2023 Little Easy Bean Network - Beans Beyond The Colors Of A Rainbow

[Blue-Jay]

Put all the Network packets that have come in so far all together on the dinning room table. I think there might be close to that many more yet to come in. I've started putting them away in the freezer and recording their location in the boxes that they wind up going into.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Tunny - Pole Dry. This bean had a hard time trying to grow this summer too. I got it from Beans & Herbs in the UK. Decoy1 might have sent me some also. I think it's a pretty bean. I'm sure in a better summer it's probably very productive. Harvested 2.40 ounces of beans, 68 grams.

Vaquero - Semi Runner Dry. It had been 5 years since I grew this bean. It grew ok but I know it can produce better. It struggled a bit in this summers weather. Harvested 7 ounces of beans, 18 grams. I got the bean from Sage Austin in Rio Frio, Texas. She told me that she had been the personal garden consultant to the first lady, Lady Bird Johnson at the White House when Lyndon was president in the mid to late 1960's.


Tunny - Pole Dry..........................................................Vaquero - Semi Runner Dry

 

[flowerbug]

Put all the Network packets that have come in so far all together on the dinning room table. I think there might be close to that many more yet to come in. I've started putting them away in the freezer and recording their location in the boxes that they wind up going into.

View attachment 62565

i will be sending some unless you are heading out of town?

 

[Boilergardener]

flowerbug said:
with the reduction in coal burning power plants and better air quality it may make sense for me to do a side by side trial in a garden for using some sulphur this spring. i have the elemental powder on hand for acidification, but i do not have any gypsum which will not have as much of an effect on the pH. gypsum is one of my amendment trials i'd like to do anyways since it will help improve the heavy clay in the gardens. if i can find a decent source of it.


This is my source for Gypsum. 40 pound bags of pellitized product for $12.75

NutraSoft OP Gypsum - 40lb Bag

NutraSoft OP Gypsum is a granulated gypsum soil amendment for lawns and gardens, 21% calcium and 16% sulfur. Gypsum adds calcium without raising the pH.

www.7springsfarm.com

I have used that pelletized gyps also, it won't raise your sulfur levels but It works I'm having a hard time getting my Sulfur levels to rise in my garden according to soil tests I take. I'm high in everything else P,K, micros, little high in ph also. I'm going to try spreading elemental sulfur (90%) to rapidly raise soil test S, and attempt to lower pH some. Elem sulfur, which half breaks down year 1, other half breaks down 2nd yr, sort of a slow release. Sulfur is very leachable, hard to keep it in soil profile. I also like AMS (21-0-0-26S) that form of sulfur is plant available very soon after spreading, so in spring/summer i like AMS. I heard some MI dry bean farmers spread urea/AMS on their beans mid season as they take more N than what they can produce? But if that's all too much just go to The farm store, buy some bagged 16-16-16 and spread it pre plant in spring.

 

[Zeedman]

2023 beans cont.


"Chester", pole dry (a.k.a. 'Skunk'). From Will Bonsall 2004. Somewhat wispy runners, but still produces a surprisingly good yield. Was weeded late & surrounded by volunteer tomatillos. I'd really hoped for at least a meal of the delicious shellies from this, but let them all go for 24 ounces of dry seed.


"Striped Cornfield", pole snap, shelly, or dry. Another bean that really struggled in the rural garden due to intense weed pressure. The runners were severely stunted; I had actually written this off as a failure. But I had picked one - two pods at a time & thrown them in with other things. I just kept finding pods here & there, and ended up with 8 ounces. This is normally a very high yielding bean, and I had really looked forward to some shellies from this one too. They should have looked like this:

 

[flowerbug]

I have used that pelletized gyps also, it won't raise your sulfur levels but It works I'm having a hard time getting my Sulfur levels to rise in my garden according to soil tests I take. I'm high in everything else P,K, micros, little high in ph also. I'm going to try spreading elemental sulfur (90%) to rapidly raise soil test S, and attempt to lower pH some. Elem sulfur, which half breaks down year 1, other half breaks down 2nd yr, sort of a slow release. Sulfur is very leachable, hard to keep it in soil profile. I also like AMS (21-0-0-26S) that form of sulfur is plant available very soon after spreading, so in spring/summer i like AMS. I heard some MI dry bean farmers spread urea/AMS on their beans mid season as they take more N than what they can produce? But if that's all too much just go to The farm store, buy some bagged 16-16-16 and spread it pre plant in spring.

i wonder if you could add elemental sulfur to alfalfa pellets and then use that as your early to mid-season amendment?

i added some sulfur to my worm buckets last year and that was a mistake because they did not do well with the pH shift. the worm compost then went out into the gardens last spring and the tomatoes and onions did ok with it, but i'm not sure if it was easily leeched away or not. keeping worms in buckets without holes means that everything is kept in the buckets until it is put into the gardens. i don't collect leachate. for other possible acidifying amendments there is also urine which is often available for free (free wee, free willy? )...

 

[heirloomgal]

Received a new bean in the mail, never heard of it before, 'Coco de Paimpol'. https://www.tastefrance.com/magazine/article/coco-de-paimpol-bean-refined-rustic-treat

However, the beans unfortunately are not in very good shape. They seem old to me, but that's a guess. Or maybe the beans are a mix of old ones and new ones. I'm happy to have them and beans are generally good germinators, but golly I would never sell seeds that look like this! I hope they sprout when I plant them.

 

[Blue-Jay]

i will be sending some unless you are heading out of town?

Won't be going away for any length of time until February.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Vermont Mohawk - Pole Dry. Another strugling bean but I did get a small amount of quality seed. 5.55 ounces, 157 grams. This year was the 5th time I have grown this bean since 2015. Last year the beans were so twisted and mishappen I didn't even harvest them. Will try them again next year. The bean is really productive and beautiful when it grows right.

Wesley Railroad Spike - Pole Snap. Huge 10 inch pods on this bean. The seed I harvested looked nice, larger and more filled out than the original seed I received. An old appalachian heirloom bean. I will try it again sometime. Harvested 5.25 ounces of beans, 148 grams.


Vermont Mohawk - Pole Dry................................Wesley Railroad Spike - Pole Snap

 

[Boilergardener]

i wonder if you could add elemental sulfur to alfalfa pellets and then use that as your early to mid-season amendment?

i added some sulfur to my worm buckets last year and that was a mistake because they did not do well with the pH shift. the worm compost then went out into the gardens last spring and the tomatoes and onions did ok with it, but i'm not sure if it was easily leeched away or not. keeping worms in buckets without holes means that everything is kept in the buckets until it is put into the gardens. i don't collect leachate. for other possible acidifying amendments there is also urine which is often available for free (free wee, free willy? )...

Yes you could. I was speaking more of the "corn/soybean/wheat farmer methods for like big farmers haha" if you wanted to use elemental sulfur 90% in season in your garden that would be great, just remember it's more of a slow release than readily plant available as AMS is. So that crop that your putting it in may not benefit that much from it. To make it easy with one sulfur source that would be fine also.