2018 Little Easy Bean Network - Join Us In Saving Amazing Heirloom Beans

[flowerbug]

@Bluejay77 that's a goal i try to accomplish, but don't always get there... and some beans hide very well.

 

[PhilaGardener]

I often have to pick pods as they start to go a bit limp (and the seeds inside are fully developed) when we have rainy periods in the fall or the seeds start to germinate in the pods.

 

[Zeedman]

In 2016, the weather was very wet just as the beans were beginning to ripen. It was raining every 3-4 days or less. Just before each rain, DW & I would be slogging through the mud with rubber boots, picking all the dry and near-dry beans. A PITA, but we saved most of the beans, and actually had a pretty good year in spite of the weather.

 

[Blue-Jay]

In 2016, the weather was very wet just as the beans were beginning to ripen. It was raining every 3-4 days or less. Just before each rain, DW & I would be slogging through the mud with rubber boots, picking all the dry and near-dry beans. A PITA, but we saved most of the beans, and actually had a pretty good year in spite of the weather.

Most of the rain in 2016 must have stayed north. All I remember was a very nice dry late summer and autumn. Woodstock, Illinois being about 10 miles south of the Wisco-Illini border.

Last year in 2017 was even better. September started off as if we were going to have a normal ending to summer with some 60 to 65 F days for about 5 days then the warm up started after that with September finishing the month with about 10 days of 90+ F temps. October was full of 70 and many 80 degree days. Our killing frost didn't arrive until near the end of the month, nearly three weeks later than usual. I was able to harvest just about every pole bean pod when the plants were growing in partial shade last year which slowed their development. Lucky I was to have that sequence of events.

 

[PhilaGardener]

A late fall is great for limas too! So nice when the weather is warm and dry!

 

[flowerbug]

oh, so nice, finally got some rain last night. forecast has chances of rain for the next four days and i watered yesterday morning too so that means the ground got a good soak for a change.

lima beans, last year i had a nice crop coming on in the late fall and if i'd had another two or three weeks longer it would have been great, but we like them shelled green and lightly steamed too so they were still good. it was so dry last summer most of the lima bean crop were partly formed beans. i'm making sure this year they're getting enough water.

the ground was starting to get some pretty deep cracks in places and the heat has been pretty high most days.

next week we have a few days forecast for 80 or less and that will be very welcome. i hope any bean plants that thought of giving up will have a second chance to put more leaves and flowers on. i'll go out in a few and check on the climbers to make sure they didn't get knocked off. some were starting to get long enough to finally make it to the fence.

it's going to be like pea soup out there today with the heat and humidity.

 

[Zeedman]

Between the constant heat & the high percentage of sunny days, almost all of the beans are doing well. The bush limas (Cave Dweller Black) are flowering furiously, and Emerite (the pole snap this year) is covered with blossoms & young pods. The pole yardlong has climbed to the top of its trellis, and the "bush" yardlong (Thai Soldier) is lush... and putting out short runners. The only beans not doing well are the runner beans... still behind due to having been replanted, and just dropping blossoms due to the heat. The flowers are pretty, though, and we saw the first hummingbird on them today. If the past is any indication, the hummingbirds will become more numerous as flowering on the scarlet runners increases.

We are supposed to be dipping into the upper 70's next week, hopefully the runner beans well set a few pods.

 

[flowerbug]

since i've not grown many pole beans before, is it possible to tell the difference between a semi-runner and a pole bean early in the season? i have some beans that i didn't expect to be anything more than semi-runners but they're already as long as some of the pole beans.

i'm suspecting this terminology may not be precise. which is ok, but i'm listening...

 

[flowerbug]

i'm also being amused by some of the beans that are about 12 inches tall and loaded with flowers already, even if they are supposed to be climbers. it may be the location and soil which is telling the beans they better just get something done while they can. it's not the best soil.

 

[aftermidnight]

@Zeedman @Bluejay77 and anyone else who might be able to shine some light on this. This was forwarded on to me to see if I knew what it was but I'm coming up empty. The only thing I could find on Monkey beans is it's a coffee bean. This is the message I received...

We just had this question come in and I was hoping you might recognize what he is talking about from his description:

This is a "dumb" question to put to you but I hope you can redirect to someone who may know. I acquired a bean last year. Small seed, black I recall. There were only a several and I planted them out in my local community garden bed. They did germinate and grow but I never saw a flower or did it produce any beans. End of season I clean out the bed and planted garlic where the beans had been. This spring, much to my surprise, I find three bean plants twining around the garlic stems. I can only assume that some of the un-germinated beans survived the winter and decided to grow. I gave them a couple poles to climb and at this point they are 6 feet high. Still no sign of flowers.


I seem to recall that the beans I planted were called Monkey Beans but I cannot seem to find anything on line of that name. The vines are very slim, almost elegant I would say. The leaves are a mid green with the margin of the leaf reddish. Not of lot of leaves on the vines. The leaf shape is almost like an Amur Maple leaf in shape...2-3 inches long. The leaves are also very "leathery", smooth and shiny. I can certainly get a picture to send but perhaps the description tweaks a memory for someone.

Any ideas on this, anyone?

Edited to add; What about the Monkey Ladder Vine, does this fit the description.

Annette