Home Gardener's Friend

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23507, 18 November 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

Home Gardener's Friend

rPHE runner bean is the home gardener's plant excellence, for there are few other plants of the vegetable garden that will produce such a quantity of wholesome food on a small area. Now that the seeds are well uft as soon as the plants commence to "run," see that each stick has its two runners. If necessary, give the runners a start by looping them loosely to the sticks with raffia. Do not forget that the runners should be treated gently, for they are brittle when young. Loosen the soil between the plants occasionally with a fork and about December put on a three-inch mulch of old manure or material from the com-

Culture of the Runner Bean

post heap. Extend the mulch to 18 inches on eaclrsido of the row. Nip off the ends of the runners when they reach the tops of the sticks; this will encourage both bottom breaks and side branches to develop and greatly increase the crop. Flower dropping, or non-setting in runner beans, is a seasonal failing, usually due to the irregular development of the essential organs in hot weather and under intense light. Then the stigma grows much more rapidly than the stamens; the stigma pushes its way between the stamens, and if the pollen is jaot ripe, fertilisation cannot take place and the flower falls. This

is frequently the case during a spell of hot, dry weather, but during February and March, when the daylight is less intenso and the nights are longer and cooler, tlie flowers will set much more freely as the parts then grow in orderly sequence. To simulate these cooler conditions during the hot dry months, spray the foliage forcibly with sun-warmed water at sunset. Commence feeding with liquid manure when the second or third trusses of beans are swelling, repeating at intervals oi* seven to ten days, or use a good fertiliser. To obtain extra special pods for exhibition, reduce the number of beans to the two or three best on a truss and feed once a ,week with sulphate of potash one ounce, nitrate of soda half an ounce, and superphosphate two ounces per gallon' of water, or per yard run of row, to be well watered-in in. the latter case.