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

[jbosmith]

That's a nice return from 3 plants... pole bean yields can be phenomenal. I'm really partial to beans of that fat, rounded shape.

I got nearly two quarts of Red Turtle beans off from less than 10 (maybe as low as 6?) plants this year and thought I was doing pretty good... of course I'm partial to short season varieties that fit on 5' trellis, both of which are probably limiting.

 

[Ridgerunner]

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.

 

[jbosmith]

Hi Friends!

A conversation with @Zeedman combined with some insomnia has me wanting to expand the diversity of my 'bean' sections in my gardens. Right now I mostly grow pole dry beans, one variety of snow pea, and have dipped my toe into the cowpea pool. I'm looking at doing a soy trial next year as well as soup beans (more on that below).

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...).

I've never tried growing mung beans or garbanzos and don't know much about them. Thoughts on those?

About those soup peas - I almost always just grow Swiss Giant snow peas, eat them as shellies when I get sick of snow peas, and save a handful for seed every few years. I've never intentionally grown a variety for soup. Anyone have favorite varieties I should look at?

Thanks in advance!

 

[flowerbug]

Hi Friends!

A conversation with @Zeedman combined with some insomnia has me wanting to expand the diversity of my 'bean' sections in my gardens. Right now I mostly grow pole dry beans, one variety of snow pea, and have dipped my toe into the cowpea pool. I'm looking at doing a soy trial next year as well as soup beans (more on that below).

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...).

i don't think you're much into bush beans, but those are my primary interest and short enough season is important that i don't really focus much on beans that go longer unless they have some other traits i'm trying to capture for the earlier finishing lines i am working with (Sep 15 or earlier to be done is my definition of early). Purple Dove, Huey and Red Ryder are the three i would send for sure, any others that caught your interest too. i have hundreds, it's hard to pick just a few ... Sunset i'm also partial to since it was one of my first cross-breeds and it is a pretty bean.

for Lima beans the Fordhook bush type work just fine for us - most years i get several rounds of picking off them and i've not found many bush varieties that work as well.

I've never tried growing mung beans or garbanzos and don't know much about them. Thoughts on those?

i don't have any of either of those here, but i do think there are short enough season varieties of at least the chickpeas, it's just that i'm not looking for any more projects and i think they are like lentils in that you get a lot of small pods (with one or perhaps two beans per pod). i've not done anything directly with them to know for sure so i'm just passing along hearsay.

About those soup peas - I almost always just grow Swiss Giant snow peas, eat them as shellies when I get sick of snow peas, and save a handful for seed every few years. I've never intentionally grown a variety for soup. Anyone have favorite varieties I should look at?

i have a generic smooth green pea that came from a soup bean package some 12 or more years ago. they have a lot of tendrils so they will self-support each other when block planted. the thing about them that i also like is that they work just fine as a shelly aka fresh pea (but not the pods) too. the thing i don't much like about them is the flowers are rather plain white and they can get some powdery mildew if the season gets too warm too fast. the positives outweigh the negatives so i do usually grow these at least every other year. i didn't grow any this year but i have some i can send if you'd like.

i also have the large fleshy podded pea that i really do like (alas so do the chipmunks) to eat as a pod, shelly and have not tried at the dried stage because i don't have that many seeds yet. if you ever do want some of anything from me i'd send a half dozen seeds of these too since they are well worth growing.

 

[BeanWonderin]

About those soup peas - I almost always just grow Swiss Giant snow peas, eat them as shellies when I get sick of snow peas, and save a handful for seed every few years. I've never intentionally grown a variety for soup. Anyone have favorite varieties I should look at?

We have really enjoyed growing yellow peas for soup the last several years. We only make this recipe, which was our motivation for growing them - https://www.pbs.org/food/kitchen-vignettes/quebec-style-yellow-pea-soup/

We started with a bag of Lars yellow peas from the grocery store after not finding them available from our regular seed sources. They grew well and we have continued planting from saved seed.

 

[BeanWonderin]

I just shelled the first to finish of my Succotash beans. They have proven to be the slowest of the dry beans we grew this year. But such a handsome bean - and very pleasant to shell. Does anyone have a favorite variety to share when it comes to shelling?

 

[jbosmith]

i don't think you're much into bush beans, but those are my primary interest and short enough season is important that i don't really focus much on beans that go longer unless they have some other traits i'm trying to capture for the earlier finishing lines i am working with (Sep 15 or earlier to be done is my definition of early). Purple Dove, Huey and Red Ryder are the three i would send for sure, any others that caught your interest too. i have hundreds, it's hard to pick just a few ... Sunset i'm also partial to since it was one of my first cross-breeds and it is a pretty bean.

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.

I have one variety (Johnson - similar to King of the Early) which I grow every 3 or 4 years and I grow it in black plastic mulch just to avoid the mud splatters. If there were varieties that reliably stayed up out of splatter range I'd definitely try them. I'm thinking about offering to grow Gross Brothers from @Bluejay77 as it's in his network list and is very similar to Johnson.

for Lima beans the Fordhook bush type work just fine for us - most years i get several rounds of picking off them and i've not found many bush varieties that work as well.

Ooo that sounds promising! I'd try it!

i don't have any of either of those here, but i do think there are short enough season varieties of at least the chickpeas, it's just that i'm not looking for any more projects and i think they are like lentils in that you get a lot of small pods (with one or perhaps two beans per pod). i've not done anything directly with them to know for sure so i'm just passing along hearsay.

I suspect mung beans are too small for me to want to grow a lot but I'd try them once. I grew some ridiculously tiny cow peas this year just to see how they did, and they're actually not bad to shell en masse.

I think chickpeas have a low number of beans per pod, but the individual beans of kabuli types are big enough that I think they might be worth my time if they worked here. Also heresay as I've never tried it.

i have a generic smooth green pea that came from a soup bean package some 12 or more years ago. they have a lot of tendrils so they will self-support each other when block planted. the thing about them that i also like is that they work just fine as a shelly aka fresh pea (but not the pods) too. the thing i don't much like about them is the flowers are rather plain white and they can get some powdery mildew if the season gets too warm too fast. the positives outweigh the negatives so i do usually grow these at least every other year. i didn't grow any this year but i have some i can send if you'd like.

i also have the large fleshy podded pea that i really do like (alas so do the chipmunks) to eat as a pod, shelly and have not tried at the dried stage because i don't have that many seeds yet. if you ever do want some of anything from me i'd send a half dozen seeds of these too since they are well worth growing.

Hmmm chipmunks can be a big problem here for peas and one I hadn't thought of when considering soup varieties. I usually pick most of my peas at the snow pea stage so I dont have much problem but my community garden neighbors lost their entire crop of shell peas this year. The chipmunk would grab ahold of the pod, rip it open, eat all the peas, and leave the shredded pod dangling just so that everyone knew what they had lost!

I also grow my peas on string supported by smooth bamboo while my neighbor uses netting on wooden stakes. I'm not sure how much of a difference it really makes but i picture his being easier to get to for the chipmunks.

 

[jbosmith]

We have really enjoyed growing yellow peas for soup the last several years. We only make this recipe, which was our motivation for Growing them - https://www.pbs.org/food/kitchen-vignettes/quebec-style-yellow-pea-soup/

We started with a bag of Lars yellow peas from the grocery store after not finding them available from our regular seed sources. They grew well and we have continued planting from saved seed.

Wow, those pictures just settled me on growing some soup beans this year! I live a stones throw from Quebec so am quite familiar with their bean soups and .. yum! How big of a row did you need to get so many?

 

[BeanWonderin]

Wow, those pictures just settled me on growing some soup beans this year! I live a stones throw from Quebec so am quite familiar with their bean soups and .. yum! How big of a row did you need to get so many?

I think that was two hog fence panels - so 32 feet?

 

[Boilergardener]

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.

I have one variety (Johnson - similar to King of the Early) which I grow every 3 or 4 years and I grow it in black plastic mulch just to avoid the mud splatters. If there were varieties that reliably stayed up out of splatter range I'd definitely try them. I'm thinking about offering to grow Gross Brothers from @Bluejay77 as it's in his network list and is very similar to Johnson.


Ooo that sounds promising! I'd try it!



I suspect mung beans are too small for me to want to grow a lot but I'd try them once. I grew some ridiculously tiny cow peas this year just to see how they did, and they're actually not bad to shell en masse.

I think chickpeas have a low number of beans per pod, but the individual beans of kabuli types are big enough that I think they might be worth my time if they worked here. Also heresay as I've never tried it.


Hmmm chipmunks can be a big problem here for peas and one I hadn't thought of when considering soup varieties. I usually pick most of my peas at the snow pea stage so I dont have much problem but my community garden neighbors lost their entire crop of shell peas this year. The chipmunk would grab ahold of the pod, rip it open, eat all the peas, and leave the shredded pod dangling just so that everyone knew what they had lost!

I also grow my peas on string supported by smooth bamboo while my neighbor uses netting on wooden stakes. I'm not sure how much of a difference it really makes but i picture his being easier to get to for the chipmunks.

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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.