Vegetable planting advice please!

[onlinelinda]

I have help move a month from a local gardener for a couple of hours. He apparently has a horticultural qualification, although I've never asked what.

I have been offered some runner beans seedlings locally, which I accepted. Today the gardener planted them for me. The beans were in 2 decent size (2-3 litre?) pots. There were about 8 beans in each.

I was really surprised to see that he had planted them as a group, as they had been in their pots. Is that right?? I thought they had to be separated, 6 inches apart, but he insisted they'd be ok.

I'd be grateful to know if anyone with vegetable experience can advise whether that's ok?

TIA xx

I’d do similar, based on what I’ve seen others do at our allotments (I’m no expert). I do it with peas and sweet peas too - I guess it disturbs the root ball a bit if you split them? As they are climbers as long as you have supports at the base of each group of plants they will go all over the place and spread out to be happy anyway.

Thank you! That's really useful to hear.