Stop Lettuce Bolting | Runner Beans Another Crop

Two tips to help all gardeners sent in by readers.  A glut of lettuce often results in waste and bolting, so a tip to stop that. The second tip is how to get one last flush of runner beans at the end of the season.  We’ve not tried all the tips in this section – so if you try a tip, let us know how you got on in the comments box below.

We’re always happy to get comments, tips and even full articles for the site from gardeners: just contact me or pop your tip in on the comments box below.

Stop Lettuce Bolting

You can not wait to pick your first lettuce and suddenly you have too many to eat and they are not so tasty if you try to store them. If you just leave them in the ground they’ll bolt and be inedible. So what can you do?

When you have too many maturing at once pick them very carefully, root ,soil and all and lay them in a shady place for an hour or two. Then replant them. This gives them a shock and will slow them down for 5 to 7 days thus giving you time to catch up.

The flavour and quality will not suffer but make sure to water them in well .All to the good if they lay over a little, they will soon pick up and you can stop giving away or wasting your beautiful plants

Thanks to Henry for this tip on stopping lettuce bolting

See Also How to Grow Lettuce

Runner Beans – Get Another Crop

When your runner beans start to slow down it can be quiet depressing, so if you want a second bumper crop, try this tip.

Put a good shovel of horse manure in a large bucket of water and leave for around a week. Wait for the leaves on your runners to start to turn and shrivel and carefully remove them all so that you are left with the few tiny runner beans and bare stalks.

Then pour your magic liquid on the roots of your beans. Around 1 bucket full to a 12 feet run of beans. Result, a new crop of beans, best picked small, they will taste so sweet.

Sorry but this hardly works north of the border, the further south you go the better it works.

Thanks to Henry for this tip on getting a last flush of runner beans

See also: How to Grow Runner Beans

See all our Gardening & Growing Tips