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

[Michael Lusk]

I'm FINALLY going to get my handful of Network beans in the mail today I hope. It was a strange year and of the four network beans I was growing, 1 was a total loss to rabbits and 1 was basically a failed crop (Croatian Monstrance) I took a picture, but it's not even enough to ship and I'm a bit leery of the seed given the collapse of the plants. With that, the other two were late to come in and spent some time drying out in my garage. Pics to immediately follow.

 

[Michael Lusk]

Croatian Monstranz

 

[Michael Lusk]

Rotebeerbohne

 

[Michael Lusk]

Black Butterbean

 

[Branching Out]

Weevils are a fact of life in my community garden plot that I use for trials. They often take a while to really show up en masse indoors, so be vigilant. Freezing is, as you mentioned, an effective control. I also cover my open jars with a single layer of paper towel which I attach with a rubber band so that if one variety is infested, it might not spread. I also freeze any new beans I get to make sure they're free of the little [backspace backspace backspace] buggers.

Securing paper towel with a rubber band over open jars of legume seed sounds like a very good idea jbosmith-- I am making a note to try that next summer. Like you I am in the habit of freezing new beans, but I have not always been diligent about freezing them immediately on arrival.

Weevils really do strike fear in the heart of a gardener. Heirloomgal, after hearing your weevil story I hustled to get all of this year's bean, pea, and sweet pea seed tucked away in the freezer. It's interesting that your bean drying room can double as a deep freezer during the cold months of winter-- a multi-purpose room. I hope that your infestation was limited to just the one variety. 🤞

 

[jbosmith]

I have great neighbors on both sides; but they both put out bird seed, which naturally attracts seed-eating birds. There were flocks of them this year (at least 30-40) and they took a liking to my trellises. I miss the Coopers hawks that nested in my trees for years, and kept the birds at bay... I think the UW professor who caught & banded the parents, then climbed up into their nest, scared them off.

Do the birds eat the beans? I .. didn't know this was a thing Sometimes a crow or robin will yank seedlings out of the ground but I've never had problems with the adult beans. One more thing to fuel my paranoia.

Securing paper towel with a rubber band over open jars of legume seed sounds like a very good idea jbosmith-- I am making a note to try that next summer. Like you I am in the habit of freezing new beans, but I have not always been diligent about freezing them immediately on arrival.

I also sometimes use canning jars with the bands over paper towels. I'm also not always great at taking the paper towels off and putting a real lid on. Here's one from '21 I dug out the other night after @Zeedman got me thinking about Dolloff. There's also some Piekny Jas from @heirloomgal in a Teddie peanut butter jar with a rubber band.

 

[Zeedman]

Do the birds eat the beans? I .. didn't know this was a thing Sometimes a crow or robin will yank seedlings out of the ground but I've never had problems with the adult beans. One more thing to fuel my paranoia.

Yes, they began pecking the seeds out of the pods. At first I thought it might be mice; but some of the pods hung far away from the trellis, and were opened from the bottom up. I saw the birds in that trellis, among the foliage, several times. I often see birds perched at the top of my trellises, and wrens hop on the ground - but only rarely within the foliage. When that happens, its usually bad news. The feeding started slow, but as more birds joined in, they very thoroughly extracted every remaining seed on the entire trellis.

Rabbits, chipmunks, turkeys, finches... that garden was attacked by everything thus year.

 

[flowerbug]

Yes, they began pecking the seeds out of the pods. At first I thought it might be mice; but some of the pods hung far away from the trellis, and were opened from the bottom up. I saw the birds in that trellis, among the foliage, several times. I often see birds perched at the top of my trellises, and wrens hop on the ground - but only rarely within the foliage. When that happens, its usually bad news. The feeding started slow, but as more birds joined in, they very thoroughly extracted every remaining seed on the entire trellis.

Rabbits, chipmunks, turkeys, finches... that garden was attacked by everything thus year.

reminds me of what i had happen with my phlox plants which give rather large seeds in pods. i grew them for several years and was able to harvest and share seeds easily and then the goldfinches discovered them one summer and from then on all i would have would be shredded pods. i still do have the plants around the property so they've not gotten rid of them but if i want to harvest seeds i have to protect the pods until the seeds are fully developed and sometimes i can get lucky finding some.

for actual destruction of plants Mom and the lawnmower have done a much more complete job removing them even after i asked her not to do that. not that they are gone, but now many fewer and i really liked the purple, pink and white flowers i used to have.

we don't put out seeds for birds to attract them but we do have birdbaths which is good enough for us. that keeps the birds around then they can forage bugs and weed seeds i always hope. collateral damage happens in strawberries and the phlox. so far no birds get into the beans. the tiny red adzuki beans i thought would be obvious targets but i have yet to see anyone go for the seeds of those - instead i have seen the groundhog go after the leaves of the growing plants, i think the rabbits or deer would go after them too if given a chance.

 

[Branching Out]

This summer I grew Trionfo Violetto purple podded pole beans, and I am very confused by the different seed shapes and seed coat colours that I ended up with. The beans in the photo below all grew in the same spot, and were harvested from six plants. None of the dry seed resembles the original planting stock, which was brown kidney shaped. Instead I got caramel cut shorts, solid lilac & cream flecked with lilac flat rounded beans, and a mix of dark purplish-brown or beige with lilac flecks kidney shaped seeds.

I also grew this same bean variety in two other places; one garden produced brown seeds similar to the ones from Uprising Seeds, and the garden right next door produced kidney shaped beige seeds flecked with lilac. Is this typical of purple pole beans, to have so many different expressions with the seed? Any thoughts or insights would be most appreciated. (And by the way, this was the only purple pole bean that I grew, so no chance of the plants being misidentified).

 

[flowerbug]

@Branching Out i've only grown one purple podded pole bean and i had one tan color of seeds to plant but the first planting gave me back some solid black seeds along with the tan color. they were all the same shape so i did not segregate them. i replanted once and think they did come mixed colors again.