Collecting Runner Beans For Seed
If you're a fan of runner beans it is an excellent idea to grown your own. Runner beans take very little care apart from water and keeping an eye on slugs.
You can purchase your first batch of seeds from any garden centre, although buying from a garden centre will often cost quite a bit, and you will end up with an excess of seeds that you don't need. Another good place to look for your first pack of seeds is eBay
. This way you can get as many or as few as you like, plus you can always contact the seller for more information on a particular species of bean.
You don't need many beans seeds for your first growing season, if you have 6 to 8, and these grown into runner bean plants, then you will have enough beans to feed a family of four for a whole growing season (and though the winter if you freeze some as well).
Runner beans can be quite prolific in their growing, so keep an eye on them, once the pods a long enough to pick, make sure you pick them, if you leave them too long they will go tough and you will only be able to use them for seed, and you don't want this early on in the season as it will prevent other beans growing. You should think of a runner bean in the same manner as a pea plant, the more you pick the more they will grow.
For successfully producing a good crop of runner beans you need to make sure the plants have plenty of space for the roots to grow, as well as being kept well watered. Runner beans to not do well if they are dry.
As the growing season comes to an end, normally in September or October (depending on the weather), mark the beans that are still on the plant and large with a black marker. You then need to leave these to mature. You should mark them with a marker so you know which ones you are keeping for seed, as the last thing you want is to find you've inadvertently picked all of you beans for eating and have none left for seed.
All you do then is leave them alone. This is the easiest bit. You simply have to wait for the plant to die off any go brown. The pods will become almost crispy to touch, and this means they are ready for collecting.
When you collect the runner bean seeds you need to make sure you have a pot handy, as often they are quite though to pull off, which means the beans fly every where and the last thing you want is to be searching around on the floor for your bean seeds at the end of October.
Once collected, leave them in a dry place for a few days to make sure they dry off. When your runner bean seeds are dry, store them in a paper envelope (this is so condensation doesn't form and ruin your seed), and write on the envelope what they are.
You are then ready for the following April, when you will need to start growing your beans again. And you will have a supply of beans for every year if you follow these instructions.
