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

[flowerbug]

I water too before weeding because if I didn't the plants would just break off, not come free roots and all. I wonder if it's just us clay soil folks?

i don't usually water before weeding, i snip the weeds off (especially squash and melon seeds that are sprouting around my other plants as those seeds are accidentally or intentionally put in the worm bins and then those get used as fertilizer which means i have sprouts all over the place that don't belong. they are usually very healthy looking too! so it is a shame to cut them off, but i don't want them to take over the patches where the other stuff is planted.

You guys give me hope that the beans seeds I put in these last few days where there were empty spots in the rows might be okay in the long run. I felt that it might be a fruitless endeavour at this time season-wise to put those in, but if you guys are still putting seeds in I might just be okay. My season is probably a wee bit shorter generally, but on the whole it's pretty close to the upper northern states. That's good news to me. 😄

up until about mid-June is ok for me for some varieties (the shorter season ones which will finish before mid-September).

 

[heirloomgal]

Two gardens down, one to go. About 1/2 of all the beans planted (or transplanted). I had calculated how many flats of bean & soybean transplants I still had planned (!!!!) and decided to direct-seed most of those. In the case of low-germ soybeans, that means that where I have enough seed to keep some as backup, it means direct seed & hope for the best. Two of those are already starting to show. A direct-seeded yardlong is already up too.

I'll still plant one 8-cell strip of any bean that was direct seeded, as backup... but not for soybeans, unless I am the only source. Will start adzuki as transplants too. The only other transplants still in progress are one bitter melon & one luffa which had poor germination in the first round, to increase the population.

The rural garden will be "fun" (sarc) because having been fallow all last year, it has reverted to what is basically adobe gravel. I'll probably just do transplants there today, and water the rows which will be direct seeded tomorrow, in hope of softening up the ground. Hopefully I can break up the ground to a bearable texture with a small hand-held tiller tomorrow.

I planted the Bill Jump and Viktoria Rimpans peas, the Bill Jump are starting to pop up after only a few days so that's nice! VR hasn't peeked out yet, hope it does, and I hope I set it them up with the right size trellis'! 🤣

 

[heirloomgal]

Just did some research and found great news. Last week I planted a 3X3 or (4X4 not sure really) raised planter with Annelino Di Trento "bush" beans, only to realize later that the company I got them from, Weston Seeds, might be mislabeling thier growth habits in beans. So I thought I planted a ton of seeds in that planter that were all poles, BUT, I just found out that they ARE bush beans afterall!! Yay! Shrimp beans on dwarf plants, for real!

 

[Zeedman]

I planted the Bill Jump and Viktoria Rimpans peas, the Bill Jump are starting to pop up after only a few days so that's nice! VR hasn't peeked out yet, hope it does, and I hope I set it them up with the right size trellis'! 🤣

"Bill Jump" is one of the 4 pea varieties I'm growing this year. Had some reservations about germination, (given that the seed is from 2012) so started them in pots, 5 seeds per cell. Nearly all came up, over 80%!!! I like having transplants with clusters in each pot, I just space the clusters 6-8" apart in the row to give them room & get a large population. "Limestone" (snow pea, from 2015) actually came up more slowly, but it too has good germination.

Apparently peas (or at least some of them) are one of the longer-lived legumes... which is good news, since most of my peas are overdue for replenishment & my isolation protocols only allow me to grow a few each year.

Just realized today that I forgot to start "Gruno Rosyn" in pots (from 2014); guess I'll try just direct seeding it. Hopefully tomorrow, if I'm able to finish all of the transplants in the rural plot. "Sugar Lace" will be direct seeded too; I really want to save seed from that, to test whether its apparently short seed life is genetic.

 

[heirloomgal]

Good things and bad things. Bad thing, a groundhog appeared out of nowhere today and ate all my in ground lettuce. Good thing is that that he didn't touch any of the pole beans that were right next to the lettuce. I (pathetically) caged off the pole bean plants as best I could in that back row against the forest in case he changes his mind. The many pea rows are only baaarely peaking up so he didn't touch those, but that is certainly a crop I would be concerned about. So I set a trap with thier favorite - cantaloupe. We'll see if there are any takers in the next 24 hours.

I think I figured out why all of a sudden these ground hogs are appearing after 15 years of not a single one. There is wholescale bush clearing just down my street these last two years as they are preparing for a new subdivision. There is also big rock blasting to cut away at the mountain underneath they're building on, so I'm sure these furry guys homes are being blown to smithereens and they are looking for new digs. I sorta feel bad for them.

Not bad enough, though, to let them use my garden as a restaurant.

 

[heirloomgal]

Does anyone know if 'Mountain White Half Runner' bean is the same bean as 'Mechelse Tros'? I see a bean on Guy Drix's bean list called 'Perle Blanche' and in the language used there (I don't know which) it lists these other beans in the accompanying blurb. I'm wondering if he's saying that he trialed all those beans, or if he's saying that they are all the same bean?

 

[flowerbug]

Does anyone know if 'Mountain White Half Runner' bean is the same bean as 'Mechelse Tros'? I see a bean on Guy Drix's bean list called 'Perle Blanche' and in the language used there (I don't know which) it lists these other beans in the accompanying blurb. I'm wondering if he's saying that he trialed all those beans, or if he's saying that they are all the same bean?

i couldn't find the mentioned list or much else. so, no idea...

 

[Triffid]

Does anyone know if 'Mountain White Half Runner' bean is the same bean as 'Mechelse Tros'? I see a bean on Guy Drix's bean list called 'Perle Blanche' and in the language used there (I don't know which) it lists these other beans in the accompanying blurb. I'm wondering if he's saying that he trialed all those beans, or if he's saying that they are all the same bean?

They're not all the same; I believe the context of that image is a showcase of superficially similar white-seeded beans, which were trialled. The language is Dutch

 

[flowerbug]

glad to have gotten the last garden inside the fence planted with beans. i still have a few spots i can poke beans into but nothing major to be done now and best of all no more clod busting.

i was beginning to wonder if the beans i'd planted on June 3rd were going to sprout or not but they finally started poking up yesterday and today. i always hate the anxiety stage where i'm not sure if anything is happening or not. we've had fairly cool evenings so i think that has slowed down the sprouting times so far. also lack of rains has probably also had some effect.

 

[heirloomgal]

They're not all the same; I believe the context of that image is a showcase of superficially similar white-seeded beans, which were trialled. The language is Dutch

Thank you so much @Triffid!