2023 Little Easy Bean Network - Beans Beyond The Colors Of A Rainbow

meadow

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I have not tried to grow typical pole strains in this way, only bush, semi-runner and low half-runner. Under greenhouse conditions, beans grow very strongly. I sow seeds only once, one seed in a 3-4 liter pot. I usually harvest the pods twice, sometimes three, depending on the variety. After the first harvest, I start feeding the plants with fertilizer for geraniums. I don't use additional lighting. My windows are on the south side of the building and the plants seem to get enough light.
How often do you use the fertilizer?

I'd like to try this with a bean that came in that batch of seed that was in such poor shape last year. It was too pretty of a bean to throw away so I picked out the ones that looked okay. The seeds are a deep rich brown color ("Quaker Bush" is the variety).
 

flowerbug

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Gimp also runs well on Windows 😁. And I have recently started using a program called RawTherapee which complements Gimp and seems to be a very good photo editor. Both free / open-source.

yes, i have that one too and darktable, but i need to spend more time figuring them out and i'm backed up on other projects at the moment so ...
 

flowerbug

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... . Sticky fly tape, and bowls with a solution of cider vinegar & dish soap, can trap hundreds.

i've never noticed the fungus gnats being attracted to ACV and soap traps? i thought that only really worked well for fruit flies or as some call them vinegar flies.

around here even if the fungus gnats escape from the worm buckets (and the small spiders i have in there) they don't live long, especially in the winter when there is no living houseplant for them to invade. the soil in all the amaryllis plants right now is bone dry.
 

Zeedman

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i've never noticed the fungus gnats being attracted to ACV and soap traps? i thought that only really worked well for fruit flies or as some call them vinegar flies.

around here even if the fungus gnats escape from the worm buckets (and the small spiders i have in there) they don't live long, especially in the winter when there is no living houseplant for them to invade. the soil in all the amaryllis plants right now is bone dry.
DW left me a large number of house plants; so unless dealt with, the gnats could be an annoyance year-round. They were especially bad when I brought the trees & shrubs back inside, which had been moved outside over the summer. It didn't help that there were plants on opposite ends of the house either, and the gnats quickly spread to all pots.

The gnats may not live long, but they fly EVERYWHERE. They were attracted to meat, fruit, hot cereal, and almost anything edible (even eggs & sandwiches) within minutes. They were apparently fascinated by my nose too... and since my recliner is close to the plant corner, I inhaled more than I care to remember. :mad: I could hardly put a glass of juice down, without a gnat or two landing in it almost immediately; so having seen that, I added a small amount of juice to the vinegar/soap traps. I also went from watering once a week, to bi-weekly, with the first several applications using the peroxide solution. It took about 6 weeks, but the house is now gnat-free.

I've already washed out the bowls, but the sticky tapes (2 of them) are still hanging above the plants. Whether the gnats are attracted to them, or whether they just land on the tapes out of convenience, they caught huge numbers very quickly. I confess that even I was surprised at how well the fly tapes worked - seeing is believing.
20230104_122313.jpg 20230104_122356.jpg

All of which should probably have been posted on the house plant thread... oops. :rolleyes: A hammer sees everything as a nail, so don't blame me if I see everything as a bean - it's all @Bluejay77 's fault. :lol:
 
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meadow

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A hammer sees everything as a nail, so don't blame me if I see everything as a bean - it's all @Bluejay77 's fault. :lol:
I knoowwww, right?! :lol:

Researching King City Pink beans has led to regaining an interest in reading novels (a passion in my younger days). Legend has it that Steinbeck wrote about KCP's in one of his novels, with people citing East of Eden (probably because it takes place near King City, California). However the actual book is Tortilla Flat (which takes place near Monterey, which is just a bit north of King City). Reading the introduction was like coming home.

But it is all due to @Bluejay77. :love It's all about the bean.
 

flowerbug

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...The gnats may not live long, but they fly EVERYWHERE. They were attracted to meat, fruit, hot cereal, and almost anything edible (even eggs & sandwiches) within minutes. They were apparently fascinated by my nose too... and since my recliner is close to the plant corner, I inhaled more than I care to remember. :mad: I could hardly put a glass of juice down, without a gnat or two landing in it almost immediately; so having seen that, I added a small amount of juice to the vinegar/soap traps. I also went from watering once a week, to bi-weekly, with the first several applications using the peroxide solution. It took about 6 weeks, but the house is now gnat-free.

as a hypothesis i'm pretty sure it was the moisture they were attracted to, i've had them flying around my face and eyes too at times, but i never saw them going for food (i don't eat in this room most of the time and rarely drink in here either).

adding juice to vinegar would also do that and mix up things for figuring out what was going on.

ok, i'll leave it at that and am glad you managed to get rid of them at last. :)

what's a bean thread without a tangent? well, not this thread... :)
 

flowerbug

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Will photosensitive cultivars that have begun to flower after exposure to 12h daylength continue to produce flowers when transferred to a long daylength environment, or will flowering cease?

i don't know that i have grown those to figure it out or have a good answer, my guess is that they start blooming when the daylength gets long enough and then they keep going.
 

heirloomgal

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DW left me a large number of house plants; so unless dealt with, the gnats could be an annoyance year-round. They were especially bad when I brought the trees & shrubs back inside, which had been moved outside over the summer. It didn't help that there were plants on opposite ends of the house either, and the gnats quickly spread to all pots.

The gnats may not live long, but they fly EVERYWHERE. They were attracted to meat, fruit, hot cereal, and almost anything edible (even eggs & sandwiches) within minutes. They were apparently fascinated by my nose too... and since my recliner is close to the plant corner, I inhaled more than I care to remember. :mad: I could hardly put a glass of juice down, without a gnat or two landing in it almost immediately; so having seen that, I added a small amount of juice to the vinegar/soap traps. I also went from watering once a week, to bi-weekly, with the first several applications using the peroxide solution. It took about 6 weeks, but the house is now gnat-free.

I've already washed out the bowls, but the sticky tapes (2 of them) are still hanging above the plants. Whether the gnats are attracted to them, or whether they just land on the tapes out of convenience, they caught huge numbers very quickly. I confess that even I was surprised at how well the fly tapes worked - seeing is believing.
View attachment 54370 View attachment 54371

All of which should probably have been posted on the house plant thread... oops. :rolleyes: A hammer sees everything as a nail, so don't blame me if I see everything as a bean - it's all @Bluejay77 's fault. :lol:
Oh boy, I don't envy you those gnats @Zeedman . I bought a bag of potting soil infected with those last year and ugh my pepper transplants suffered from those. It took SO LONG to fully eliminate them, given their life cycle and egg laying (and my lack of experience in dealing with them for the first time). My potting soil mix for this year has been clean so far, knock on wood. I used neem oil mixed in the water and that did them in, along with spraying the air after shaking the pots, to disturb them, with vinegar water mix. The immediate *dispatching* of that effect was soooo satisfying.
 

Artorius

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How often do you use the fertilizer?

I'd like to try this with a bean that came in that batch of seed that was in such poor shape last year. It was too pretty of a bean to throw away so I picked out the ones that looked okay. The seeds are a deep rich brown color ("Quaker Bush" is the variety).

I use fertilizer for geraniums NPK 4-6-8 with microelements, at a dose of 6 milliliters per liter, weekly. Besides, I'm watching. The plant will always tell you when it is hungry and what it would like to eat :)

@meadow, I have a few Quaker Bush seeds and they need multiplication. We will be able to compare the results.
 
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