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

[ruralmamma]

i'm so ready to grow some beans this year but it is still too early according to the weather forecasts we still have chances of freezing.

i won't even put in peas until after we get a bit more reliable warmer days and nights. i don't have a ton of experience with growing peas but what i do have reminds me that perhaps too early doesn't get me very far because the peas planted later in warmer soil will grow fast enough to catch up to any that might survive from the earliest plantings.

what has been your experience?

I usually have them in the ground by now but we've had too much rain. I actually had the best luck with peas purely by accident. I generally soak them the night before planting and for some reason I forgot one variety until two days later. Thankfully the container l had them in was shallow and they all had sprouted by then. Planted the next morning and they actually outgrew the ones I planted a few days earlier. I used to do a few in paper pots to transplant but honestly I haven't found that they outperform those direct-seeded a week or so later.

 

[heirloomgal]

i'm so ready to grow some beans this year but it is still too early according to the weather forecasts we still have chances of freezing.

i won't even put in peas until after we get a bit more reliable warmer days and nights. i don't have a ton of experience with growing peas but what i do have reminds me that perhaps too early doesn't get me very far because the peas planted later in warmer soil will grow fast enough to catch up to any that might survive from the earliest plantings.

what has been your experience?

Same. Too early and they just stall, later planted ones will often do better because they never got that interruption in growth.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Same. Too early and they just stall, later planted ones will often do better because they never got that interruption in growth.

The way this weather has been this month of April. One day like summer the next day like winter again. We could be in for a tricky May. I have planted bush dry beans the first day of July and harvested dry beans from them the same time as bush dry beans planted around the end of May. July is the month with the most hours of sunlight and the warmth propels their growth. We had this discussion back in the early 80's at one of the Seed Saver Campouts and everyone agreed seed planted in warmer weather provided they have the moisture will do better than if you try to plant too early. I planted peas once on April first and they were covered with snow about two weeks later. However I had a beautiful crop of peas late in May. Peas can take frost and even can stand a late snow storm. It may have been that when I planted those peas it might have been in a short mild spell, but those peas went through frost every morning until about the middle of May.

 

[heirloomgal]

The way this weather has been this month of April. One day like summer the next day like winter again. We could be in for a tricky May. I have planted bush dry beans the first day of July and harvested dry beans from them the same time as bush dry beans planted around the end of May. July is the month with the most hours of sunlight and the warmth propels their growth. We had this discussion back in the early 80's at one of the Seed Saver Campouts and everyone agreed seed planted in warmer weather provided they have the moisture will do better than if you try to plant too early. I planted peas once on April first and they were covered with snow about two weeks later. However I had a beautiful crop of peas late in May. Peas can take frost and even can stand a late snow storm. It may have been that when I planted those peas it might have been in a short mild spell, but those peas went through frost every morning until about the middle of May.

I had a similar experience with peas in 2020 @Blue-Jay . I planted peas in early May, a full month before the typical day for planting. Then we got half a foot of snow, that stayed for 3 days! I had planted out several different kinds of peas that year - smooth seeded and wrinkle seeded. Every single bed with smooth pea seeds sprouted once the snow melted! And every single wrinkled pea bed never grew! I read after that the smooth seeds can take much colder weather than the wrinkled, and are way less prone to rot in cold, wet weather. Wrinkles trap the water on the seeds and they perish.

 

[BeanieQueen]

Got 1/2 the bean tags labeled! God bless the P-Touch Brother Label Machine (and @Decoy1!) Most tidy & professional tags I've ever made in my life! And I LOVE tidiness and precision!

Or, as Hercule Poirot would name it: Order and method!

 

[flowerbug]

Or, as Hercule Poirot would name it: Order and method!

my method is to give orders (that others laugh at me is a whole different issue )...

yesterday i finished going through some more bulk beans so they can now be put into their storage jars. i think, that is it, that i am done, but i may also find things i thought i did which i didn't, so i mayn't...

 

[Blue-Jay]

Some more recent bean mail. This is a beautiful bean I ran across about two weeks ago. From a grower in Pescadaro, California. The grower says the bean is a cross between Anasazi and Rio Zape. I believe it is a pole bean.

Anna Zape - Pole Dry

 

[heartsong111]

pictures would be fun to see.

These are not all the beans I have to grow, but they're a fun representation of what I received recently.

 

[Dahlia]

I love how perfectly organized they are! A true art form!

 

[Decoy1]

i'm so ready to grow some beans this year but it is still too early according to the weather forecasts we still have chances of freezing.

i won't even put in peas until after we get a bit more reliable warmer days and nights. i don't have a ton of experience with growing peas but what i do have reminds me that perhaps too early doesn't get me very far because the peas planted later in warmer soil will grow fast enough to catch up to any that might survive from the earliest plantings.

what has been your experience?

Peas are a cool weather crop though. They don’t like summer heat as they’re prone to mildew when it gets hot and dry. I grow them as an early crop and mine are mostly sown in February indoors and planted out in March. They’re all a foot or two tall now. I plant them in cut off plastic bottles to protect against the worst freeze and wind but they will stand quite a lot of cold. As @heirloomgal says, the round seeded varieties are hardier than the wrinkled seeds and can survive right through the winter if they don’t get attacked by rodents.

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