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

[flowerbug]

I believe it is called 'inverse' but reversal is perfectly understandable and it is caused by the way the bean seedcoat is formed, which is in layers. A seedsaving friend asked OSU years ago on my behalf, when I first discovered this with a cranberry type of bean. If the seedcoat starts to develop with the 'wrong' colouring, then there are then only one (or two) other colours available to form the rest of the seed coat. It develops in layers apparently. When conditions are not favourable, there is a slight increase in this happening. And of course inversed beans will grow into normally coloured beans again (with only a small percentage inversed). Pods with both types of seeds are rarer, but do happen, just like yours.

A blurry photo (sorry) of Gramma Walters is attached, which shows one normal seed (bottom right), 4 fully inverted, one half inverted and one partially inverted seed, ie where only a part of the seedcoat is inverted. Full inversion is the most common form, but with some beans partial inversions are possible.

oh, thanks for the information!

 

[heirloomgal]

Tonight I start to work at all the paper bags full of dried pods!

 

[Blue-Jay]

Today I finished shelling the last pods I have harvested. I will photo all of this years grown beans and start packing them in a freezer when I return home from Florida about the 18th of December. Still lots of work to do.

 

[heirloomgal]

Today I finished shelling the last pods I have harvested. I will photo all of this years grown beans and start packing them in a freezer when I return home from Florida about the 18th of December. Still lots of work to do.

You're done shelling all the 2025 pods @Bluejay?

 

[Blue-Jay]

You're done shelling all the 2025 pods @Bluejay?

Yes all done. I started shelling pods back in about middle of August and kept at it steadily when I wasn't doing something else. The whole harvest from 4,700 square feet 438 square meters gardening ground, I'll do my bean 2025 show in January,

 

[Blue-Jay]

The End Of A Bean Season



The Vines are now all bare


The Supports Are Now Bare Without Vines.


The Supports Are All Coming Down


The Empty Pods Are Ready For Shredding


The Vines Are Ready For Shredding


The Vines Have Now Met The Lawnmower


The Pods Are Now Just Little Pieces


The Remains Will Soon Become The Soils Organic Matter To Feed Another Summers Beans.

 

[heirloomgal]

Is it difficult to pull out your stakes at the end of the season @Bluejay ? Or do they dislodge fairly easily? I imagine you probably drive them in over a foot?

I'm wondering if the time is coming for me to switch to stakes like you have, instead of my trees. It is so much work to cut them all down, do all the trimming, prepare holes. Removing them this year was quite difficult even after the tilling around them. (Mind you, DH says I need to get the scaling bar down 2 feet before putting a tree in, so that might be a bit overkill.)

Growing pole beans would be much simpler if I reused my supports. The lumber sold at the size I would need though is all finger jointed, and so has weakness issues. Most of my other wire trellis's were framed with that kind of lumber and none of those joints aged well.

 

[flowerbug]

Tonight I start to work at all the paper bags full of dried pods!

i know it is wonderful to get going on shelling beans. i've not had as much time in recent weeks as i would normally have but here or there i squeeze in a few because it really is my favorite time of the year.

today i spent at least a whole hour (maybe two since time can go by so quickly) shelling beans.

 

[Decoy1]

Mine are all podded except for the few varieties which still need to dry down further. Some are still out there as we’re having a dry autumn with still no frost forecast up to the end of the month. Still lingering are Rose, Panzaredda, Rio Zape, Blue Greasy Grits, Blaue aus Ungarn, Fat Man, Heavenly Gold and Bob & Mary. Fully picked but still drying indoors are Sultan’s Gold Crescent and Jack’s Blue & Green.

It’s interesting how some varieties dry down quite suddenly and completely. Gialet della Val Belluna is one which was quite late but within a few days dried beautifully and completely. And some manage to dry a pod here and a pod there over a long period and just yield a few each time I do a round. Paul Bunyan Giant and Heavenly Gold have been in that camp. I’m at the stage of picking pods when they’re still leathery or at the thinner floppier stage to hasten the drying indoors.

Like @Blue-Jay i pod as I go, collecting through most of the season in brown paper bags with names on as soon as they are dry, podding during evenings and adding them to their little drying drawers, sometimes just a few at a time. It’s this last stage which is a bit trickier.