Sprigfield Firefinch and Morton Estate SB's appeal to me.

Was camping last week and popped into a local Spar for provisions, grabbed a bottle of Kiwi Cuvee 2011 SB for the wife. Not good, terribly sweet.

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Yep, Im still here.

The Morton is another I haven't had. The Firefinch always reminds me of you because it tastes of parnips and something verdant.

Broccoli or Jane McQuitty's knickers.

How are your runner beans. Mine were looking lovely. Lush green leaves. No blackfly. Covered in flowers with lots of bees about. All the flowers turned into beans which got to about 3cm and then the leaves turned yellow and died. I tried pulling them off but every day more and more turned yellow and the beans grew fat instead of longer.

I'm guessing the roots got saturated during last month's rain.

I dont grow runners, none of us like the taste, I prefer french beans and grow the climbing type. Doing well so far.





Are you using your own compost? All that dodgy SB has probably polluted it.

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Yep, Im still here.

I didn't know that there was a difference between french and runner beans. Whilst investigating, I found this site. There is a link at the bottom 'further problems with pods'.
Sorry if I'm teaching granny to suck eggs, but it looks good to me.
RHA

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Four wheels move the body - 2 wheels move the soul.

Ta for the link.

Too little water is uaually a problem with runners along with blackfly but I think this year wind and rain have been the main cause of failure for most.

Now I prefer Runners to French, and my dear Misses vikki verki so we are all very happy here with two long rows of climbing long pods. The French climbers are nearly round like an oval pencil shape Mr B. the seeds inside like baked beans, not purple kidney beans.

Mr G, dig up a plant and inspect the roots. Normally a deluge, constant deluges of rain will only be a nuisance to the setting of the flowers. But it will wash out ground nutriants and trace elements. Runners can occasionally have their roots attached by a root grub, that bores into them like a small white maggot. Check for red ants also, they can eat away merrily. Wind rock, rotting the roots is normally only a problem in very exposed locations and when the ground is quite cold - normally associated with asparagus - not runner beans !

Yellowing ! - Have you got a shortage of nitrogen and potasium and phosphate nutriants in the trench ?
Well rotted horse muck and garden wood ashes are best. Failing that, all your garden and kitchen compost and composted lawn mowings is satisfactory.

I don't see this as wet rot, unless you're siting the bean trench in the location an old garden pond full of old slime and algae !

Most odd that all plants are affected by this blite ? Regetably it's probably too late for a cure. The season is very late this year.

I have the dreaded blackfly - when have't I had the curse of these tiny black gluey things ? Comes in on a strong souwesterly. The ladybirds only seem to like white or small greenfly ! bit like Goose really, he don't like the black Tannat tannic wines of Cahors

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Duncan

All gardeners pee on their heap ......at night even tea-total types

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Duncan

So...the french ones are those little expensive ones that come mainly from Kenya..?
...and the long flat ones (with or without 'strings') are runners...?

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Four wheels move the body - 2 wheels move the soul.

Correct. Or as my daughter likes to call the French Beans- Squeaky Beans, because of the way they squeak when they rub against your teeth.

Goose, it sounds like your beans are lacking the necessary nutrients as Dunc suggests. Runners are greedy and the best way to keep them happy is to dig a trench prior to planting and fill it with garden compost and muck, water it well and cover with soil. A feast for the bean roots resulting in a healthy crop.

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Yep, Im still here.

Have you read Sap Rising by AA Gill? Recommended.

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Yep, Im still here.

Squeaky beans is inspired...poifek. A dutch pal of mine called cauliflower 'tree'. He would never eat it.

So then, I prefer runner beans, though I did have some amazing french beans in France. Prepared at a country house by a dear elderly lady. Thrice-cooked she explained, but I can't remember the sequence.

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Four wheels move the body - 2 wheels move the soul.

There's nothing attacking the roots. So, it must be a problem with the soil. Too late for this year but will make sure it doesn't happen again next year.

Thanks for the help.

I've read Sap Rising. Loved it but couldn't get anyone to stick with it. No pun intended. Might be popular now, with fifty shades, etc. My friends were a bit grossed out.

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mel

Looked it up to find out - "both brimming with wit and brilliance about British society. This one, set in an upper crust London district, is about a power struggle over a community garden, but is more about British society and its perfect eccentrics than local politics. Gill is pointed and raunchy, at times outrageous, but his satiric sense is right up there with Waugh and other vile bodies"

The cover is good fun. At the top of the garden, I lost my reading glasses that way, and found them in a neighbours garden, slightly chewed with a lens missing. The mind boggles at the thought of trying to retrieve it from the mounds that we occasionally stumble over - the bouquet, sniffing is believing

Might remember to put it (the book, that is !) on my Christmas list

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Duncan

The Crawford Brothers' success at the mainland shows this year continued when Sauvignon won the male championship at the Royal Welsh Show. Sauvignon who was placed first in his class earlier, was also a member of the Reserve Interbreed Team of 5 Limousins.

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Four wheels move the body - 2 wheels move the soul.