the1honeycomb
Deeply Rooted
It is Buckabucka!!! and the results are very rewarding!!! welcome. some of the guys and gals here are amazingly smart!!
The 2014 Little Easy Bean Network - Get New Beans On The Cheap
- Thread starter Blue-Jay
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TheSeedObsesser
Deeply Rooted
What's the earliest variety that you have available for the bean network? I think that I could manage getting some dry seeds.Wonderful news
The beans are arriving, and some are even starting to peek out at the world.I'm going to mail out Smart Reds beans today.
Smart red I got your seed returns last week. Thanks ! They went into the freezer for longer term storage. Wish we could get more joiners this year. We are still a very small group.
baymule
Garden Master
Russ, I got my beans! I'll plant them tomorrow!
digitS'
Garden Master
I'm in 
.
Anything that involves coffee beans and mismatched socks.
Steve
.Anything that involves coffee beans and mismatched socks.
Steve
the1honeycomb
Deeply Rooted
what do you mean miss matched socks alal my socks match red, green, blue one for each foot!!
- Thread starter
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Blue-Jay
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Marshall,
That was quite a write up on the Little Easy Bean Network. Pretty neat stuff. Your a regular garden journalist . Next we will see you on Garden TV.
Your Ganymede limas should come up eventually. I never noticed that they were slower here in my garden. Maybe they are just slow like your Dapple Grey last year.
Hey Buckabucka,
Pick a couple of beans and give it a try. You can have a free bean from my website too. Raising beans for seed is easy. Just let the pods mature all they way to the stage where they are getting a crispy dry texture. Pick them if rain threatens and dry them further under cover. I put mine in open are card board boxes. Some of the pods dry there for about a month before I begin shelling the seeds from the pods.
That was quite a write up on the Little Easy Bean Network. Pretty neat stuff. Your a regular garden journalist . Next we will see you on Garden TV.
Your Ganymede limas should come up eventually. I never noticed that they were slower here in my garden. Maybe they are just slow like your Dapple Grey last year.
Hey Buckabucka,
Pick a couple of beans and give it a try. You can have a free bean from my website too. Raising beans for seed is easy. Just let the pods mature all they way to the stage where they are getting a crispy dry texture. Pick them if rain threatens and dry them further under cover. I put mine in open are card board boxes. Some of the pods dry there for about a month before I begin shelling the seeds from the pods.
Ridgerunner
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One of my challenges with dried beans is if it sets in wet after they are drying they can rot in the pod or sprout in the pod, especially if they are touching the ground. So if it is threatening rain, I'll try to pick the ones that are pretty dried out but leave the green ones on the vine to further mature. If you are growing bush beans and the beans are pretty mature and the plant is dying and drying out, you can pull the bush bean plant and hang them in a carport or shed, somewhere dry but well-ventilated, and let them finish drying. They'll draw some more nutrients as the plant is dying and you can harvest them and hull them out more on your schedule rather than letting the weather dictate that.
I couldn't find my photos, but I made a frame out of 2x4's and window screen to dry the beans on once they are hulled. It's similar to this hardware cloth frame I use for potatoes and to keep the bean pods on so they can dry. I ripped maybe 3/4" off the edges of the 2x4's and built a rectangular frame. The use the 3/4" strips hold the screen on the frame.
I couldn't find my photos, but I made a frame out of 2x4's and window screen to dry the beans on once they are hulled. It's similar to this hardware cloth frame I use for potatoes and to keep the bean pods on so they can dry. I ripped maybe 3/4" off the edges of the 2x4's and built a rectangular frame. The use the 3/4" strips hold the screen on the frame.
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Blue-Jay
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SeedObesser,
I thought you were going to move this summer? If you think you can still grow some dry seed some of the bush varieties that I have left would be your best bet. However your first dry pods will just be at about the 90 to 100 day mark. Then to get most of the rest your seed crop you will need about another 30 days.
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Blue-Jay
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Rigerunner says,
One of my challenges with dried beans is if it sets in wet after they are drying they can rot in the pod or sprout in the pod, especially if they are touching the ground. So if it is threatening rain, I'll try to pick the ones that are pretty dried out but leave the green ones on the vine to further mature. If you are growing bush beans and the beans are pretty mature and the plant is dying and drying out, you can pull the bush bean plant and hang them in a carport or shed, somewhere dry but well-ventilated, and let them finish drying.
Blue Jay Says,
Another way to keep drying beans pods from spoiling so quickly is to mulch the spaces between your bean rows. I use grass clippings collected with my lawn mower with a bagger attachement. I mulched right up underneath and around the plants as well. It really kept the weeds down. Only had to carefully pull a few weeds all summer that grew up between the plants in the row. It helped conserve soil moisture. Kept soil from splashing on the plants and pods when it rained. Drying bean pods never touched the bare soil. I had 16 rows of bush beans 48 feet long last summer. Took me a week to mulch all the bush bean rows. I didn't mulch my pole beans, and I think I could really see the difference in the quality of pods from the mulched bush beans. How thick to mulch is something you will have to get to know from experience. In the autumn when the bean patch was harvested out. I shredded all the dead plants by running over the garden with the lawn mower. Then tilled it all under. All that decaying grass clippings has got to be a good soil conditioner, and helps feed the beneficial bacteria in the soil. I'm sold on mulching my garden.
One of my challenges with dried beans is if it sets in wet after they are drying they can rot in the pod or sprout in the pod, especially if they are touching the ground. So if it is threatening rain, I'll try to pick the ones that are pretty dried out but leave the green ones on the vine to further mature. If you are growing bush beans and the beans are pretty mature and the plant is dying and drying out, you can pull the bush bean plant and hang them in a carport or shed, somewhere dry but well-ventilated, and let them finish drying.
Blue Jay Says,
Another way to keep drying beans pods from spoiling so quickly is to mulch the spaces between your bean rows. I use grass clippings collected with my lawn mower with a bagger attachement. I mulched right up underneath and around the plants as well. It really kept the weeds down. Only had to carefully pull a few weeds all summer that grew up between the plants in the row. It helped conserve soil moisture. Kept soil from splashing on the plants and pods when it rained. Drying bean pods never touched the bare soil. I had 16 rows of bush beans 48 feet long last summer. Took me a week to mulch all the bush bean rows. I didn't mulch my pole beans, and I think I could really see the difference in the quality of pods from the mulched bush beans. How thick to mulch is something you will have to get to know from experience. In the autumn when the bean patch was harvested out. I shredded all the dead plants by running over the garden with the lawn mower. Then tilled it all under. All that decaying grass clippings has got to be a good soil conditioner, and helps feed the beneficial bacteria in the soil. I'm sold on mulching my garden.
journey11
Garden Master
It really amazes me how impenetrable dried grass clippings used as mulch can be. I've mulched with leaves, woodpile bark, old hay, straw...but nothing keeps down the weeds like grass clippings.
