles.
Make sure they do not have blackfly as this will weaken the plants. Look on the underside of the leaves.
Thanks June - I'm just back from a week's holiday and am pleased to say that they seem a lot better. Some are still pretty small but they are climbing properly now and look fine.
I did harden them off but maybe not well enough. And there was well rotted manure in the trench but, again, maybe not enough.
They haven't got blackfly so I'm hoping they'll catch up
My allotment is new and i rushed on with planting, therefore didn't manure enough. Runner beans Enorma are fine, but plants are straggly. An old trick is to hang a hessian sack of sheep dung in a water butt, and use the water as liquid manure. Dusty
Any sort of liquid manure is good for all plants and you should feed once a week.
I kept thinking mine were a bit weak looking too but they have really gone mad know, I think because the weather has been so changeable this year, that has affected most things, Runner beans I've been told are a notoriously hungry plant, so liquid feeding once or maybe twice a week works wonders, I know that by mine lol and mine are in huge pots with cane wigwams and they really are a beautiful plant completely covering the canes and then some, waving their leaves at the sky, and all the beautiful red flowers look wonderful against the green of the rest of the allotment, it's weird really because I've found out this year I don't like the taste of broad beans or runner beans but I'll definatly still grow them because they are beautiful and their red flowers are such a nice contrast to almost everything else that flowers yellow.
all beans have one thing in common (apart from providing us with wind) they all require a lot of moisture. to do this build a trench feel it with cardboard and loads of wetted newspaper, cover with soils then plant, the cardboard and newspaper retain a lot of moisture which move from a high concentration to a lower (the surface to where your beans live).
Hope this helps