2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[Blue-Jay]

Do you happen to know how tall Red Calico and Ganymede are likely to grow? Are they true pole beans or rather semi runner-like?

Red Calcio and Ganymede are true pole beans. They will grow probably more than 4 meters. I have never seen how tall they can get because my poles are a little over 2 meters tall. They get to the top then everntually hang down to almost the ground again.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Is this a common starting point? (this is my first season and the temptation to chase another variety is sooooo tempting!) Am I on the verge of entering the beany twilight zone where I too will be growing numerous varieties?

You might just wind up with many beans. You have joined the bean galaxy with us here and we are just waiting for more to join our swirling mass. You might just fall into the dark bean hole and the center of this galaxy. It happened to me along time ago. It could happen to anyone .

 

[Blue-Jay]

What kind of weather do you have at the moment? We almost touched the 30°C today (at night no less than 15°). Are your plants all out already?

Last week it was like summer all week long. We had temperatures ranging from 26 to 32 C all week. Right now in this late afternoon it is 17 C. Next week it should warm up more. I don't trust the weather this time of May to plant anything outside yet. We very badly need rain. The garden beds are hard and the soil doesn't work up well when it's like this.

 

[flowerbug]

i have some sprouts from last season's beans that i buried along with any garden debris. so the soil is finally getting warm enough here. i still don't trust it completely. more rains due tomorrow.

hope you pick up some rains there @Bluejay77 ! the radar looks promising.

 

[Artorius]

I know what you mean! Same here. I acquired so many new varieties recently that I had to explain to several of them to remain patient until next season.

What kind of weather do you have at the moment? We almost touched the 30°C today (at night no less than 15°). Are your plants all out already?

It was the last cool night, around 3 C, the next ones a bit above 10 C. During the day an average of 20 C. On Friday I take a vacation and start transplanting beans.

 

[BeanieQueen]

Last week it was like summer all week long. We had temperatures ranging from 26 to 32 C all week. Right now in this late afternoon it is 17 C. Next week it should warm up more. I don't trust the weather this time of May to plant anything outside yet. We very badly need rain. The garden beds are hard and the soil doesn't work up well when it's like this.

Thanks a lot for the Lima answer. Precious information. Very good to know what is expecting me.. I am afraid I have to change my arrangements..

I see that you have rather the same weather like me at the moment. It is getting already very dry here too.
So do you have all your bean youngsters in pots at home? Or will you sow them directly outside in the bed? On your last season's photos it looked like being sown directly on the spot.

 

[Blue-Jay]

hope you pick up some rains there @Bluejay77 ! the radar looks promising.

I don't think it rained last night but when I got up this morning around 5 am it was already raining and continued to at least 8 am. I wouldn't mind some more. Supposedly going to be 84 F 29C tomorrow.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Thanks a lot for the Lima answer. Precious information. Very good to know what is expecting me.. I am afraid I have to change my arrangements..

I see that you have rather the same weather like me at the moment. It is getting already very dry here too.
So do you have all your bean youngsters in pots at home? Or will you sow them directly outside in the bed? On your last season's photos it looked like being sown directly on the spot.

A couple of limas last year I presprouted the seed of Ping Zebra and put them in the ground after they sprouted about 10 days before the end of May. Most of the beans I grow I sow them directly. This year I will grow a little more than 140 varieties.

I spent two days recently picking samples out of the freezer of beans that I will be growing and getting them lined up in boxes in the order that they will go into the ground. I need to get all my poles ready. Soon as it is warm enough to plant and the soil is the right moisture level. I will spring into action with my roto-tiller and will be out planting for about 5 days.

 

[Triffid]

You seem to grow many white seeded network beans this year.

This is true! Over 60% of the all the vulgaris beans I'm growing this season are white-seeded. Appalachian varieties have made up the bulk of these.

 

[heirloomgal]

Operation: Protect Network Pole Beans from Voles

So I started the not especially fun project of digging out a clay pathway which I suspected became a vole highway last year. I am still going to place my network pole beans in the centre of each row and keep less valuable varieties on the edges just in case, because last year they started on the end and worked there way up the row. After a few heavy clay shovel fulls in 30 C weather, I decided this would be a great job for a teenager instead. So I got my son to do it.

The beginning, (I lifted the walking boards that were here first) -

Hmm......

Yup, the off ramp to my garden. The hole was packed tight from use, and interestingly, he dug it under the walking path not the row. At first that seemed like extra labour on the vole's part and mentioned this to DH, to which he looked at me and laughed. It was actually just a hole but I pulled out some dirt to expose the tunnel. The tiller didn't reach it unfortunately. I'l have to manually bang it out.

Here is the stage we're at now. Vole entry hole is top left. Time to lay in some of the wire mesh along the bottom and sides. This is going to have to wait since we are scheduled for rain for a while. The water is pooling where a brick step was put in, in front of my greenhouse (which the vole didn't tunnel under, but around instead).

Stumps are all that's left of several of the large trees close by. We cut about 6. Next project is digging these stumps out and flattening the area.

This is the left side of the path, the trees we cut were on the right of the path. No wonder I've had air movement issues!

But cutting all the trees on the right really improved air flow off the mountain through the yard, despite these other trees - which was also part of the operation. Improve air movement. So far so good.