Focus on... Runner beans

If you want a reliable crop for small spaces, runners are prolific, tasty and make great floral displays. Here's how to make sure your beans are a runaway success

- Lucy Chamberlain

AN annual feature on any vegetable plot, runner beans can be sown and are utterly delicious when the pods are picked at a young and tender age. The pitfalls are easy to avoid if you know how, so let me divulge how to ensure a summer full of beans!

Choices, choices…

Plant breeders have done gardeners proud in recent years. While older varieties flowered late in the summer, modern types develop earlier blooms due to boffins adjusting the bean’s sensitivity to day length. Drought resistance is improving, too. Red-flowered varieties were shallow rooted compared to their white-flowered cousins, but breeding has now blurred the boundaries.

By far the most exciting development has been the crossing of runner and French beans. This British-led breeding programme has introduced some real positives in recent years, such as ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Stardust’ (both white-flowered). Improved drought resistance, reduced pod stringiness and better pod set in temperature extremes (due primarily to self-fertile flowers) are all helping gardeners to produce a better quality runner (and yes, they still taste like runner beans).

Planting essentials