2016 Little Easy Bean Network - Gardeners Keeping Heirloom Beans From Extinction

[Tricia77]

Thanks for the advice! These two pods were hanging at the bottom resting on the ground. We have been having a lot of rain lately and the pods were actually soggy when I picked them. I figured it wouldn't hurt to pick them. From here on out I will wait till completely dry.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Russ may wish to chime in but if they are soggy wet I would not wait very long. If you pick them early you may not see the really mature pigment even when they dry, but I think those will grow.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Tricia77, I try to wait until pods are quite dry on my plants. Harvest them and continue dry them even more out of the weather. However if wet weather is going to be threatening for a number of days in a row. I will probably harvest some damp leathery pods. If the pods are quite green yet they can still take some wet weather. This is something you get to learn to judge by experience. If you can get more of the drier pods from the plants the colors will be more natural a bit darker and richer. I shoot for dry pods, but still got to stay ahead of the weather. Leathery pods can be dried more indoors out of the weather. If you take seeds out of pods that aren't dry enough sometime you might say prematurely the seed can wind up lighter sometimes not with it's natural coloring. Sometimes they can even shrivel a bit. It seems pods allowed to completely dry out even if it's done out of the weather indoors seems to give the best results for seed quality.

Today I harvested a number of my first pole bean pods of Ga Ga Hut bean. I've never had pole bean seed mature this early. It's been very dry here this summer. Lots of sun. The plants have seemed to been able to keep going on enough moisture they find in the soil, and I think the extra sunny days we have had is making things mature sooner here. We had an inch and a half rain June 13th. Then nearly nothing for rain until about last week when we got nearly six inches in about 4 days. I watered my beans a total of only twice this summer.

Late summer 2013 was the best drying period for beans I've ever seen here. We had ample rains in June and July. Then after mid August we had no rain until about the middle of October. It was the nicest bean pod drying weather. Just bone dry for nearly two months. It was fantastic. I think I harvested every single pod that every plant grew and lost none to weather. The prettiest seed crop I've ever had.

 

[aftermidnight]

@Bluejay77 I harvested all the dried pods from the pole bean Witsa this afternoon and pulled the pole, I will send 60 dried seed back to you later on when I make up your package. Germinated and put in pots, April 12th, planted out April 20th. Dry seed harvested August 2nd. I only planted 3 seeds. I lost count at 80 when shelling. Here's a picture, will leave them to air dry for a couple of months before putting them in zip locks.

WITSA (pole Bean)

Annette

 

[Blue-Jay]

Annette ! You got a good crop of them for only three plants. They look really nice too. Many thanks for you effort.

 

[the1honeycomb]

Sorry none of my seeds made it garden of weeds this year and they are struggling!

 

[Blue-Jay]

@the1honeycomb, What did you grow this year? Did you have health problems and couldn't do weeding?

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Love the fact that you're letting the network members name the beans this year Russ. Looking forward to catching up with the rest of this thread.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi Seed-O, Yeah I thought the members do so much work growing these beans that it would be some fun for them to name them too. I got plenty enough to do to try thinking up names from the over 50 outcrosses and segregations I've found here in the last 4 years. Plus other people have different imaginations so it's fun for me too, to see what people scattered over across the country come up with for names.

 

[Tricia77]

I found another dry pod on another #34 vine last night! The immature pods are green with a little splashing. The mature pods are flamingo pink!

Untitled by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr

Untitled by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr

Untitled by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr

Untitled by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr

Untitled by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr
Comparison picture of the two beans I have so far from #34.