2021 Little Easy Bean Network - Bean Lovers Come Discover Something New !

[heirloomgal]

I had decided on about 12 to 15 seeds for packet sizes when I started LEBN. I know for bush beans that will produce anywhere from a half to almost a pound of seed for bush beans depending on variety. That is a pretty good harvest. I personally shoot for 8 plants for pole beans that also produces a good harvest. I break up all the 60 count returns into.......5-12's or 4-15's seed count packets depending on the number of packets already in frozen storage. Sometimes growers that have grown a small seeded bean might even return 100 to 150 beans and I sometimes break those up into 20 count packets for storage. I've had some growers who have had such good seed crops just take my return packet and stuff it to the top.

Passage to India is definitely one of those tiny seeded beans! I'm very curious to see if it will be a mega producer because of that. I hope so!

This is probably impossible to estimate, but I'll ask just in case; pole bean production depends on a number of things, but in an average and good weather year how many beans do you think the average pole plant makes?

 

[Zeedman]

@Zeedman That's wild that some of your land is just now drying up. I recall you mentioned having clay soil, but is there some other factor in there responsible for that level of retention?

Although my home & rural gardens are 6 miles apart, they just happen to have the same soil type (silty clay loam) and poor drainage. Both sites are classified by the county land survey as old lake bed. My home is located about 300' from the 500-year flood plain, and the rural garden is nearly flat land about 1/4 mile from a marsh. The rural site also receives drainage from a large adjoining farm field of slightly higher elevation - which makes it some of the last arable land in the county to dry down.

My home gardens dry out a little faster, and even better now that I have added enough soil to elevate them a little (I can plant in them quite reliably). But the low point of the rural garden was crossed by what I could only call a wet-weather creek... the property owners jokingly refer to it as "(their name) River". During an exceptionally heavy rain storm, the low end was flooded, and 4-6" of topsoil was washed away - making it lower & even slower to dry. I abandoned that area (about 4000 square feet) and have been adding soil to the remaining low spots, which seems to be working. But if we get a wet May - June with no real dry spell (we've had several of those in recent years) the ground will still be unworkable.

BUT... provided the land dries out enough to cultivate, it is highly fertile, and produces heavily with little to no fertilizer. I have been heavily amending the home plots with organic matter, and tilth has improved. In the rural garden, I will continue to bring in more topsoil each year to fill the 36' X 4' raised bed for the garlic, and to spread that soil into the low spots after harvest. That will add 3-4 cubic yards of soil per year.

Fortunately, the soil dried out early this year; DW & I have been planting non-stop for the last 2 days. If a late frost is the price to pay for an early dry spell, I can live with that.

Got to turn in, another long day tomorrow.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Passage to India is definitely one of those tiny seeded beans! I'm very curious to see if it will be a mega producer because of that. I hope so!

This is probably impossible to estimate, but I'll ask just in case; pole bean production depends on a number of things, but in an average and good weather year how many beans do you think the average pole plant makes?

From what my weighing of my pole bean seed crops in the autumn seems to show is that each pole plant will produce about 6 to 8 ounces of beans in a good year. I plant 4 beans around each of my poles and get about a pound and a half to two pounds of beans out of each pole planting.

 

[flowerbug]

looks like the germination rate for the Purple Dove is 100% or very close to that. i'll get back to planting beans this coming Thursday or Friday.

 

[heirloomgal]

Put almost all my beans in yesterday & today. This is really a 'bean'year for sure, with probably 2/3 of the garden real estate (or more) for them. SO excited to be trying so many new varieties!! As I planted the Apple Creek bush bean this afternoon, it was nearly a transcendental experience 🤩 Have had such excellent planting weather, and a solid headstart with so many transplants I feel like success must be in the cards. I did find a Coco de Boheme plant today with its head lopped off laying int the dirt, and can only imagine it must have been damaged during transplanting somehow. As far as I know, we don't have those cutworms that climb way up the plant and then chew. But I put diatomecous powder around the stems of EVERY transplant just in case. Last year, for the 1st time in 14 years, I had cutworms. Not really bad, but they took out some bean plants and a few tomatoes. Definitely don't want those again.

 

[flowerbug]

Put almost all my beans in yesterday & today. This is really a 'bean'year for sure, with probably 2/3 of the garden real estate (or more) for them. SO excited to be trying so many new varieties!! As I planted the Apple Creek bush bean this afternoon, it was nearly a transcendental experience 🤩 Have had such excellent planting weather, and a solid headstart with so many transplants I feel like success must be in the cards. I did find a Coco de Boheme plant today with its head lopped off laying int the dirt, and can only imagine it must have been damaged during transplanting somehow. As far as I know, we don't have those cutworms that climb way up the plant and then chew. But I put diatomecous powder around the stems of EVERY transplant just in case. Last year, for the 1st time in 14 years, I had cutworms. Not really bad, but they took out some bean plants and a few tomatoes. Definitely don't want those again.

no, they're no fun, but they gotta eat too! i've seen one so far this year when cultivating. luckily it was nowhere near anything i was worried about.

the first beans i planted this year are near the peas, which haven't been bothered by anything yet that i can tell. there's a toad living along there so i wanted to get some plant cover going for them so they won't feel too exposed.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Put almost all my beans in yesterday & today. This is really a 'bean'year for sure, with probably 2/3 of the garden real estate (or more) for them. SO excited to be trying so many new varieties!! As I planted the Apple Creek bush bean this afternoon, it was nearly a transcendental experience 🤩 Have had such excellent planting weather, and a solid headstart with so many transplants I feel like success must be in the cards. I did find a Coco de Boheme plant today with its head lopped off laying int the dirt, and can only imagine it must have been damaged during transplanting somehow. As far as I know, we don't have those cutworms that climb way up the plant and then chew. But I put diatomecous powder around the stems of EVERY transplant just in case. Last year, for the 1st time in 14 years, I had cutworms. Not really bad, but they took out some bean plants and a few tomatoes. Definitely don't want those again.

How is the soil moisture in your area? The bean plot areas that I have tilled to plant are powder dry on top and nearly so up to a depth of about 5 inches. I think if we've had about 3/4 of an inch of rain since about the beginning of March. Most of our rains here have been just enough to make sidewalks wet. Nothing that the sun couldn't dry up in about an hour. According to the U.S. drought monitor website the county I live in has gone from D1 moderate dought to D2 severe drought in the last 3 weeks.

 

[flowerbug]

it has been dry here and no rains that have been predicted the past several days have actually happened (all went south or north of us). we did get some rains last week which helped a lot. at least the farmers got their seeds started. next foreast chances of rain are for next Tues after days of 90F weather so i hope those seedlings can survive until then.

 

[Zeedman]

How is the soil moisture in your area? The bean plot areas that I have tilled to plant are powder dry on top and nearly so up to a depth of about 5 inches. I think if we've had about 3/4 of an inch of rain since about the beginning of March. Most of our rains here have been just enough to make sidewalks wet. Nothing that the sun couldn't dry up in about an hour. According to the U.S. drought monitor website the county I live in has gone from D1 moderate dought to D2 severe drought in the last 3 weeks.

We've had a half inch or so a couple times, but no real downpours... those have all gone around us, or broken up just West of us. Which is fine by me; DW & I have been out in the gardens almost every day. All direct-seeded beans & soybeans are now planted, so the only beans remaining are the transplants for Vignas, one lima, and the soybean rescues.

 

[heirloomgal]

We haven't had much water here lately, and we've had quite a hot spell (80 to 88) for this time of year. Rain barrels are all totally empty, so lots of hose work daily now. But there are two thunderstorm warnings in the next 7 days, and rain on Thursday. Here's a few bean pics. Cheers everybody to happy beginnings. 😉

This is my Mother's Day present, it has a 6 X 12 ft raised bed attached to either side, filled with new garden mix. DH made it from some old lumber we had in the yard. Piekny Jas is planted on either side. For some mysterious reason, the 4 on one side or not growing the same as the 4 on the other??

Left side, finally starting to catch.

Right side, not even a twining vine yet!

Here is a wee bit of gruesomeness, so beware, but last year I had these pesky little black bugs appear on the plants on one bean trellis. The jumping bugs were poking tiny holes into the leaves; I've never seen this before, ever. I tried neem, and diatomecous powder, but nothing seemed to work. Then I heard a BBC gardener give a talk about flea beetles and holding a molasses smeared piece of cardboard over the plants as you jiggle them,and the beetles jump off onto your cardboard and get stuck. Well, I tried it (on plastic,not cardboard) and it works. Captured about 80% of them int the first swipe. Then more a half hour later.