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

[Branching Out]

Sultan's Gold Crescent. Maybe not quite as curly as yours, @Branching Out ? So perhaps Anellino Giallo is more likely.

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Amazing similarity but I agree that my beans curl quite a bit more.

 

[Blue-Jay]

That seems to have happened to me this year, on three trout/cattle pattern beans I bought from Russ's store. Some were more extreme than others. The Jacob's Cattle Amish was supposed to do this very little, and the color/white balance is still pretty good. Not as much white as what I planted, but it got really hot here for several weeks while the pods were filling.

The beans that you got from me were grown in a lighter soil than the place I'm growiing beans this year. My original named bean Pawnee was grown in Belgium one year with soil that had a lot of organic matter added to it and it just looked marvelous. Lots of white with very fine spotting in the white area and a smaller brown eye patch than what I get when I grow the bean here. I think soil type does also haa some influence. Often Pawnee grown here will be larger a brown bean.. Later in the year when I do my Bean Show I will show a photo of Pawnee grown in 2013 in a different soil in my county and a photo of the bean that I grew this year in a differeant place.

Oxbow Farm did you get a good size crop of beans from all the ones you got from me this year?

 

[oxbow farm]

Oxbow Farm did you get a good size grop of beans from all the ones you got from me this year?

I've gotten good amounts of seed or dry pods from all the beans I got from you except Hiawatha. I just noticed the first maturing pods on the Hiawatha the other day, but I don't have any harvested yet. It is far enough along that I should get a good amount of seed. There are pleanty of full pods that I could harvest green if we had a danger of a super early frost.

 

[heirloomgal]

Sultan’s Gold Crescent came immediately into my mind. I was hoping I had a photo but unfortunately not. Perhaps later today.

I thought of that one too, but given the Italian connection I guessed in that direction. A few years ago I had 2 separate people gift me with seeds for yellow crescent beans, one Annelino Giallo, one Sultan's Golden Crescent; that planting year I went to all my samples picking out what to grow and realized that the seeds for each of them were exactly the same. It got me wondering if it's the same bean? This year I'm growing another yellow crescent of German origin, can't think of it this minute, but I should make a point to see if the seeds for that one are similar too.

 

[heirloomgal]

Harvesting beans in anticipation of rain. If the pods are dry of course those get harvested. Also if the pods are yellow and flabby. When it comes to bush beans. If we have had a heavy rainy period where I know the soil is going to stay very wet for an extended period of time. I look to see if there are some yellow and maybe dry pods. I look to see if the green pods are really swollen with seed. You learn to judge the green pods with experience. Then I will pull those bush plants out of ground and hang them to dry. I also cut the roots off. They seem to hang easier without roots sticking out in all sorts of directions. It does seem though I usually lose some low hanging pods where the seed will spoil. If I get most of the pods to dry and have most of the seed looking nice I'm happy.

Tomatoes seed is so easy to grow and harvest. However beans are so visually exciting and with crosses adding even more visual excitement, mystery and anticipation of new things to come. I will never stop growing beans. Of all the garden crops that can be grown, beans, keep my adrenaline flowing.

Have I shown this photo below before. This is what my bean plot looks like these days. This is just a small section. There are poles with bush plants hanging scattered through out my bush bean plot these days. Two weeks ago we had 4 inches, 10 cm of rain in 3 days. I started pulling out of the ground some of the most mature beans. I have some beans that mature later so they are still in the ground because I could see the seed development still wasn't there. I also like to clip off all the leaves so I get sun and air penetration to the max.

You can see some green pods on these hanging plants. Those plants might be hanging there for up to 2 or three weeks.

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Do you find the bush beans are much more sensitive to excess rain than pole varieties? That's my guess but I don't know, just because the plants are so much larger and might handle water better. Would you worry less about pole beans being exposed to lots of rain?

I'm glad to report we have not had more rain since last night, as was predicted. Today was quite cool but sunny. Maybe more in a day or two, but it doesn't look like the 3 days of endless rain the weather network reported thank goodness.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Do you find the bush beans are much more sensitive to excess rain than pole varieties? That's my guess but I don't know, just because the plants are so much larger and might handle water better. Would you worry less about pole beans being exposed to lots of rain?

I would be more concerned about bush bean pods after a good rain. Since all their pods are within inches of the ground a sunny day or two can purculate moisture up through the plants and pods and ruin seeds certainly by making them sprout. I think a good mulching of your soil is helpful in getting better quality seed and pods or even weed barrier fabric. This year I didn't put down the weed barrier fabric. I just didn't have the desire to get it done. Pole beans I would have less concern for during a rain. I think of course the pole bean pods most under threat of spoiling are the ones the form near the ground.

 

[heartsong111]

I am growing out the September Blue bean, my first year growing beans specifically to save for the network. Thanks to @Blue-Jay for this specific one. I’m hopeful we get some nice blue coloring since it’s really cooled off here in West Michigan. Curious, though, why just one solitary pod is so different from the rest.