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

[heirloomgal]

That is cool that we each selected Van Gogh's Olive out of the vast pool of choices. I am finding it so interesting to get to know each new kind of bean. This particular bed where I planted my network beans is very dry, so I used row cover for the first few weeks to help keep extra moisture in. I think that it helped them get established.

Also, do you remember on May 22nd I tried pinching my Trionfo Violetto pole beans? It is now six weeks later, they have grown a lot. The unpinched ones and the ones pinched above the second set of leaves are each very tall at 7'; they are blooming and healthy looking. The ones that were pinched above the first set of leaves are about a foot shorter with no buds yet, and rather anemic looking; their leaves have remained light green ever since I pinched them. (In the photo they are pictured furthest to the right). It will be fun to continue to watch how their growth develops. 😊

That is certainly an interesting set of results. I wonder what could be going on with that? I've pinched so many of my plants this year and none have done that? In fact, I found this today - groundhog damage I suspect from a a few days ago - 4 clipped branches, with one rather large big vine a victim, but the plant is still doing great. Could it be the soil in that particular spot where your plant is?

 

[Branching Out]

That is certainly an interesting set of results. I wonder what could be going on with that? I've pinched so many of my plants this year and none have done that? In fact, I found this today - groundhog damage I suspect from a a few days ago - 4 clipped branches, with one rather large big vine a victim, but the plant is still doing great. Could it be the soil in that particular spot where your plant is?

Maybe. I had a dahlia in that very spot for years, but decided to dig it out recently.

 

[heirloomgal]

Finally got some sunlight for pictures this evening. So interesting to watch the different beans grow and observe differences in their flowers and leaf types.

Network bean Dead Man's Tooth. Yup, it's a bush bean for me too @Artorius! The flowers are pure, pure white and make me think the name has as much to do with the flowers as the beans! (The runner on the left is from the other plant.)

I think network bean Botosani Splash below may also turn out to be a bush bean. It's got good sized green beans forming and I still don't see any runners showing up.

The buttery flowers of network bean Old Time Golden Stick (hope I got that name right).

Network bean Stephano Borlotti D'Avento. Starting to really fill out. Looking forward to shelling these beauties!

Network bean Grey Mountain.

Network bean Kitoba. The seeds of this variety were remarkably pretty. A very unusual variety indeed.

@Zeedman 's Sangre de Toro. The little red seeds sprouted plants that had pinkish reddish coloured stems in the early stages of growth. These went in as transplants so I'm a little surprised that they took so long to start climbing. But I did put more than 4 plants on the pole, so that may have had an effect. The growth habit is quite tidy. Looks like a few beans float around with this name attached, though they have different growth habits.

Ecuador Cranberry, which went in as seeds.

These are all network bean poles in the front row, if I remember correctly (right to left) they are Turkey #1, Hemelvaartboontje, *Sloot* (ahem), and...can't remember the last one?

I let DD pick a bean to grow for this container - she chose Theresa's Pink Portugal. I'm surprised how big the plants have gotten for having gone in rather late as seeds.

 

[heirloomgal]

Just some general bean pics. @Bluejay77 I tip my hat to you, and can see why you love to grow beans. With every new year I do a big bean grow out I love growing beans even more. I just love the plants, even at this stage. I give you credit for how 'not easy' this species is though. Beans are considerably more difficult to get safely to maturity than tomatoes! At least for me & my conditions. But it is definitely worth that bit of extra effort. And the harvesting of the seeds is a wonderful, relaxing process; such a pleasure to enjoy all the beautiful fresh seed. With tomatoes it's ghastly!

Bigarrada Gris-Negre. This is turning out to be a really vigorous European bean!

 

[flowerbug]

Just some general bean pics. @Bluejay77 I tip my hat to you, and can see why you love to grow beans. With every new year I do a big bean grow out I love growing beans even more. I just love the plants, even at this stage. I give you credit for how 'not easy' this species is though. Beans are considerably more difficult to get safely to maturity than tomatoes! At least for me & my conditions. But it is definitely worth that bit of extra effort. And the harvesting of the seeds is a wonderful, relaxing process; such a pleasure to enjoy all the beautiful fresh seed. With tomatoes it ghastly! ...

the fun for me is finding varieties which work well with our local conditions (both soil and climate) and trying some others to get more varieties as i think just growing one or two isn't as interesting (visually and also taste and texture wise). some work great for fresh eating and others are only dry bean production.

i was just about to work on getting a few more bean pictures on the website last night when the power went down, but i was also going to work on the list of beans and varieties planted that i like to have as a reference for future years.

one picture is the Purple Dove bean flower that lives up to the name. i won't have enough time to work on that today but eventually they'll get posted...

 

[Blue-Jay]

Just some general bean pics. @Bluejay77 I tip my hat to you, and can see why you love to grow beans. With every new year I do a big bean grow out I love growing beans even more. I just love the plants, even at this stage. I give you credit for how 'not easy' this species is though. Beans are considerably more difficult to get safely to maturity than tomatoes! At least for me & my conditions. But it is definitely worth that bit of extra effort. And the harvesting of the seeds is a wonderful, relaxing process; such a pleasure to enjoy all the beautiful fresh seed. With tomatoes it ghastly!

@heirloomgal you are absolutely correct about saying beans are more difficult to bring to a safe and quality harvest than tomatoes. I have always known that. The variety in colors and patterns of it's seeds has always held the strongest grip on me than anything else. It has always been worth the effort but also can be very frustrating when nature gives you a difficult growing season. Tomato seed is surrounded in a gel and liquid and the tomato plant manufactures a chemical that keeps germination at bay. All you got to do is pick the mature fruit and wash off the gel and liquid. Dry them and presto you have your top quality tomato seed every single time and season. You can have great tomato seed even if the fruits sit the rain for a number of days.

 

[Ladyreneer]

Hmmm... I've kind of been gardening on the fly this year, and building my "playlist" as I plant. Don't think I've posted my bean list, since it has been until now a work in progress:

Beans:
Blue Blockeye (pole wax)
Clem & Sarah's Big Bean (bush dry?)
Chester (pole shelly)
Dolloff (pole dry)
Emerite (pole snap, main crop)
King Horticultural (pole shelly/dry)
Kentucky Wonder White #191 (pole snap)
Striped Cornfield (pole snap/shelly/dry)
Tetovac (pole dry)
Toby Poe's Purple (pole purple snap)
True Red Cranberry (pole dry)
Uzice Speckled Wax (pole wax/shelly)
Woods Mountain Crazy Bean (bush snap)

Limas:
Berrier's #2 (pole)
Seiva (pole)

Runner beans:
Tarahumara Tekomari
Tucomares Chocolate

Favas:
Black Russian
Crimson Flowered
(it will be interesting to see how they take this heat)

Cowpeas/yardlongs:
3-feet-plus (yardlong)
Galante (yardlong, a lot of people requested last year's seed)
Kirby (cowpea)
Pink Eye Purple Hull (cowpea)
Yancheng Bush (bush yardlong)
Zipper Cream (cowpea)

Peas:
Bill Jump (soup)
Gruno Rosyn (soup)
Limestone (snow)
Sugar Lace II (snap)

Hyacinth beans: (all new trials, to test for photo-period sensitivity)
Early Meaty (pole)
Early #1 (pole)
Khyati (bush, white seeded)

Peanut - Argentinian White
Adzuki - Murasaki (purple)
Tepary Bean - Virus Free White
Chickpea - PI 359241

Soybeans:
Aan Tu Bai Hua Lu Da Dou
Cha Kura Kake (edamame)
Early Hakucho (edamame)
Ezonishiki (edamame)
Gardensoy 12 (edamame)
Gion (edamame)
Grignon 17
Grignon 18
Hatsutaka (edamame)
Kharkovskaya Zernokormovaya
Natsu Kurakake (edamame)
Oosodefuri (edamame)
PI 194626
PI 522192 A
Sioux
SY 9514014
Zelena Echo 3

Favas, limas, runner beans, and peanuts are up; bean transplants just emerging now. All of the older soybeans will be sprouted en masse on plates, and any which sprout potted.

Are soybeans hard to grow? And where did you get all those fabulous soybean seeds? 🫘

Hmmm... I've kind of been gardening on the fly this year, and building my "playlist" as I plant. Don't think I've posted my bean list, since it has been until now a work in progress:

Beans:
Blue Blockeye (pole wax)
Clem & Sarah's Big Bean (bush dry?)
Chester (pole shelly)
Dolloff (pole dry)
Emerite (pole snap, main crop)
King Horticultural (pole shelly/dry)
Kentucky Wonder White #191 (pole snap)
Striped Cornfield (pole snap/shelly/dry)
Tetovac (pole dry)
Toby Poe's Purple (pole purple snap)
True Red Cranberry (pole dry)
Uzice Speckled Wax (pole wax/shelly)
Woods Mountain Crazy Bean (bush snap)

Limas:
Berrier's #2 (pole)
Seiva (pole)

Runner beans:
Tarahumara Tekomari
Tucomares Chocolate

Favas:
Black Russian
Crimson Flowered
(it will be interesting to see how they take this heat)

Cowpeas/yardlongs:
3-feet-plus (yardlong)
Galante (yardlong, a lot of people requested last year's seed)
Kirby (cowpea)
Pink Eye Purple Hull (cowpea)
Yancheng Bush (bush yardlong)
Zipper Cream (cowpea)

Peas:
Bill Jump (soup)
Gruno Rosyn (soup)
Limestone (snow)
Sugar Lace II (snap)

Hyacinth beans: (all new trials, to test for photo-period sensitivity)
Early Meaty (pole)
Early #1 (pole)
Khyati (bush, white seeded)

Peanut - Argentinian White
Adzuki - Murasaki (purple)
Tepary Bean - Virus Free White
Chickpea - PI 359241

Soybeans:
Aan Tu Bai Hua Lu Da Dou
Cha Kura Kake (edamame)
Early Hakucho (edamame)
Ezonishiki (edamame)
Gardensoy 12 (edamame)
Gion (edamame)
Grignon 17
Grignon 18
Hatsutaka (edamame)
Kharkovskaya Zernokormovaya
Natsu Kurakake (edamame)
Oosodefuri (edamame)
PI 194626
PI 522192 A
Sioux
SY 9514014
Zelena Echo 3

Favas, limas, runner beans, and peanuts are up; bean transplants just emerging now. All of the older soybeans will be sprouted en masse on plates, and any which sprout potted.

Where did you get that fabulous set of soybeans. Are they hard to grow? I'd love to try with some. I'm vegetarian and love Tofu scrambled eggs. 🫘❤️🫘

 

[flowerbug]

here are some more recent bean garden pictures but i don't have the varieties listed for each part or many individual variety pictures.

the earliest beans planted May 4th are the Purple Dove (lower left part of this picture) the rest of the beans in this picture were planted later in May and into June. Lima beans didn't do as well sprouting this year (it was cold!).

Purple Dove flowers...

other beans gardens...

the little dots of green to the left foreground are the very last beans planted (Adzukis) to see how they do in compacted clay soil with minimal disturbance (just enough to poke a small hole in the ground and get the seeds planted).

 

[flowerbug]

That is the vein that runs down the center of bean pod that the bean plant feeds the seed in the pod as it's forming. I refer to it as the placental vein. That probably not the correct term for it but it would suffice as about the same funtioning in animals that give live birth to their young. I think that vein might be called the Dorsal Suture. Anyone correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway I thought I was the only one that is mildly irritated when that vein being dry and brittle so part of it breaks off in shelling pods and remains stuck to the the hilium of the bean. I spend all kinds of time flipping them off with my finger nail when I'm shelling dry beans. Some bean varieties shell nice and clean without a piece of that vein sticking to the eye of the bean and sometimes a bean variety will have that inner white membrane stay intact when shelling pods. I just love it when both of those items stay intact inside the pod and all I get is beautiful clean beans. 😁

i think this happens because the bean pod itself is very light and frail so the vein breaks off easy.

i consider the frail bean pod trait as a desireable feature because that means the bean plant is putting very little energy into making a more tough pod. the downside though is that the frail pod is not going to be super protective of the beans inside. that doesn't bother me, i pick the beans before they get too abused by the weather.

 

[flowerbug]

some of those bean pictures show rows of beans with a lot of plants. that is because i interplanted with Adzuki beans. i had such good results last year that i wanted to do a bigger trial with more varieties and in different gardens. it will be interesting to see what happens.

i'm guessing that the cooling effect by having more shade helped the bean plants through the hotter weather and that is my hypothesis for now. my other ideas are that the Adzuki beans will also help prop up the neighboring bean plants so we'll also see how that looks towards the end of the season.

the other experiments are putting more rows next to each other without spaces for walking to see if that will also help keep the beans more upright.