What Veg do you sow direct vs. raise plants?

I've always thought the cells of modular trays too shallow for runners. Typical (Wilkos) 15x modular trays are only 50mm deep and I thought they were prone to producing pot bound plants, but many years ago (about 15) I found some Erin 15x modular trays at B&Q that were almost 70mm deep and still have sufficient left to be used exclusively for runners. They're getting rather tatty and torn now, but that helps with getting the plants out without disturbing the roots.

 

Ah .. .same climbing frame then?

 

My sweetcorn, runner beans, courgettes, marrows and cucumbers all get planted straight outdoors as seed and except for last year have done ok.

 

I'm just curious to know if you give them a helping hand? For example cover the ground with black plastic, to help it heat up, for a few weeks before sowing or cover with a cloche or similar to provide an initial boost?

 

So by making this hozontal set up, are you saying it can increase your crop ? When would you install something like this when the plant reaches a certain hight or soon as practicle ? And would this set up work with peas?

 

I was impressed by your frame last year Shiney, and the weight of crop you got.

For many people it may be easier (I'm thinking cost of time & effort, and the materials to make a bigger frame) to second-sow and have the cropping on a "straightforward" frame - which might just be some "crossed bamboo's" so to speak

John's frame is permanent I think? (So called Munty frame) so might be worth folk making permanent frames making them a size that can allowing 10' - 15' of vine, and that they can be picked (vertical not much good!)

Here's John's Munty frame (Jul 2009):

http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/new-idea-for-runner-bean-frame.9136/page-2#post-92525

I mentioned last year that I might try a frame that spans the paths between my beds which are 4' wide, and the paths between are 18" or so


http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/...rt-this-years-thread.45032/page-3#post-588067

Edit: Sorry John, duplicated your post - went to make a Cuppa whilst you were posting!!

 

Looks good, I think I may try my hand at something like that, how high would you build it ? And also I noticed the string had changed for bamboo in the pics is there any reason why or do they both do the job just as good as the other?

 

Makes picking easier to have the beans hanging down just above your head. Conventional style is to make an A-shaped frame of canes. To me this is the worst possible shape - the beans hang down on the inside and are hard to see, and fish out of the middle for picking!



If you only have a very few plants then a Wig Wam may be suitable. Same problem as A-Frame IMHO of beans hanging "inside"


I use an X-Frame - here's Zigs from last year:

and mine:

and Shiney's


Last year Shiney inter-connected the tops of the frames on his rows of beans (he grows lots to sell for charity). This is how it then looked:

You need to do the main part of the frame, at least, when you plant. Within days the bean plants will be twisting their vines around the poles and climbing.

They don't grow very tall. Just some wide square mesh does for them.

 

Brilliant, I already have an idea on how I'd like to grow my beans, what happens with beans once the winter sets in do you need to cut them back And do they grow back the following year or do you need to repeat the whole process again?

 

What about sowing in newspaper/toilet roll tubes? (as in this thread http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/tips-for-growing-parsnips.39165/)

I'm thinking about growing a bed them through Mypex this year and removing it once the tops have died down and they're ready to dig up.

This was what my plot looked liked this morning and the beds were worse than the paths, so pointless sowing parsnips in a swamp:



My last toilet roll sown parsnip dug last week @ 700+g which wont win any competitions for good looks, but has a much more efficient surface area to weight ratio, reducing wastage when peeling.