Runner Beans & Peas

[fitzsie]

Space is very limited and I do love runner beans and peas. I have a small raised bed and I have a variety of peas which run along the ground , rather then upwards, and wondered if I could grow them either side of a row of runner beans.

[fitzsie]

[goodlife]

Only trouble with runnerbeans is that they use lot of water..so peas planted close by might struggle with competition.
But..if you are hard worker with watering can..it is always worth of try..and by trying you will know what you can and cannot do on your growing conditions. It might not work for me but it can be good success for you.. ;)
If you grow short peas..they should finish cropping by the time runners are getting really tall and shadowing others.

[fitzsie]

I am a newbie so did wonder. I might just grow the one row of peas in front of the beans which apart from the water aspect will prevent the beans hogging the sun. Given me something to think about anyway. thxs

[sunloving]

Runner beans can be easily trained over fences and trelis and arches. In your raised bed can you put them at the back up the fence and some canes and put the peas in the front? Or just find a corner to grow a couple of plants up the fence or amidst your floweing climbers elsewhere in the garden? as there are only so many runners you can eat in a year but peas bearly make it to the kitchen door.

I would just say give it a go becuase what have you got to lose ?
x Sunlovng

[kt.]

Space is very limited and I do love runner beans and peas. I have a small raised bed and I have a variety of peas which run along the ground , rather then upwards, and wondered if I could grow them either side of a row of runner beans.

If space is limited,  why not grow Alderman peas?  They can be grown in pots or the ground, up canes as they grow to 6ft.  Most other pea varieties only grow 2-3ft.

[fitzsie]

Just a thought..... The low growing peas, could they be grown in a hanging basket? You see strawberries and tomatoes in them now. Might give it a go just for the hell of it !! :D

[artichoke]

I used to live next to an immense field of peas. They were all self supporting, just clung to each other, then were harvested by a machine. We had permission (maybe they knew we would do it anyway) to pick peas within about a metre into the field. They were very productive, and low down in the field (bad point was a low flying plane sprayed them with anti-bug stuff and frightened our cow, who galloped into a hedge and got her horn stuck, but that is by the way....)

So there must be low growing productive peas that you could use?

I am very keen on Alderman and currently have two long gutters full of them, waiting to be planted out.

[Aden Roller]

Somewhere or tother (in one of those there seed cat-aloggies...maybe online) I read of a climbing pea that reaches around 5' in height.

Fat lot of help as that's about all I can recall but it might me worth searching for then you could grow it along side the runner beans on the same support/frame.

Just a thought... I'll have a search for it when I get time.


Found these:

• Unwins Alderman Climbing Peas climb to around 5 foot
• "Telephone Pea" (very tall...6 foot or more!)
• "Champion of England" (taller still.. 8 to 10 foot)

The last two available from: Link to Realseeds

[goodlife]

The trouble with growing tall peas and runner side by side is runners are MUCH more rampant and given chance will use all the water and nutrients from soil and 'hog' all the light too..and try to find some peas amongst the runnerbean leaves when its hard enough to find all bean pods.. ::)
Tall growing peas will have to grow quite tall to get worth while crop out of them..with too much competition they might never get that far before being hit with powdery mildew with shortage of water.

Fitsie...peas in hanging baskets..yes, it can be done, but you need to use quite short peas and use large baskets.
I grew last year short mangetouts in hanging basket. It wasn't the largest of the crops.. ::)..but they did yield few handfulls of small 'touts'.

[Digeroo]

I should have thought that the peas sown right now would be more or less finishing before the runners really get going in earnest.  They have almost a three month start. 

There are lots of tall pea varieties I like the purple flowered ones, like purple podded since they are so attractive as well.  If your site is windy they will provide some protection for the runner beans.  I like mangetout as well. 

[Aden Roller]

I have never grown tall peas.... in fact I've only grown peas of any sort for about three years as my dad always insisted they were not a worthwhile crop on his old plot (the one I took over from him about 8 years ago).

But... I've had some great results and am quite often amazed by the things... some types turned out be quite short and others almost 4' in height! I really must take time to read the packet descriptions  ::) but I'm getting to grips with my pea growing and loving them!!!! (no matter what height  ;) )


Runner Beans:
Last year Mrs Roller gave me a pot of "short" runner beans... short podded. I was very impressed so will be trying them again this year along with a whole host of others and a fair few climbing french beans.

Variety is the spice of life  ;D

[Ophi]

Before we got the allotment space was very tight in our little garden.  One year I tried Half Pint Peas in containers and they worked very well.

http://www.tandmworldwide.com/seeds1/product/625/1.html

Eventually we found that growing upwards suited us better and had a wigwam for climbing peas at the end of our bean area.  We still grow climbing peas on the allotment and there is a big selection to choose from.  We have grown the following and all cropped well: Show Perfection, Purple Podded. Telephone, Serpette Guilloteau.  We bought them from either Real Seeds or W Robinson and Son.  Both suppliers have a good selection.

We ended up using the space around the base of young beans for baby salad leaves which we had mostly eaten before the beans took over.

[Aden Roller]

You sound very well organised Ophi and I bet the growing space looked wonderful.  ;)