2025 Little Easy Bean Network - Growers Of The Future Will Be Glad We Saved

[ruralmamma]

I lost a Wren's Egg plant early in the season and never discovered a reason why. A few weeks ago I had a Cold Creek plant in full bloom and starting to produce when suddenly half the leaves began to wither. Dug around and found no evidence of voles and stems were intact. Gave it some extra pond water for a few days and then we had a couple days of rain and it perked back up. I have several varieties of dry beans in that bed and none of the others showed any signs of stress. Odd.

About half of the network beans were transplants and the other half were mostly presprouted before being direct-seeded. I often soak seeds for a few hours before planning to give them a head start but this is the first year I've taken to these tactics and that was because we had weeks of rain followed by a heatwave. Remarkably all of the plants are doing good. Some will likely be ready to harvest in approximately two weeks while others are just starting to bloom. It's been a great inaugural year so far and looking forward to the harvest.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Avalon, which was labeled as a bush snap bean has towered and had to be redirected to keep from choking out the two tomatoes that share space with it. Runners are approximately 8' and it's every single plant. It's producing pods and is a good distance away from other beans. I have enough seed left to try again next year but what about this year's harvest? Do you want seed back with the notation that they're a climber?

Yes send seed back with the note they are pole beans. The original grower probably grew them nearly 10 years ago. I don't remember at that time if they told me they were pole or bush. It must have been bush because that what I listed them as. If the pods haven't gotten seedy yet try a couple pods and see if they are a stringless snap bean. They are supposed to be such.

 

[SusanneinHastings]

Dug all the garlic! Something on the trellis is making a few big pods, but I think it is the Tarbais and not the Greek gigantes yet. The hole is where I planted the True Red Cranberry. Paid for postage all the way from Canada and not a single one germinated! Not the ones I planted in the pots either. I replanted with some old Aunt Jeans from 2021 and of course they all popped up, although I don’t know if there is enough season left for them.

Do you think they look a bit too light green? I put down a little fertilizer before I planted, but this is one of the beds I had to dig out tree roots and I wonder if they need more. The tall poles are about 12-14’ high for scale, the gigantes would like them taller,

We are gettting Shackamaxon and Hidatsa Red pods drying in the Three Sisters garden on the site, and I shelled some with the young visitors today, they were curious to see what I was doing. So that was lovely. It is going to be another miserably hot weekend. We had one nice cool week and it was spoiled by bad air quality from the Canadian smoke, although it does not seem to deter the visitors it does wear on the staff especially being out day after day.

I think I have converted another Bean Networketeer. (I left the shelled beans on the break room table as bait.)