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Most all my garden is in but not much is up, needs rain! Weather pretty much went straight from cool and damp to hot and dry. I wish I had done my wet trench method of planting but wish in one hand as they say. Two of my network Lima Beans is all I have left to plant, will be doing that later...

I like reading about the science of why plants do what they do. it helps me understand what is going on sometimes when unexpected or expected things happen. I don't really actively apply it much though, it requires too much precise control of conditions and too much record keeping. I mostly...

I think I'll keep trying to stabilize what I'm calling my Hoosier Wonder beans. They have nice long pods, up to 8" or so and a little on the flat side. Very nice for a snap bean. Not really better than a lot of others I suppose, just kind of fun to think they are my own kind.

For a long time I believed the notion that beans don't cross but in my garden it is very far from true. Bumblebees are the culprits. They often don't even wait for the flower to open, they chew or pry it open, I'v watched them do it. I'm sure if I wanted to cross specific beans all I would...

A couple more things I do to compensate for lack of watering is I don't do it often but when I do I do it a LOT. For example if it is dry when I plant, I dig a good sized trench and fill it with water two or more times. The number of times depends on how long it takes to soak in. As long as it...

@Bluejay77 I can use the garden hose to water, I just don't consider highly chlorinated tap water a good option for irrigation. Plus when it is real dry they always put bans on using it that way. I could do it anyway and nobody would know except of course they would see it in my usage. Then...

I don't have a good way to irrigate so in recent years I have been pushing the envelope on planting early in order to lessen the effects of the hot dry that will likely show up about June. Limas don't seem to mind the heat as much anyway. I'll probably plant some of my beans, the ones I have...

@Bluejay77 , seeds arrived today, look beautiful. I'm chomping at the bit to plant but don't trust the weather this year, especially for Lima's. Probably better hold off at least a week, maybe more. We have had a few warm days but I don't think the ground is warmed up yet.

I love Limas both freshly shelled and dry in my bean soup mix. Two of my favorites are the large Christmas Limas and one called King of the Garden. King of the Garden has big white seeds. Unfortunately neither of those is productive for me most years, they are both large pole varieties. I have...

@Bluejay77 Yea, I want to up my collection of Limas. I have two gardens about 150' feet apart. It seems to me that Limas are more prone to crossing than common beans. I think I'll put the grow out Limas and only them in one garden at opposite ends, about 75' apart. That way I can put some...

@Bluejay77 I think I'v picked out what I want to grow this year. From Grow Out lists -Small Speckled Bunch (semi runner) -Pink Early (semi runner) -Mrs. Maud's (pole Lima) -Dr. Martin's (pole Lima) Other Selections -Snowstorm (pole Lima) -Rosie Clare (pole Lima) Question: I don't mind if...

I haven't been paying good attention and missed a lot of good discussion and pictures on the 2017 thread so I just got caught up on that. The discussion about crossing I found particularly interesting because I see a lot of that in my garden. So much that I need to isolate ones I'm growing out...

Russ, you can put me down for the semi-runners on your list that need grow outs if you haven't found someone for them yet. I'll be getting back in next few days with a bigger list as well.

I want every single one of em.

What is it with black? I also commonly find off-type blacks in a lot of my beans. It is fun though to see, kinda like in that last picture, where a lot of the black ones show other colors under really bright light. We don't really like black beans in our bean soup mix and generally don't grow...

I discovered something interesting last night as I was organizing by seeds for storage. I came across a few Refugee beans that I had saved back as insurance when I planted this spring. They are considerably smaller and MUCH darker color than the ones I harvested. More so that I would expect from...

@Bluejay77 , I have never seen weevils, not even sure what they look like but I always freeze treat my seed anyway before storing, just in case. I also try to save seed only from clean pods with as few as possible spots on the dry pods. Some years that just isn't possible but this was a pretty...

@Bluejay77 , grow out beans and their off types are on their way back to you. Should be arriving in a day or two. I really like the Refugee for green beans and will definitely be growing them again. I'll be looking over the list for some more new ones to grow next year.

Those pictures of the blue flowers are sure pretty. I can attest that beans cross way more than a lot of peole think. My Little Brown Greasys went nut this year. I also accidentally grew some F3 of my Ideal Market x KY Wonder. They showed up in 2015 as a large light tan bean in the Black...

@journey11 , my greasy beans are a favorite of ours so I always keep a quart or so of seed in reserve, I imagine I could spare a few. Remind me later in the season and we can set up a trade. @Bluejay77 , the fellow on the TV show said those cans were worth $300 each, pretty neat. We liked the...