An unexpected bonus on Wednesday night was to hear Sherie Plumb also talk about runner beans. It was quite reassuring to see that she grows her beans up 8' inclined bean poles in the garden and there was no special set up or technique. She doesn't thin the trusses to one bean as legend has it, but does snip off any that are unduly bent or that will never make good show beans. All side shoots are nipped out as well as any flower trusses below 18" up the plant. Sometimes you will get two flower trusses in the same leaf axil....nip out the weakest one. As the beans grow you may need to secure them with string upwards to the bean pole to stop the weight of the bean bending the truss down, as once this happens then it stops growing. Other than that its water, water, water onto well cultivated, fertile soil, regularly dowsing the foliage also to mimic its natural habitat in the rain forests of central and southern america.
I would love to be able to get anywhere near beans like these that won her this year's National. And she was adamant that she doesn't have any curling tongues to give them that unique and characteristic kink at the end. She reckons they go that way because they grow so fast, although she assured us that she gets plenty of beans with no kink on the end.
Her pre-show picking can start a week or more before the show, when she will decide on a length and start picking as and when that length is achieved. Each bean is then wrapped in a damp towel against a wooden batten, put into a polythene bag then stored in a fridge...obviously not a freezer! Final selection is made the day before the show. She made it sound oh so simple!
3 comments:
Everything that lady touches turns into a red ticket. I'm sure you found her talk on how to grow the perfect runner bean very interesting but was interesting and informative enough to make you change your mind about growing them next season ?
You sussed me David......i'm going to grow about a dozen plants in a greenhouse sowing them 75 days before Malvern.
Listening to Sherie give a talk on runners at the Hampshire DA made me realise the dedication it takes to get a red card at the National. Her seed selection process made the mind boggle. Runners are off my list now, nobody in the family likes them and I'm never going to grow them like that! I'm concentrating on other veg next year. She covered caulies too, sowing 16 every fortnight through the season!
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