Long runner beans

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Permalink Reply by Paul Wyman on April 17, 2008 at 6:45am

The best bean for competition is 'Stenna' from Medwyn Williams. They are a reselection of Enorma from Suttons, and for more info follow the link below.
http://www.the-gardeners-calendar.co.uk/Plant_Database/plants.asp?p...

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Permalink Reply by Jean on April 18, 2008 at 10:37am

Stenner is very good because it is prolific, good looking and nice to eat as well as being long but there are varieties which produce extremely long, ugly beans which often win competitions. Depends how serious you are about winning and whether you want to use the space to grow something inedible. Not sure about other suppliers but they can be bought from same source as Stenner.

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Permalink Reply by Ian on April 18, 2008 at 11:11am

Hi, My father in law grew runner beans in Wales for years, but I never have. What sort of length would you expect a "longest" runner bean to be?

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Permalink Reply by Jean on April 19, 2008 at 9:04am

As an ordinary mortal I was very proud of my Enorma bean at 47 cms (just over 18 inches in old money) but in competitions you are talking of lengths in excess of 2 feet.

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Permalink Reply by Ian on April 19, 2008 at 9:21am

Thanks Jean, you have left me speechless. I had no idea runner beans could attain that sort of length. Did your Enorma win a competition?

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Permalink Reply by Peter on April 27, 2008 at 9:03am

I decided to plant Medwyn's 'Longest Runner Bean' (Jescot-Long Un). They say in their cataloque that it is guaranteed to win in the Longest Runner Bean class, so I can't go wrong (unless I am up against someone else who also bought them!)
So far they are still in the greenhouse but looking good. Will let you know how I get on.

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Permalink Reply by Mielie Muncher on March 25, 2009 at 7:38pm

Peter,
In South Africa my father used to grow stringless runner beans that were called 'Lazy housewife'. If I remember correctly these were very long and very abundant, but I'm not sure just how they'd do in the UK climate. I have seen the seeds locally recently.
Apologies, I have just realised that you wanted this info last year, but I can't find a way to delete the message.

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Permalink Reply by Jean on March 26, 2009 at 5:49pm

Just to finish the story off the beans were long, about 26 inches, (see photo). It came second in the county show, not much good in a longest bean competition. However the winner wasn't much longer. But I will stick to growing beans to eat in future.

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Permalink Reply by Peter on March 26, 2009 at 5:55pm

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Permalink Reply by Peter on March 26, 2009 at 5:58pm

Photo of bean

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Permalink Reply by Sarah J on March 27, 2009 at 9:01pm

Good grief that's a been and a half! Were they good eating?

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Permalink Reply by Peter on March 28, 2009 at 9:48am

The beans were very rough and coarse looking and we didn't fancy eating them. We also grew Stenner, a reselected Enorma variety, these were long by normal standards (18 inches) very prolific and excellent to eat.

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