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

[jbosmith]

oh wow, what a mess and so sad to see. will you be able to replant ok next year?

The garden that got flooded was under several feet of water for a couple of days and it took a couple of weeks before you could walk on it. In between those it was the consistency of wet concrete. Soil tests came back free of chemical contaminants, but with almost no nutrients or arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi left, so it will take some rebuilding.

One thing that @Zeedman especially might be interested in is that my row of MN-150 cowpeas looks just fine while pretty much everything else other than horseradish, comfrey, and crab grass is dead.

I'm sure the other gardens will be fine, but the soil isn't in great shape.

 

[heirloomgal]

Hi all,

I know i haven't posted in a while, but there just isn't much to post about. This is easily my worst garden year ever.

My trial garden is somewhere in here (taken from a canoe, the day before peak flooding)View attachment 59615:

A photo of it was even featured on NPR though not for the reasons I'd like (from a drone, the day after peak):

View attachment 59614

My bigger gardens that didn't flood are so saturated from constant rain that you can hardly walk on the soil, all the brassicas are rotting, and almost everything else is stunted to the point that I'll be lucky to get seed crops. They're so wet that the soil smell rotten. These cowpeas should be 3' tall and dark green. The soil they are growing in is mostly sand, it just never stops raining.

View attachment 59612

One thing that is actually doing well is soy beans. There's some japanese beetle damage, but not a lot. I'm not sure Panther is going to make it, but barring an early frost, Bei 77-6177 and Gaia should both ripen to dry.

View attachment 59613

Anyway, I hope you all are having a better year.

I am so sorry to read this @jbosmith. Just unbelievable. Your soybeans look pretty fabulous though. I'm growing Black Panther this year too and I'll be surprised if it makes it. I just pulled up & hung Ugra Saja today.

Did you have corn growing anywhere? I wonder how that would fare in such conditions.

 

[heirloomgal]

Well @Bluejay77 the Parker‘s Half Runner ‘60‘ is done! ✅

 

[jbosmith]

I am so sorry to read this @jbosmith. Just unbelievable. Your soybeans look pretty fabulous though. I'm growing Black Panther this year too and I'll be surprised if it makes it. I just pulled up & hung Ugra Saja today.

Did you have corn growing anywhere? I wonder how that would fare in such conditions.

I don't personally have corn, but the corn that's in the flooded shed picture is still alive and seems ok. Corn that gets knocked over and silty doesn't do as well. There's some fields here that are so flat and brown that all that's alive is the red rooted pigweed (wild amaranth).

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi all,

I know i haven't posted in a while, but there just isn't much to post about. This is easily my worst garden year ever.

My trial garden is somewhere in here (taken from a canoe, the day before peak flooding)

OMG. How awful ! We feel for you. People in eastern Kentucky had a bad year last year with way too much rain. Many people lost seed of their varieties. Such an uneven distribution of rain in the country this year. Here in the midwest the story is drought. However drought can be recovered from faster than all the wetness. Hope your area will recover for next years growing season.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Well @Bluejay77 the Parker‘s Half Runner ‘60‘ is done!

Wow ! Real beauties. Photo quality seed for sure. Might have to use them when they arrive for a new photo on the Network pages.

How high did this bean climb? Would you consider the variety a pole or semi runner?

 

[heirloomgal]

Wow ! Real beauties. Photo quality seed for sure. Might have to use them when they arrive for a new photo on the Network pages.

How high did this bean climb? Would you consider the variety a pole or semi runner?

It's a very well behaved semi-runner.

 

[heirloomgal]

Some more dried pods today!

Kitoba

Mangetout Pleine Panier

First break of the year

I wonder what animal could do this?

Nearly stepped on this guy when I went to take garden pics today. He’s been hanging around for weeks.

 

[Zeedman]

Hi all,

I know i haven't posted in a while, but there just isn't much to post about. This is easily my worst garden year ever.

My trial garden is somewhere in here (taken from a canoe, the day before peak flooding)View attachment 59615:

A photo of it was even featured on NPR though not for the reasons I'd like (from a drone, the day after peak):

View attachment 59614

My bigger gardens that didn't flood are so saturated from constant rain that you can hardly walk on the soil, all the brassicas are rotting, and almost everything else is stunted to the point that I'll be lucky to get seed crops. They're so wet that the soil smell rotten. These cowpeas should be 3' tall and dark green. The soil they are growing in is mostly sand, it just never stops raining.

View attachment 59612

One thing that is actually doing well is soy beans. There's some japanese beetle damage, but not a lot. I'm not sure Panther is going to make it, but barring an early frost, Bei 77-6177 and Gaia should both ripen to dry.

View attachment 59613

Anyway, I hope you all are having a better year.

I feel your pain, and understand about the soil smell. I went through much the same thing a few years ago (albeit on a smaller scale) when we had two consecutive years of record rainfall. EVERYTHING in the flooded area died, even the earthworms. The soil smelled rotten, like dead fish. Lost about 6" of topsoil on the low end too, which made it so low that the weeds after that were willows & cattails. We ended up abandoning the low end of the rural garden after that because it never dried out.

 

[flowerbug]

The garden that got flooded was under several feet of water for a couple of days and it took a couple of weeks before you could walk on it. In between those it was the consistency of wet concrete. Soil tests came back free of chemical contaminants, but with almost no nutrients or arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi left, so it will take some rebuilding.

not having to deal with contaminants is a big positive.

if you need any garden seeds let us know here as i'm sure others besides me would be willing to send you anything you might need if we have them.