2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[Blue-Jay]

What I want to know NEXT is how long these bush beans plants will produce. I have other beans up at various stages, but I never had such a good bean harvest before. Thx!!

It seems to me that bush snap beans need to be picked about every third day. In about 2 and 1/2 weeks they will start to change. The pods seem like they become a little seedier quicker. You might try picking them about every other day then. Pole snap beans are the best. You can pick them until the frost kills them in the autumn. Pole snap beans seem like they will start producing a little later than bush snaps.

 

[ducks4you]

Good to know! Thx!
I planted from my bean stash this year, and I didn't really know what I was planting!
I KNOW that several rows are pole beans bc I stored them in jars with the package labels. The other beans seeds are...well?!?!?
I did know that I had a handful of asparagus beans. They are a fascinating thing to watch grow and I will save those seeds for 2023.
Since I walk the rows for weeds I will walk the beans for harvest every day, just to be sure.
I stored a week's worth of harvest in a plastic bag, unwashed, and in my bottom refridgerator drawer, which is slightly frosty.
Any harvest will be either blanched/frozen or pressure canned. DD, the chef, wants frozen, and her 7 cu ft freezer is currently empty, awaiting harvests of beans and okra, and anything else I can get growing before end of season.
I do plan to harvest beans for planting next year. I wanted to plant all of my old seeds, whatever variety of vegetable or florwer or herb, so that I can have fresh seeds for next year and get a good germination for my efforts.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Backyard Pole Beans As The Summer Goes By​

The center pole in fht forground is Weaver and the next pole up the center row is also Weaver. It was the first pole snap bean to reach the top of the poles and the first to blossom and currently has the largest pods

The bean all the way to the right in the forground is Lohrey's Special and it's still only grown half way up the pole as of today August 6, 2022

The bean in the forground in the left corner and the next pole to the left are Jembo Polish. It has small 4 inch pods righ now.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Six an a quarter inch Weaver pods are getting more seedy.

Weaver pods on the other side of the same pole planting

9 inch Jeminez pods from plants in the south flowerbed will eventually turn all solid bright red.

 

[heirloomgal]

Thanks everyone for the welcome back, I think it's been three, maybe four years that I've been gone. I know for sure it was before the covid thing.

On growing beans with corn, I've done that many times and still do, but differently than most people. I agree the native gardeners probably grew in clumps or hills rather than in rows like we generally do now. If you want to grow beans in a corn field, you need an actual corn field bean. That's a bean that likes the shade in the corn field. The only one I know for sure likes growing like that is Ohio Pole. But Ohio Pole, in my climate is large bean with giant vines. It needs a giant corn like Cherokee White Flour or Hickory King to grow on. Some greasy beans also tolerate the shade and about any bean can be grown along the edges of a corn patch, just on the outside couple of rows.

I don't grow sweet corn either, but the woman loves it and when she retired, she wanted to grow her own, thus I lost some of my garden space. I'm working on developing my own flint corn that resists fall army worms. I almost always grow beans on the stalks, but I don't plant them together. Instead, when the corn silks start to dry or even after the corn is harvested, I strip off the leaves and stick some bean seeds at the base of the stalks, works great. Sorghum works for this too, it has even bigger and stronger stalks.

Also planted at the same time as the beans in this picture is mustard (the little sprouts) but something else like turnips are good for this too. I'll thin the mustard and beans as necessary. The stalks will dry and get stronger. After the beans are done what's left of the mustard is winter hardy and will be left for seed next spring.

View attachment 51060

That is pretty neat @reedy!

 

[heirloomgal]

Backyard Pole Beans As The Summer Goes By​

View attachment 51072
The center pole in fht forground is Weaver and the next pole up the center row is also Weaver. It was the first pole snap bean to reach the top of the poles and the first to blossom and currently has the largest pods

View attachment 51073


View attachment 51074
The bean all the way to the right in the forground is Lohrey's Special and it's still only grown half way up the pole as of today August 6, 2022

View attachment 51076
The bean in the forground in the left corner and the next pole to the left are Jembo Polish. It has small 4 inch pods righ now.

Pretty gorgeous backyard plot @bluejay! Your grass is also AMAZING! The hardest green thing I've ever tried to grow well....grass!

 

[Blue-Jay]

Pretty gorgeous backyard plot @bluejay! Your grass is also AMAZING! The hardest green thing I've ever tried to grow well....grass!

The front yard looks nice too solid green. The culture around here where I live is Scott's Weed 'N Feed. So I go along with it. If I had a house on small acreage out in a rural area of the county I would probably have a yard full of Dandelions in May and clover in July.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I've grown corn and beans together twice, once purposely and the second time not so much. Second time, the beans were semi runners not poles. My experience both times was that one always matures before the other, or at least needs to be harvested at different times to protect the drying seed from rot. So, harvesting the one usually means significant damage to the other. Last year when I needed to harvest the corn cobs I had to pull the beans off them- and they fell to the ground after that. Also the beans were a bit too shaded by the corn leaves so didn't grow as quickly as normal. Growing corn in blocks as I do only complicated things further.

That, to me, is the essential problem with trying to use the Three Sisters Method (let alone the Seven Sisters Method of some Eastern Native American tribes.) It only really works if you already have a corn, bean and squash type or types that are compatible in sturdiness, growth rate, and days to maturity. Natives got this through generations of selection, most of us don't have that kind of time. And swapping things in an out to customize it to one's individual needs (like my attempt to replace the squash with watermelons, since no one in my family eats much squash,) usually results in the whole system collapsing. I garden for the enjoyment of my family; I see no point in planting things no one will eat and will just get thrown away (it's not like I have a whole community here to swap with, or a market to sell them at, or are growing for my very survival at this point and am desperate enough to eat ANYTHING that will grow here*). Add on the fact that 90% of what I grow is found seed, so I don't have a CLUE what it's attributes are and the whole idea is nonsensical in my case.

 

[heirloomgal]

I don't really know what to make of the weather lately, for the beans in particular. Once, or sometimes even twice a week, we have gotten a good, penetrating rain. Much more complete watering than I could provide, and I've really not had to water much in awhile as I can see the shadow of remaining moisture on the raised beds for several days afterward. These fairly well spaced rains though have caused a lot of very vigorous green growth, and I'm a bit worried that all that super abundant foliage might develop some troubles - we're getting a long rain tonight again. I noticed a wee bit of white fuzz here and there today and removedit, a bean pod here or there with a mouldy tip. I guess I can be hopeful; were in the last stretch and I'd like to make to home base safely with my network beans!

The good news is some of my bush bean transplants have fully dried pods, which I think is a record for me in earliness. Gaucho and Ugandan Bantu have both given me dried pods as well as semi-runner Indian Woman. Even pole beans Fasold and Irish Connors have a few dried pods. I'm happy to count those pods as 'done'. Some of the European poles have me worried though, with only small pods, like Florelle Fleiderfarben. Funny though, Gold of Bacau is full of bumpy pods, though it too is a European bean. I guess I just need to be patient and not fret, let them do their thing in their own time. I'm really hoping we get a nice late 1st frost like last year, deep into October. That would be great! Last year I got nearly every variety to mature it's pod set!

Little confession @bluejay, I temporarily lost my green bean resolve and nibbled a single pod of network bean 'Green Savage'; it has a wonderful load of beans on it so I guess my usual discipline wobbled....but it WAS delicious! Yum! Ooooh! That's a keeper for sure! Lol

 

[Blue-Jay]

Little confession @bluejay, I temporarily lost my green bean resolve and nibbled a single pod of network bean 'Green Savage'; it has a wonderful load of beans on it so I guess my usual discipline wobbled....but it WAS delicious! Yum! Ooooh! That's a keeper for sure! Lol

Oh a single pod is not going to bring the bean world to an end. It's good to know that is another good snap bean. I really should try to grow some of them next year for eating a freezing. Might be another pole snap bean that gets on my favorites list. Supposedly Green Savage was bred to be a southern adapted variety in the late 1940's. Like Louisiana gardens. It would appear the bean has a very wide range where it can grow.