2021 Little Easy Bean Network - Bean Lovers Come Discover Something New !

[Blue-Jay]

My main problem with bush beans is keeping them clean. It rains a lot here and keeping the pods clean and healthy is a challenge. I think I'd have better luck if I planted them a little more crowded and in big squares rather than in double rows, but I have woodchip pathways so that's tough. I did run string around the outside this year to at least keep them from leaning over onto the pathways.

The closer you grow your bush beans the less air ciruclation you will get through them when they begin to dry and they will stay moist longer and the pods and seed inside will spoil more. Have you ever tried doing 40 inch apart single rows and mulch the exposed soil between the rows say maybe with grass clippings. Tuck that grass right up underneath and between the plants. Liberal amounts of grass clippings. When my bean plants are 2 to 2 &1/2 weeks old I do a thorough weeding between the rows and around all the plants. Then I either mulch well all the explosed soil or install poly vinyl woven weed barrier fabric that allows water through but no light can get to the soil to stop weed growth. I find that a 3 foot wide roll of the fabric is great for rows that are about 40 inches apart. Also when you get pods to start drying and a good number of them have started to dry and others are yellowing and all your other pods are well filled out and swollen with seed. I sometimes clip the plants at the soil line and install 80 inch tall poles with long 3 inch screws at the top of the pole and about in the center and hang the bush plants on the screws to dry in the sun and breeze. The idea is to get these bush plants away from the moist soil were they usually spoil when you get too much rain. I sometimes allow them to hang on these poles for about 2 weeks. Sometimes I will take the time to trim off most of the leaves from these bush plants too. Allows the sun and air to get to the pods for quicker drying. I had some varieties of bush beans this year that were later than most of the others and I wanted to get the plots harvested and there were a lot of pods drying so I cut the vines at the soil line and hung them to dry. Make sure you put a well tapered point on one end so you can drive the pole steaks with the screws into the ground about a foot to 14 inches. I make the pole steaks out of 1 x 2 inch furing strips cut to 80 inches. I drive the steaks into the ground with the flat side of the head of a carpenters hammer.

Here are some of my 40 inch rows with the poly vinyl woven weed barrier fabric

This photo is when I cut plants and hung them to dry this year. These particular plants I didn't take the time to trim the leaves from them. I let them hang about two weeks.

 

[heirloomgal]

I always like to post this photo when this topic comes up. I got this almost a quart of dried beans off of one plant. A pole bean, of course. I found an outcross in one of my production beans one year and planted three of them in 2017. Each bean was a little different, just like outcrosses often are. I've planted this and it segregated. I planted the segregations and they segregated, I have not been able to get any to stabilize but I keep trying. Several of the segregations are pretty productive but nothing like this.

View attachment 44453

That is incredible for one plant! How tall did the vine grow? I imagine it must have been enormous.

 

[Ridgerunner]

That is incredible for one plant! How tall did the vine grow? I imagine it must have been enormous.

My trellis was 12' high. The vines went to the top and came back down a few feet. So, yes, pretty big. It also produced for a long time. I was harvesting beans for a long time.

 

[jbosmith]

The closer you grow your bush beans the less air ciruclation you will get through them when they begin to dry and they will stay moist longer and the pods and seed inside will spoil more. Have you ever tried doing 40 inch apart single rows and mulch the exposed soil between the rows say maybe with grass clippings. Tuck that grass right up underneath and between the plants. Liberal amounts of grass clippings. When my bean plants are 2 to 2 &1/2 weeks old I do a thorough weeding between the rows and around all the plants. Then I either mulch well all the explosed soil or install poly vinyl woven weed barrier fabric that allows water through but no light can get to the soil to stop weed growth. I find that a 3 foot wide roll of the fabric is great for rows that are about 40 inches apart. Also when you get pods to start drying and a good number of them have started to dry and others are yellowing and all your other pods are well filled out and swollen with seed. I sometimes clip the plants at the soil line and install 80 inch tall poles with long 3 inch screws at the top of the pole and about in the center and hang the bush plants on the screws to dry in the sun and breeze. The idea is to get these bush plants away from the moist soil were they usually spoil when you get too much rain. I sometimes allow them to hang on these poles for about 2 weeks. Sometimes I will take the time to trim off most of the leaves from these bush plants too. Allows the sun and air to get to the pods for quicker drying. I had some varieties of bush beans this year that were later than most of the others and I wanted to get the plots harvested and there were a lot of pods drying so I cut the vines at the soil line and hung them to dry. Make sure you put a well tapered point on one end so you can drive the pole steaks with the screws into the ground about a foot to 14 inches. I make the pole steaks out of 1 x 2 inch furing strips cut to 80 inches. I drive the steaks into the ground with the flat side of the head of a carpenters hammer.

Here are some of my 40 inch rows with the poly vinyl woven weed barrier fabric
View attachment 44468

This photo is when I cut plants and hung them to dry this year. These particular plants I didn't take the time to trim the leaves from them. I let them hang about two weeks.
View attachment 44469
View attachment 44470

Wow, thanks for this super informative post! I've thought about doing something similar by just planting a single row of bush beans down the center of plastic mulch, but then I think, "If I'm going to plant a single row, don't I want them to be 6' tall?" so I haven't actually tried it. After seeing this I'll probably try that the next time I grow bush beans!

My motivation for thinking about a single row isn't circulation so much as tipping. It's the ground contact and mud splatters that get me more than air circulation. Even coming into contact with hay mulch does them in. I'm only at that garden for a day most weeks so it's tough to find time to pick intermittently and beans all pretty much get harvested at once, just before frost.

There's a farmer who grows commercial beans nearby with very little spoilage which is why I've been leaning towards the block planting. His plants all just seem to support each other.

 

[flowerbug]

...
There's a farmer who grows commercial beans nearby with very little spoilage which is why I've been leaning towards the block planting. His plants all just seem to support each other.

commercial beans are evaluated and selected to be able to be mechanically planted and harvested - tipping over/lodging are important aspects of that evaluation. heirlooms and garden beans don't often have those same criteria applied to selecting them.

i try to pick often enough that i don't lose too many to dragging in the dirt or rot issues but this year was so odd so often that i've had a fair amount of discards for worm food.

single row planting with wide spaces in between i'd likely have plants falling over anyways since they will fall over from the high winds we get here. a wind-break would help with some of that i'm sure, but i also need the breezes we do have because of how often we have heavy fogs and dewfall. so it is a trade-off.

 

[jbosmith]

commercial beans are evaluated and selected to be able to be mechanically planted and harvested - tipping over/lodging are important aspects of that evaluation. heirlooms and garden beans don't often have those same criteria applied to selecting them.

i try to pick often enough that i don't lose too many to dragging in the dirt or rot issues but this year was so odd so often that i've had a fair amount of discards for worm food.

single row planting with wide spaces in between i'd likely have plants falling over anyways since they will fall over from the high winds we get here. a wind-break would help with some of that i'm sure, but i also need the breezes we do have because of how often we have heavy fogs and dewfall. so it is a trade-off.

They grow mostly (or all?) heirlooms and say that most of the more modern varieties won't dry down in the field here. I can't find a list at the moment but I know Jacob's Cattle is their ol' reliable bean. The demand for their beans is crazy. I think they grow 30 or 40 acres worth of beans each year and still can't keep up.

This is a nice article:

A Visit to Morningstar Farm | City Market / Onion River Co-op

This past week, a few of us from the Co-op headed out to the Northeast Kingdom to visit one of our organic dry bean producers: Morningstar Farm. The farm is operated by Seth and Jeannette Johnson (and their 3 young children) and is a diverse operation – in addition to organic dry beans, Seth...

www.citymarket.coop

Side note: They also sell their beans for $5+ per pound which I use as a guide when I'm trying to justify growing buckets of beans every year. The math comes out a lot nicer than the $0.69 cans of black beans..

I cant seem to keep beans clean either with rainy summers like I experienced this July and the once in a lifetime wet spring of 2019. Lots of bacteria brown spots on the seed. I think i might try some copper sprays that were recommended from some of the universities I read online. It is suposes to keep down on the bacterial wilts spots etc.
I thought growing pole beans would take away some bacterial wilt/spot by keeping them off the ground. it didnt seem to matter this year between bush/pole dry beans for me. I had alot of problems with some of the network beans keeping them clean but thats just how heirlooms go i guess. The Network bean Gauk bush was very clean and early, but bush Lejatt had very small seed, giele waldbeanstje were poor too They were pale yellow and some whiteish and i kept very little seed from them. I recommend Gauk in bush bean in the network. About the same as red turtle day length for me.

I almost never have fungal problems with pole beans as long as I keep them weeded and growing in the right place. If any grow along the ground they're just as prone to the same problem. I say 'almost' because if I plant too close to an edge they sometimes get sprayed by lawn mowers getting too close and pointing in the wrong direction and the grass-shrapnel does a number on the lower beans. I planted a single width row of cabbage between my beans and the lawn this year just to protect them!

 

[jbosmith]

They grow mostly (or all?) heirlooms and say that most of the more modern varieties won't dry down in the field here. I can't find a list at the moment but I know Jacob's Cattle is their ol' reliable bean. The demand for their beans is crazy. I think they grow 30 or 40 acres worth of beans each year and still can't keep up.

This is a nice article:

A Visit to Morningstar Farm | City Market / Onion River Co-op

This past week, a few of us from the Co-op headed out to the Northeast Kingdom to visit one of our organic dry bean producers: Morningstar Farm. The farm is operated by Seth and Jeannette Johnson (and their 3 young children) and is a diverse operation – in addition to organic dry beans, Seth...

www.citymarket.coop

Side note: They also sell their beans for $5+ per pound which I use as a guide when I'm trying to justify growing buckets of beans every year. The math comes out a lot nicer than the $0.69 cans of black beans..


I almost never have fungal problems with pole beans as long as I keep them weeded and growing in the right place. If any grow along the ground they're just as prone to the same problem. I say 'almost' because if I plant too close to an edge they sometimes get sprayed by lawn mowers getting too close and pointing in the wrong direction and the grass-shrapnel does a number on the lower beans. I planted a single width row of cabbage between my beans and the lawn this year just to protect them!

I realize after skimming that article again that it's a bit dated. They've got some bigger equipment and a lot more acres now.

They mention Jack Lazor in that article. Jack was a huge proponent of both organic dry bean and grain farming in cold climates, and also had a small dairy that sells yogurt. He had a huge old barn that was converted to bean and grain processing and it was just amazing to visit during bean cleaning season. He also wrote a book about grain farming that is quite good.

 

[heirloomgal]

Weighed some of the beans from this year, the ones that seemed to produce a bit better than the rest.

White Horticultural - semi runner, 6 plants

Mitla Black - semi runner, 6 plants
(Black Nicaraguan was 1.3 for 6 plants)

Candy - semi -runner, 2 or 3 plants

Meerbarbe - pole, 5 plants

Graines de Cafe - pole, 5 plants

Alubias di Tolosna - pole, 3 plants

Mayan Red - semi runner. 6 plants

1,500 Year Old Cave - pole, 4 - 5 plants

Landfrauen - pole, 3 plants

Cerna Tanenice - pole, 3 plants

 

[Artorius]

What else should I be thinking about? I'm mostly looking for dry beans that can sit around until I'm bored in the winter and want to process something. I have a 90-100 day growing season in some of my gardens, and summer highs in the low to mid 80s, both of which are limiting for some species. For example, I've had iffy luck with yard longs that I've tried. The only lima I've ever grown successfully is Henderson. I'm also not super interested in trying lentils again, or adding runner beans that need 20' trellis (though if anyone knows of any 6' varieties...).

@jbosmith
We have several semi-runner or half-runner varieties of runner bean in Poland, both commercial and heirloom. Do you want to try it out?

 

[jbosmith]

@jbosmith
We have several semi-runner or half-runner varieties of runner bean in Poland, both commercial and heirloom. Do you want to try it out?

Ooo I definitely would.. my small lots permit expired years ago though