EVERBEARING STRINGLESS RUNNERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 490, 20 October 1928, Page 26

EVERBEARING STRINGLESS RUNNERS

the earliest. Magnum Bonum, and Stringless Green Pod, are good main crop sorts, but the Canadian Wonder is undoubtedly the heaviest cropper. Rutter or wax beans are coming more into favour each year; the pods are a beautiful golden colour, and stringless. They are easily prepared for lhe table, as they merely require cutting up into lengths. Some of the

i dwarf varieties grow taller Chan ! others, and throw out small runners or tendrils like the climbing sorts, but

these merely require pinching off. They do not need sticks. They should be planted rather later than the early kidney beans. Climbing Beans.— Sow in late spring and early summer, when the ground is warm and frosts abated, in rows six feet apart. When two or three inches above the surface, stakes eight feet high should be provided for them, though they may be kept dwarf by pinching off the ends of the shoots, when they form bushes which yield large crops. Other crops, such as cabbage, can be grown between the rows. It 13 always best to have the rows a good distance apart, and also to run them as nearly north h,nd south as possible. This allows them to get the sun on both sices, and will induce a much larger crop and a more even ripening. The best sort for warm climates is Ever-bearing Stringless and Kentucky Wonder. In cool climates the Scarlet Runner and the White Dutch may be grown to great advantage. They have fleshy pods, and will last much longer in season than any other sort, aid in addition form a very pretty and ornamental creeper.

Lima Beans. —Lima beans are not grown as much as they deserve. They should be shelled and cooked green like broad beans, or they may be used dry like haricot beans, only, unlike most substitutes, they are immensely superior to both these varieties. Lima beans only thrive in warm climates, but are great croppers when grown under suitable conditions. There are both tall and dwarf varieties, which may be grown according to instructions for tall or dwarf kidney beans, only it is advisable not to sow till the late spring, as the seeds rot if the weather or ground is cold, and the later sown ones do best.