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

[BeanWonderin]

My first experience with shelly beans. I hope they taste as good as they look! These are unidentified varieties.

I'm cooking them up with some Tongues of Fire.

 

[Artorius]

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

It will take me a while longer.




Moles are having fun. I have to do something with them because it can't be like that.

It is right next to the row where the beans I wrote about earlier grew.


Two meters away under the plum tree.

 

[flowerbug]

@Artorius while it may be discouraging take that as a good sign because moles do well where there is good garden soil and plenty of worms.

we have a few different kinds of mole traps, both are effective but the first are harder to set, the second type you can just step on them to set them which is a lot easier (and easier on the hands).


choker loop type (Nash is the manufacturer over here):

scissors pincher type https://gemplers.com/products/mole-eliminator-trap

the moles have made a lot of mess here this year because we have so many decorations and places where i can't set traps that once they get going i can't trap them until the come out into some larger garden space. by then they've often made a mess of a bunch of other things. they have not been getting much into the bean gardens, but one that they do get into (the North Garden) is big enough and often where i catch them.

i don't like trapping any creatures at all, makes me sad to do it, but these are just not compatible with all these decorations and more formal garden spaces.

as a kid i trapped moles as a side job to my lawn mowing service, i charged $10 per mole caught. often i could make more $ doing that than mowing.

 

[jbosmith]

Some more trial varieties. These are the ones that were defoliated in the last post. I got these four from Seed Savers' GROW program where you pick varieties that have no description and grow them out. I told them to just send me some of John Withee's beans that needed write ups.

Top left: Fat Goose - What an odd name for an olive drab bean. Nice variety though.
Top right: Keavy, Horticultural - This one didn't do well for me and I suspect it needs a longer season. Special appearance by one of the bean weevils that were previously mentioned.
Bottom left: Brockton - This looks like a lot of the other beans I grow.
Bottom right: - Bird Egg #3. This variety was great. Many pods over 10" including the one in my previous post.

I also got this one which was labeled as Connally. I'm pretty sure someone named Connally swept up the bean room floor, put a handful of beans into a packet and wrote their name on it as a joke. All of these beans came from the same packet, and there were at least two other types of beans in there as well that did not produce.

 

[heirloomgal]

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.

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Great pod set!

 

[heirloomgal]

It will take me a while longer.

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Moles are having fun. I have to do something with them because it can't be like that.

It is right next to the row where the beans I wrote about earlier grew.
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Two meters away under the plum tree.
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Wow! That is some major mole activity! I hope they stayed away from most f your bean roots!

 

[Zeedman]

Some more trial varieties. These are the ones that were defoliated in the last post. I got these four from Seed Savers' GROW program where you pick varieties that have no description and grow them out. I told them to just send me some of John Withee's beans that needed write ups.

Bottom right: - Bird Egg #3. This variety was great. Many pods over 10" including the one in my previous post.

If you asked for beans with no descriptions, I'm surprised SSE sent "Bird Egg #3". I've been listing that bean since 2005, with a detailed description... it is one of my favorite beans for shellies. It sure seems to have done well for you.

There are several variations of the "Fat Goose" (including just "Goose", "Pumpkin Bean", and "Ma Williams" (which I grow). They too are listed as snaps, but make very productive shellies.

 

[jbosmith]

If you asked for beans with no descriptions, I'm surprised SSE sent "Bird Egg #3". I've been listing that bean since 2005, with a detailed description... it is one of my favorite beans for shellies. It sure seems to have done well for you.

There are several variations of the "Fat Goose" (including just "Goose", "Pumpkin Bean", and "Ma Williams" (which I grow). They too are listed as snaps, but make very productive shellies.

You're not the only one in the 2020 yearbook but you list it as a pole snap and they list it as a pole dry. I specified pole dry and I bet someone just pulled up the yearbook pdf and scrolled to that page.

I guess I lucked out because it was a really fun bean to grow! I love those pods (ruler is in inches).

 

[Zeedman]

Hmmm... interesting that SSE has started listing "Bird Egg #3" as a pole dry bean, when it was originally categorized as pole/snap. Not the first time something has suddenly changed location.

 

[jbosmith]

Hmmm... interesting that SSE has started listing "Bird Egg #3" as a pole dry bean, when it was originally categorized as pole/snap. Not the first time something has suddenly changed location.

I think that's part of the point of their GROW project. I'll mention your listing in my evaluation.

When I first found Turtle Peas it was listed as a cowpea (it's a black bean). That's one mis-file that I'm thankful for!