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

[meadow]

my very first seed swap (almost three years ago) my space was next to Debbie, but she was not at the next year's seed swap [where i met @Bluejay77 and @Zeedman for the first time].

i wonder if they're going to cancel this year's seed swap, but i sure hope not. i'm hoping by then we'll be on the downwards trend of this round of the crud. they've not made any changes to the website yet other than saying they're planning it and to save that date (Feb 27th 11am to 4pm). i'll send a note to say i'm planning on going and to save me a spot.

How does one find out about bean swap locations and dates? Surely there must be some over here. Although that could be a door better left closed! I'm already borderline obsessed. Oh, who am I kidding?

 

[flowerbug]

How does one find out about bean swap locations and dates? Surely there must be some over here. Although that could be a door better left closed! I'm already borderline obsessed. Oh, who am I kidding?

this would be a good question in another thread of it's own, so i'll do that now.

 

[flowerbug]

sadly i got a note back about my inquiry about this year's event and it won't be happening again.

i'm going to see if i can get the local library to allow me to have a small one at their place in March sometime instead.

 

[Boilergardener]

Chances are good that the production will be as good as with 4 plants, or very nearly so. You may get larger seeds too, and better pod fill. I've been using wide spacing for beans for years... initially to get better air flow to reduce disease, but it seems to improve seed quality as well.

Beans - especially pole beans - are very good at taking advantage of extra space. About 10 years ago, a ground hog got into my rural garden & decimated some of my beans. As I recall, there were only 3 plants of Kentucky Wonder White 191 left, out of two 10-foot rows. The silver lining of that dark cloud was that those remaining, widely-spaced plants were able to display their full potential. The photo below is a single plant:
View attachment 46620
Kentucky Wonder White 191. This plant produced nearly one pound of seed

In your experience 4 seeds per pole is best for high yields? Basically lots of space between them?

 

[heirloomgal]

Yep 4 seeds around each pole. I wonder though if two seeds would give each plant less competition with each other and might they produce as well as 4 seeds planted around each pole. I'm gong to experiment with this idea this coming summer.

I've wondered too about what might happen with less, or even more? I only did one tiny experiment this summer with that - I planted 6 or 7 beans around a pole instead of 3 or 4. That pole did turn out to mature later - but I never grew that variety before so I have no idea if it was just a late maturing variety. (Compared to all the others though it was late, so it probably was slowed in it's maturing by crowding.) However, they did all manage to mature given the late frost and the yield was very heavy indeed. Probably not worth the risk to over plant like that again in my area, I just got lucky.

 

[Boilergardener]

I've wondered too about what might happen with less, or even more? I only did one tiny experiment this summer with that - I planted 6 or 7 beans around a pole instead of 3 or 4. That pole did turn out to mature later - but I never grew that variety before so I have no idea if it was just a late maturing variety. (Compared to all the others though it was late, so it probably was slowed in it's maturing by crowding.) However, they did all manage to mature given the late frost and the yield was very heavy indeed. Probably not worth the risk to over plant like that again in my area, I just got lucky.

Ive only ever planted in rows in the garden, also ive only been growing dry beans for 4 years now. this will be my first year with this method of the 1x2 strips. Previous years ive used cattle panels and they have been fine just not taken advantage of the heigth some beans can get too. i planted twin rows with bush beans one time but it seemed to crowded in my opinion. Some of the farmers i work with when they plant soybeans they will plant really heavy with a 7.5 in row planter, and the plants will not branch out and have single stalks, but they will yield fine. other growers plant alot lower population, usually 15 in rows, and have much more bushy or branching beans, and can have the same yield or better with less seed. So i have no idea what will translate with the garden this year. I will have to do some tests!

 

[heirloomgal]

Ive only ever planted in rows in the garden, also ive only been growing dry beans for 4 years now. this will be my first year with this method of the 1x2 strips. Previous years ive used cattle panels and they have been fine just not taken advantage of the heigth some beans can get too. i planted twin rows with bush beans one time but it seemed to crowded in my opinion. Some of the farmers i work with when they plant soybeans they will plant really heavy with a 7.5 in row planter, and the plants will not branch out and have single stalks, but they will yield fine. other growers plant alot lower population, usually 15 in rows, and have much more bushy or branching beans, and can have the same yield or better with less seed. So i have no idea what will translate with the garden this year. I will have to do some tests!

This last summer was my first time using poles. Given the price of lumber, I opted to cut down some small birch trees. I trimmed the side branches from the tree trunks, but I left nubs of the side branches behind to act as the 'screws' that @Bluejay77 uses on his poles. (I was following his methodology, minus the lumber) I'd always used tall metal panels before that, a couple 8X8 frames. I was curious what the difference might be since I planted a lot of beans on both supports. One thing that seemed different is that on the metal trellis the plants are less lush. I don't know why, maybe that increased harsh sun exposure. But the poles were much more space efficient. The trellis was 6 inch spacing, with the poles I could get more in for the square footage. More beans in less space, and I don't have many of those big metal frames. Maturity is a wee bit quicker on the metal I think though.

One thing is for sure, rodents like the cover of the poles even when spaced far apart, because the growth is so lush it still gives them cover. The mice never bothered anything, but the voles were

And how gorgeous those poles look covered in a tangle of bean vines can't be beat!

 

[Boilergardener]

This last summer was my first time using poles. Given the price of lumber, I opted to cut down some small birch trees. I trimmed the side branches from the tree trunks, but I left nubs of the side branches behind to act as the 'screws' that @Bluejay77 uses on his poles. (I was following his methodology, minus the lumber) I'd always used tall metal panels before that, a couple 8X8 frames. I was curious what the difference might be since I planted a lot of beans on both supports. One thing that seemed different is that on the metal trellis the plants are less lush. I don't know why, maybe that increased harsh sun exposure. But the poles were much more space efficient. The trellis was 6 inch spacing, with the poles I could get more in for the square footage. More beans in less space, and I don't have many of those big metal frames. Maturity is a wee bit quicker on the metal I think though.

One thing is for sure, rodents like the cover of the poles even when spaced far apart, because the growth is so lush it still gives them cover. The mice never bothered anything, but the voles were

And how gorgeous those poles look covered in a tangle of bean vines can't be beat!

Awesome! That is a really good idea with the birch trees!

 

[Triffid]

This past season I ended up with a plant that had nearly a sq. metre to itself as its neighbours perished. It broke the cane it was climbing and invaded the others left over by the culled plants. In the end it produced over 700 seeds and turned out to be offtype. No idea yet whether it is a one-off mutation or the result of a cross, and the other plants from the same batch were the ones which died so no comparisons could be made.
If it can keep those yields up with usual spacing I'll be very happy.

 

[Blue-Jay]

The reason I posed the question about 2 seeds around a pole is because this past summer I had one bean where only one vine grew after planting 4 seeds. Well this one plant filled the space around that pole like there was 4 plants growing there. I was just amazed by that. I didn't see much difference in quantity of seed that one plant produced next to poles that had 4 plants growing around them. Plus the seed that one plant produced was just beautiful and all seed was so well filled out. I think I'm going to do my 2022 pole bean planting with only two vines around each pole. Maybe plant 4 seeds and thin to the 2 best looking plants.

My post of this single plant is post number 1243 on page 125.