2015 Little Easy Bean Network - Old Beans Should Never Die !

[Blue-Jay]

Thank you so much @Ridgerunner I'll be looking forward to that. I really should start putting up some recipes for beans on my website.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It's in the mail, expected delivery Thursday. I had to go to town anyway to get some gas for the mower.

General rules apply. Do not mail me anything, thank you's or a gift. Save your postage. If you feel a need to do something just do a kindness to someone else, just pass it on.

 

[NancyJ10x]

My last two seeds of the pink podded burgundy Bolitas germinated and are looking good.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi @NancyJ10x,

That's great that your last two Pink Podded Burgundy Bolitas germinated. Are you going to grow them for seed, and will there be enough time left for those two plants to mature seed? I know I couldn't do it here. Our first frost is now probably only 11 or 12 weeks away. 12 weeks would probably give me my first dry pod and I would need another 3 weeks to mature the majority of a plants seed crop. Perhaps you are growing those two plants in pots and can take them indoors during cold nights.

 

[NancyJ10x]

I do have the two plants in pots. Our first frost is probably 12 weeks away also. I put the pots in a protected place on the patio tonight as the storms are rolling through yet again.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I sort of have doubts that I will be able to mount a Bean Fashion Show this year. I can show you comparisons of this years bean garden and and how the heavy rains affected the development of my beans since planting time compared to last year.

The first two photos are from last years garden. Notice how robust the plants look in this photo looking up a row. Bush bean plants are 18 to 22 inches tall in 2014, and close up a lot of the space between the rows.

In the southwest corner of the bean plot looking northeast in 2014.


Now for this years 2015 beans

Looking up a row 2015. You can see the plants don't even come up to the top of that 12 inch ruler leaning up against that 16 inch stake in the ground. The bean plants are not even close to closing up the space between the rows. Plus the deer are visiting every week sometimes twice weekly chewing the tops of every single variety planted this year. I've never seen the deer eat my beans like this before.

In the southwest corner of the bean plot looking northeast in 2015. It will be interesting to see what survives if anything this year. Hope I still wind up with a decent surprise. All these photos are from the same comparable times of the year.

Others here on this thread perhaps will do some bean fashion showing this year.

 

[897tgigvib]

Aw Russ, looks like those deer are real bad.

5 foot tall chicken wire or any what's cheapest fencing stops most deer, plus takes something in the ground upright every 8 feet holding it up.

Wish i could be there chasing the deer off for you.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I'm not having great luck either, at least with common beans. The Fort Portal Violets are chugging out pods at a decent rate, but while I am getting the odd flower in the Mottled Grey (VERY odd, like currently 3-4 plants out of around 40 making any) none of them seem to be taking (they show up, open and then fall off the next day. Maybe when it gets cooler again)

Moving from beans to cowpeas, they mercifully are doing well. Pretty much all of the dozen or so are covered with flowers and developing pods (it helps soothe a bit the fact that only one of the adzuki beans and none of the rice beans, seem to be "producers" this year) There's even one volunteer cowpea with in the lesser stump (probably from some seed I tossed out earlier this year for the critters.

Actually that one is a bit odd. I'm used to cowpeas with pods that hang down, and ones that are more or less parallel with the ground (or angles between) but that one is the fist cowpea I've ever seen whose pods point straight UP (it looks like a miniature green candelabra)

 

[journey11]

Wow, Russ, that is a dramatic difference. I am so sorry to hear your hard work has not paid off as well this year. We've had a terrible garden this year too. My special beans and your grow-outs are plugging along pretty well in the front raised bed though. They are a little behind, but I still expect to get a decent harvest. They been growing and climbing faster since the weather dried out and warmed up.

Here is a recipe for a homemade version of "Liquid Fence" deer repellant that might be helpful. I've had good results with it. It was what I used before I finally broke down and got electric fence put in.

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp liquid dish soap
  
  Combine all and mix well. Pour into a one gallon container and dilute with water to equal one gallon. Let this nasty mix sit outside for at least 3 days and get even nastier. Shake well and use a pump sprayer or watering can to apply it to the plants you want to protect. The dish soap helps to break the surface tension of the water so the concoction will cling to your plants better. It won't hurt your plants (test a small area first if desired and best to apply it during the cool of the day). It won't need to be reapplied until you've had some significant rain. MUCH cheaper than Liquid Fence and every bit as repugnant to deer.

 

[PhilaGardener]

My battle this year has been rabbit problems . . . just the other day, they ate the leaves off every new bean seedling in an entire 4 x 8 ft bed.


I'm hoping the plants bounce back, but it was a late planting I tried to get in after harvesting an earlier crop. Here's hoping for a long Fall growing season.