Man this season was bad. Especially compared to last year, which for me at least was magical. Last year I only grew 4 plants of any given pole bean, and got 1+ pounds off at least 5 or 6 of them. This year...... gak.
it surely wasn't the best year here either especially for all the pole beans which kept getting blown off my fence supports. i made a lot of efforts this year to tie my supports down so they would not get blown away like they did last year, but the plants just did not grab on quickly or strongly enough and we had some bad storms at some very key moments.
the pole beans that did really well here were the Green Savage, Purple Podded pole beans, and the Anasazi, a few others did ok (Blaugrau and Kahnawake Mohawk) but not great. some refused to climb at all (Red Lima among those which surprised me because they climbed for me last year without any problem at all). Adams Family Six Weeks was true to the name and i will continue to grow it for that reason alone, but the seeds/pods are not that resistant to fungi or marking the seeds so i'll look for it to cross with something else. Fortex and the Monks Beard were almost a complete bust in both cases. i have some pretty sorry looking seeds from those.
to me seasons like this will show you how diversity in plantings can really be a good thing v.s. monocultures - they also point out which varieties you might have that are keepers because they are productive even under adverse conditions.
Dapple Grey, Purple Dove and a few of my cross breeds are showing promise (Lemon Slice, Sunset and what i called Reddish Pere, but i think i need to rename it Pink Pere). some others too are showing promise, but i'm not sure how stable they are yet. Yed is also looking to be a productive bean, but may need a longer season to reach its full potential. i'm trying to breed and select shorter season beans to fit within our climate and gardening habits.
this year was only the first year i'd grown Victoria Brown Eye, but if it holds up next year and is as productive then that will also be added to my longer term dry bean growing. it is a larger bean so normally those struggle at times here so i tend to look for smaller beans that will finish in time and be of good quality.
