Note: this first long post in this thread was brought over from the old forum which is why it is an agglomeration of multiple posts.
We grow runners for the dry seed but our summers are often too hot with temps above 28°C (~80°F). From what I’ve read, runners have difficulty setting pods when temps go above 25°C. They also aren’t fond of dryness and although summer is our wet time, in between rain events it’s quite dry. So, we thought we’d plant as many varieties as we could find and see what happens. This year we planted Dutch White, Painted Lady, Scarlet Emperor, Sunset Runner, White Lady and a runner from Mexico. We’ll collect seed from the plants where varieties are next to each other for planting next season. We are also interested in its perenniality so at some point we’d select for strong perenniality. I’m thinking also that a cross into the common bean would be worth while to improve heat tolerance. That may be difficult though. I looked quite a few times for pollen in the runner flowers but found none that I could identify. I wish they were like peas. Peas produce gobs of pollen.
Kevin C
I also have tried runner beans in my garden with no luck. They never get big they make some flowers but never set pods and I guess that is because our 100°F + temperatures during the summer. I might need to tap into a larger genetic pool to get some success. Looking forward to hearing more about your project.
Greenie
It speaks to how limited my gardening experience is that until a couple years ago it never occurred to me that it could be too hot for plants, instead of just too cold. I’ve always thought of beans generally as a hot weather crop but now think I should look into them. I have fond memories of eating the flowers as a kid.
Lauren Ritz
Keep us updated on your progress. I would personally be interested in this one.
Tanja E
This is great! I have runner beans as my landrace project too, and my summer temperature is closer to 35 than 25, so I planted as many varieties as I could find and hope for a few pods to get it started 
My winters are mild here, so I expect the perenniality to come through here and hopefully produce a crop in late spring next year before summer temperatures get too high.
I would love to swap experiences and seeds with you along they way.
Ray S
I live at about 1000m above sea level on the eastern side of the country (at 30°S latitude) with an average annual rainfall of 750mm. Summers are warm (30°C+ usually, though not this one!) and wet and winters are quite cool (many nights below 0°C and days in the mid teens) and usually dry. Spring and autumn are quite short. We have have about 150 frost free growing days). The farm is small by Australian standards at 16h (~40acres). The soil is clay loam but devoid of organic matter as it was grazed to death over many years. Once it’s mulched regularly it starts to improve and after 3 or 4 years things grow quite well.
Tanja E
Our summers are a little more extreme here with dry, hot weather up to 35 C and winters mild and rainy with temperatures around 8 C but it can get down to -1 C a few times in february.
The rainfall is around 402 mm per year, but it falls mostly in october/november and march/april.
We have heavy clay soil.
In Mallorca september is considered the second spring rather than autumn as winter is so mild, so we have 2 growing seasons.
Erin D
I just learned that runner beans can develop tubers. Have you (or anyone else in this thread) experienced that? I imagine it would relate to perenniality.
Ray S
The tubers grow pretty close to the surface, at least the ones I’ve seen do. Perhaps the seeds need to be planted quite deep so that the tubers are deep. I must try that next season. Although the ground doesn’t freeze here in winter we do get many frosty nights and anything that close to the surface does suffer.
Greenie
I came across Sunset described as having particularly showy and attractive flowers; did you find this to be the case?
I’m looking forward to seeing how your batch feels about winter!
Ray S
Sunset, at least the ones I grew here, have lovely salmon pink flowers. The seeds are indistinguishable from Scarlet Emperor being black and purple.
Painted Lady is lovely too with brown and white speckled seeds and two-tone red and white flowers.
The rest it seems have either red or white flowers. A British grower is likely to have access to a wide range of runners as they are very popular in the UK.
Very mixed results in terms of yield in this the first season of the landrace project. I don’t put too much store in this as the seeds were of various ages although I must say that the variety Dutch White yielded way more than any of the others.
Anyway, here are some of the beans harvested:
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