2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[jbosmith]

i bury them down deep enough that they can't sprout, they end up rehydrating and then fermenting in a fantastically smelly mush that the worms love.

My bins are just Rubbermaid totes, so I'm not sure I have 'deep enough', but I don't mind the sprouts. They're just future worm food. Right now the bins look like they need mowing because I threw some old wheat berries on top last week.

I rarely have any real quantity of dry beans that I'm throwing out so I don't get the smelly mush that way. I did add a couple of pint jars of old beans that I mixed with some sawdust and added last spring and .. that was a bit much, even in small quantities per bin. The worms were fine, but went on a bit of a vacation around the top of the bins for a few days. Whoops!

 

[flowerbug]

My bins are just Rubbermaid totes, so I'm not sure I have 'deep enough',

about eight inches or more seems to be enough.

but I don't mind the sprouts. They're just future worm food. Right now the bins look like they need mowing because I threw some old wheat berries on top last week.

haha!

I rarely have any real quantity of dry beans that I'm throwing out so I don't get the smelly mush that way. I did add a couple of pint jars of old beans that I mixed with some sawdust and added last spring and .. that was a bit much, even in small quantities per bin. The worms were fine, but went on a bit of a vacation around the top of the bins for a few days. Whoops!

i keep the worm buckets in my room here so they must be covered well or i could have wandering worms going across the wood floors. when i first started out with keeping these buckets i found out that worms could get through cheese cloth... now i use fine fabric mesh that works great. keeps the worms and the bugs in or out depending... old t-shirts without holes also worked, but the covers i have now look nicer and wash up and dry quickly or there's no problem using them when they're damp.

 

[jbosmith]

about eight inches or more seems to be enough.

It's rare that mine are more than 6" deep with actual bedding. About the only time that happens is when I plant dahlias in the spring and dump their winter bedding on top of the worm bins.

i keep the worm buckets in my room here so they must be covered well or i could have wandering worms going across the wood floors. when i first started out with keeping these buckets i found out that worms could get through cheese cloth... now i use fine fabric mesh that works great. keeps the worms and the bugs in or out depending... old t-shirts without holes also worked, but the covers i have now look nicer and wash up and dry quickly or there's no problem using them when they're damp.

When it comes to wandering worms, I find that bigger tubes work better. My 14 gallon rubbermaid totes rarely have worms at the top while the 10 gallon ones with the same footprint often do. I'm not 100% sure why that happens. The only difference is how high the sides are. 5 gallon bus tubs always have worms trying to escape and I don't use those often anymore.

My containers are kind of a mishmash of what I had on hand, but if I had to start over I think I'd just use the 14 gallon size or bigger. They seem pretty ideal.

Another reason I have a lot of bean sprouts is that I tend to just throw the pods on top of everything, sort of like mulching, rather than burying them like I do food scraps.

 

[meadow]

if you ever post a list of what you're out of perhaps some of us other's who've grown network beans can replenish your supplies?

Yes, @Bluejay77 maybe some of us have them. I saw one bean listed as all out to grower (I don't remember which bean at the moment) and I could easily grow it next season.

 

[heirloomgal]

Welcome @Paul G !

So great to have another bean grower here! I adore European bean varieties, and am curious what some of your favourites to grow & eat might be!

Lately I've been looking at some of the European seed houses, like Deaflora & Samenfest. So many gorgeous beans. This year I grew the bean Quedlinberger Speck and thought it was pretty fantastic.

We love pix here too!

 

[heirloomgal]

@Zeedman I'm curious how your Grandma Gina''s dry down is going? Artorius had some of the same experience this year, that I had with them last year. In my case I lost close to half due to premature sprouting in the pods. Did anyone else, besides me, find the pods enormous?

 

[Blue-Jay]

Yes, @Bluejay77 maybe some of us have them. I saw one bean listed as all out to grower (I don't remember which bean at the moment) and I could easily grow it next season.

Usually the beans that will get that "All Seed Is Out To Grow" designation are beans that usually have gone out for the very first time. Then the grower doesn't return them. Sometimes those are very small packet counts and I hate to just send someone just 5 seeds when they could probably grow 10. All growers are assumed to be trusted but sometimes I never hear back from some of them. Perhaps on very small packet counts with a new grower I should hold back some of the seed. After all even 3 successfully grown pole beans will produce a pretty good seed crop. Sometime I will have to go through the Network pages and list all those All Seed Is Out To Grower beans. I will check my spread sheet too and list the beans that were never returned and are nolonger on the website.

 

[meadow]

So what causes the seed coat to be incomplete?

I noticed this when I grew Tarbais, and now again with Lazy Wife's Pole Bean. Both are white beans. I've not seen this on any other beans, at least not that I can recall.

For a description, it almost looks like the coat has been rubbed off on the age edge* (sorry that I cannot do pictures, dang it). Fortunately there are plenty of quality seed to fulfill @heirloomgal's Network pledge, so no problem there.

*good heavens, it's like spell check is in my brain 🙄 🤣

 

[meadow]

FINALLY was able to shell some Bolita! Wow, is that one easy to shell! The pod is like paper. What a pleasure. 😄

 

[flowerbug]

...
My containers are kind of a mishmash of what I had on hand, but if I had to start over I think I'd just use the 14 gallon size or bigger. They seem pretty ideal.

bigger tubs are too hard to move. i had one at first here to start with but it was too hard on me so i eventually switched it out for more buckets. at one time i was up to 17 buckets but that was too much room taken up so now i'm down to 10 and that is working ok.