Daft "Bean" question...............

[Gwenick]

OK this is probably really daft, and there's probably a very simple answer which I simply hadn't thought of - but I'm NOT green fingered at all.

A few weeks back DS1 came home from nursery with a bean that he'd grown at nursery - when it arrived home it was already about 2ft tall!! (felt a bit embarassed as his was by FAR the tallest bean in the nursery). I duly repotted it (it was in a tiny pot) and put it in the greenhouse with a large cane next to it as I did at least know it would need something to 'grow round'.......anyhow this cane is about 4 1/2ft tall..........and the bean has flourished and is nearly at the top of the cane.

What do I do when it reaches the top - do I just leave it, or do I need a bigger cane?? DS is VERY proud of his bean, goes out to the garden to look at it everyday and I'd hate to ruin it

It's probably a broad bean, and you need to pinch the top out to stop it getting too tall, and to encourage it to flower and fruit.

thank WWB - how do I 'pinch the top'???

My mother would be ashamed of me when I was younger and we had a large garden and an allotment we used to eat all our own veg and he garden always looked lovely

Just break the top cluster of leaves off. It would be better out of the greenhouse as well, so that the bees can pollinate the flowers.

Thanks - shall do that later - I leave the greenhouse door open everyday (mum suggested that) so that the bees can pollenate it - they're always getting into it anyhow so I think it'll be ok - haven't got anywhere 'safe' to put it in the garden.

Actually the bean is the only plant in the greenhouse - it's still full of stuff that 'should' be in the house, but has no home (or stuff that needs getting rid of LOL). It's also lost 2 panes of glass so isn't very 'effective' greenhouse

I know the feeling, we had to clear a forest of baby plum trees out of ours a couple of weeks back (I wouldn't mind, but the tree they originally came from was chopped down three years ago). They had managed to push a couple of the glass panes out too, so there's a little bit of work to do in there, I think!