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

[jbosmith]

@jbosmith
Do you have a photo of this bean pod? I have grown True Red Cranberry this year and one plant has fairly wide pods compared to the others but the seeds are the same.

Not that I can find quickly. I can tell you that they are the sort of pod that sucks in close to the bean as it dries and takes a little extra work to shell if that makes sense.

 

[flowerbug]

I have a secret to growing late season beans - I grow them in a community garden. Aphids, mexican bean beetles, japanese beetles, and bean weevils all gang up on them, all the leaves disappear in mid-august, and everything ripens all at once. That's why a lot of the seeds are a tad wrinkly.

interesting that in such a cool climate that you have bean beetle problem. i do see some bugs here on the bean plants, but i rarely see anything that looks like the holes bean beetles make.

 

[flowerbug]

i'm reaching the sad part of bean shelling season when there's no more to pick and the flats are starting to get empty of pods to finish shelling. i still have clean up and sorting to do but that is a bit away yet. my tactile and color sorting fingers are still a bit itchy...

the Yed beans i was able to get some pods the other day where the beans have the right color and pattern, too bad they are such a late bean to finish.

 

[jbosmith]

interesting that in such a cool climate that you have bean beetle problem. i do see some bugs here on the bean plants, but i rarely see anything that looks like the holes bean beetles make.

I've never seen any beetle or weevil in my zone 3 gardens except Japanese beetles that do minimal leaf damage and don't affect the beans.

The community garden severity largely depends on snow cover. If we get persistent snow starting early the ground never freezes solid and more bugs overwinter. Plus there's a couple hundred gardeners growing seeds from who knows where. It's a good place to test disease and pest resistance. In 2020 beetles ate the beans to the ground in May and I had to replant and keep them covered in kaolin clay til they put on runners. In 2019 there was hardly a bug to be found but mice were rampant. Every year is an adventure there.

 

[Zeedman]

Not that I can find quickly. I can tell you that they are the sort of pod that sucks in close to the bean as it dries and takes a little extra work to shell if that makes sense.

That sounds like the True Red Cranberry that I grow. They can be a real bear to shell... but that tight hull offers pretty good protection from moisture. Mine are due for renewal, hope I can fit them into next year's grow out.

 

[heirloomgal]

Emptied the last of the bean pods today. It's all done! Now to wait for them all to dry thoroughly.

 

[HmooseK]

I’m still waiting for mine to dry! If I can just haveone more month before frost.

 

[flowerbug]

I've never seen any beetle or weevil in my zone 3 gardens except Japanese beetles that do minimal leaf damage and don't affect the beans.

JB's do some damage here too and sometimes more than a little, but the damage doesn't seem to stop the plants from being productive enough. i pick them off by hand if i can but sometimes i don't get all of them.

The community garden severity largely depends on snow cover. If we get persistent snow starting early the ground never freezes solid and more bugs overwinter. Plus there's a couple hundred gardeners growing seeds from who knows where. It's a good place to test disease and pest resistance. In 2020 beetles ate the beans to the ground in May and I had to replant and keep them covered in kaolin clay til they put on runners. In 2019 there was hardly a bug to be found but mice were rampant. Every year is an adventure there.

heh, same here! i've never seen that kind of damage though. eek!

 

[flowerbug]

i've never eaten fresh beans this late in October, the other day picking pods i noticed some Purple Dove beans that had flowered and put on new pods (from new plants that sprouted within the last six weeks of rains). some of the plants are only about eight inches tall but they have flowers and pods on them. persistent lil plants.

 

[jbosmith]

These pictures have some pretty brutal end-of-day lighting for which I apologize, but they're the best I've got. Notice the nearly complete lack of leaves on the plants.The few that are left look like lace though the pods are healthy and drying.

This was August 27. These plants were lush and vibrant when I had last seen them two weeks earlier (I was traveling). When I got back they were absolutely crawling with bean beetles and their alien looking larvae. Luckily beans seem to be a lot like tomatoes in that having their leaves stripped doesn't kill them immediately and they endeavor to ripen whatever seeds they've managed to make at that point.

The cowpeas that I have planted just behind where I was standing to take that first picture are still doing fine. The beetles definitely know that they're there as they land on them a lot, but they don't seem overly interested.

The beans at my house, just a mile or two away, are still green, though they're on the chopping block today.