2026 Little Easy Bean Network – Plant A Garden, Water Your Soul, Join Our Family

[ruralmamma]

I've had some major setbacks in the past month but finally posted my bean show in the 2025 thread.

I'm currently in limbo on the 2026 garden. I'm determined to regrow six Network varieties that either didn't do well or produced a number of off-types in 2025 and holding off on making any requests just yet.

@Blue-Jay, Otis Stewart, Red Head, Lewis County Fall and Rosey's Red are currently on there way to you and I was planning on adding Otis Stewart to my permanent line-up, so if all goes well I'll add the others since they're on the priority list.

 

[flowerbug]

I've had some major setbacks in the past month but finally posted my bean show in the 2025 thread.

I'm currently in limbo on the 2026 garden. I'm determined to regrow six Network varieties that either didn't do well or produced a number of off-types in 2025 and holding off on making any requests just yet.

...

i've been wondering how you were doing there, glad to hear from you and hoping the setbacks will be resolved.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I've been trying to grow this bean out for LEBN since 2019 -- that's seven growing seasons, six of which I was actively growing out Frost. The first year, the seed was pretty poor quality; every year since, I've barely been able to scrape together enough seed to replant the next year. But this year!! Woo-hooo (and also *whew*).

Oh @saritabee so nice to hear from you again. I wonder what the trick is to growing Frost. I planted 16 seeds this year and they all died. I had a couple of others die on me too. I keep thinking that some beans are so acclimated for the climate they have been grown in for such a long time that they are not happy anywhere else.

 

[saritabee]

Oh @saritabee so nice to hear from you again. I wonder what the trick is to growing Frost. I planted 16 seeds this year and they all died. I had a couple of others die on me too. I keep thinking that some beans are so acclimated for the climate they have been grown in for such a long time that they are not happy anywhere else.

That could very well be the case, and I've just been growing them long enough that I've acclimated them to my area somewhat.
Now that you say that, I'd be curious to see whether these seeds have 'broken out' and will grow ok anywhere now, or if they continue to be picky and do poorly in other areas.

 

[saritabee]

see if you can find a nearby woodland with good dark tree litter and detritus underneath it and harvest a small amount of that and see if that helps when you put it around one of the affected plants. often times there are predatory mites along with the other mites and in a more formal garden you may be missing a more diverse mite population sample. by doing the above you can maybe restore a more balanced environment.

i've not ever had a mite problem in any of the gardens outside to where i've felt like i needed to do this.

Oh, that's an interesting idea! I need to clear out some brushy areas of the yard anyways, so I will definitely give that a try. The mites moved via the ground (not via wind), so I can see how it might help.

I've never seen spider mites in the garden either -- it's been some new problem (or problems) every year, and it's making me a little crazy. I thought I'd finally gotten all my bases covered, and then the mites popped up and sucked all the beans in the backyard dry. (Weirdly/thankfully, they never migrated to the front yard.)
I keep thinking "Once I get one safe harvest, I can start growing network beans again", and then something else happens.

At least at least I discovered some spider-mite-stress-tested varieties, lol. A bean called Meuch (from Artorius) was the most mite-resistant bean back there.

 

[flowerbug]

is that area really dry or facing west? if so try to set up some small piles of detritus and keep them slightly moist and shaded somehow.

 

[Million Bells]

Starting my 2025 show and tell. I only just photographed them last week, so I could cook them up for my New Year's Good Luck Soup.

Rattlesnake does well for me each year. It loves hot summers, so it was a little disappointed this year. But it keeps producing up to the frost. The jar in the picture holds a pound of beans.

Next up Hopi Purple String Bean. I got this from High Desert Seed + Gardens, and it came as a mix of at least 6 beans. Instead of growing as a bush bean, they took over the trellises. I think they saw the abundant rainfall and high humidity and took off. I had more plants than I planned since I expected a bush growth pattern. On the plate, I divided them up by the different types , but the difference between the black stripe and wine-colored stripe on the grey beans does not show up on the picture.

Next up is Golden Cornhill. Grew well and seemed to like the heat and humidity. Some of the plants were attacked by bugs more than others.

 

[saritabee]

is that area really dry or facing west? if so try to set up some small piles of detritus and keep them slightly moist and shaded somehow.

It's facing east, but it was drier than normal because I didn't realize til halfway through the summer that there was a kink in the hose leading to its drip system.
I did see someone say that spraying their plants with water every day kept their spider mite population in check, so I'm thinking I'll switch the drip system in that area from soaker hoses to spray heads and see if that makes a difference.