Page 45 - ALG Issue 3 2024

SOUTHERN
Harvesting
Pods were picked as soon as possible after reaching 20cm in length – the size favoured for cooking by experts.
(UK-produced runner beans on sale in Waitrose were large, hard, and dry. Average weight 26.2g, longest 29cm, shortest 22cm).
Treatments
No disease needing treatment. Blackfly appeared on Plant 16 during last week of trial. No slugs.
COMMENT ON RESULTS – AND CONCLUSION
My article in SimplyVegetables last year3b put forward a system of classifying yields from climbing beans grown in the manner described (in pots), as below:
Homebase/Osmocote® produced a ‘good’ yield.The compost scores well
on packaging but less well on retail distribution (Homebase only). It could
be that yields might improve to the level
of ‘exceptional’ with an increase in the dosage of Osmocote (about which there is insufficient clarity in the directions, so more information needed before reaching a firm conclusion).
Miracle-Gro®compost (Yield 1,006g
per plant in the trial) had also performed well previously suggesting consistency in quality.This, together with other advantages (packaging, retail distribution) indicates that this product may be recommended for use in a growing system for the purposes earlier described.
MOVING ON
Frames will go out to primary schools, community gardens, and OT leads in 2024 with kits.
The objective is to determine precisely how this could best be used and what improvements in design may be needed for the purposes intended.
Further simplification of the system is to be tested – removal of the second vertical, trimming stems at the end of the horizontal.
If a second vertical is retained, it will be for frame support only. Stems will no longer continue down that section of the frame.
Sources
1. Which?Gardening, Most popular vegetables grown, November 2023, p.16.
2. Trimming of unproductive secondary stems emails from Capel Manor College, Sparsholt college, RHS Advisor,Which?Gardening Advisor.
3. Classification of yields:
(a) Inconsistent results from
peat-free composts. Simply Vegetables, Autumn 2023, pp.26–29.
(b) Simply Vegetables, Boyd and Morton,April 2022,p.18,19.
(c) Email from Which?Gardening, 15/11/2019.
(d) Email from RHS Gardening Advice 4/1/2019.‘The yield of a dwarf runner bean is about 400g per plant. For climbing runner beans the figure is about 1,000g per plant’
(e) RHS Vegetable & Fruit Gardening, 2013, p.242.
1,000g+ 700–1,000g 500–700g Below 500g
Exceptional Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory
RHS give average yield for climbing runner beans grown in ground in the usual way to be 1,000g per plant.3c
Which?Gardening stated ‘Most varieties produced at least 0.5Kg per plant’.3d, 3e
With the above in mind, the trial results may be rated as follows:
Homebase® with Osmocote®
Good (793.8g)
Incredipeatfree® with Incredicrop®
Satisfactory (610.0g) (784.0g in 2021 – ‘Good’)
Miracle-Gro® compost and fertiliser Exceptional (1,006.3g)
Incredipeatfree® with Incredicrop® gave
a better result in 2021 compared with yields from Sylvagrow®/John Innes2 with Osmocote® and Dalefoot® vegetable, but compared less well against other makes in the present trial.
Other practical considerations (size
of bag, limited availability) suggest this is not a product of choice for the purposes described.
Study and article by
Anthony Boyd, January 2024
Questions and/or comment on this article will be welcome and may be emailed to: Bruncketts@gmail.com.
Allotment and Leisure Gardener | Issue 3 2024 | 45