2017 Little Easy Bean Network – Everything Beans, Post It Here & Join The Fun

[reedy]

I have three 50 ft rows of bush beans, Roma II, Contender and Bush KY Wonder but the supposed to be bush KY Wonder have turned out to have some runners. I'm hoping they don't go past 4 ft as that is all the trellis I had available. Also hoping it wasn't a mix up and that they are really regular pole KY Wonder. They were all planted a little before the trial beans and are starting to bloom. Should be able to set aside some for seed and get the rest canned in time to plant some late corn.

I got my Brown Greasy and Ohio pole in a little later cause of weather and they got caught by a cold wet spell before they sprouted but still came up decent, only replanted a few. All the others were already up good then and didn't suffer. I push the early planting more and more each year in order to get a crop before the bad heat sets in and don't worry with my own seeds as I have jars full in case frost or rot gets the first ones.

I have several interesting crossed beans I wanted to grow out this year but it's getting a little late to plant. Not cause of not enough time before fall but because the hot dry arrived today with our first day over 90.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Harvest the first of the 'Blue Lake' green beans... We'll be busy tomorrow!!!

 

[Blue-Jay]

Wow w_r_ ! That is a load of beautiful green beans. I'd be proud of them if they were mine. I won't see anything like that in northern Illinois until late July or early August. I've seen your gardens on your thread. You keep nice gardens.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Thanks for the kind words, Bluejay.

Today I harvested the first of the soybeans (for edamame).

 

[lcertuche]

Well my Kentucky Wonder pole beans are up and looking great but the Kentucky Blue I think one or two actually came up and they don't look to good. I soaked and sprouted some small red beans (grocery store beans) and planted where the Blues were planted. They are coming up. I hope I get enough. Green beans are one of my family's favorite vegetables. I need to try and find somewhere to grow some more but my garden is so tiny.

 

[ninnymary]

Icertuche, seems like you and I are very similar in our gardening.

Mary

 

[reedy]

Looks like Crystal Wax is the first to set pods this year even though they were planted a couple days after my bush beans.

They also, like I mentioned before, have some variation in phenyotype to the leaves. Two plants of about a dozen look like the one to the right, the rest look like the ones to the left.

I love finding new crosses in my patches. Will be fun to see what the beans look like. Burgundy Bolita and Refugee are also blooming and probably have little beans if I looked close enough. Refugee has really strong thick stems, I like that. Looking froward to sampling them all.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It is fun to find new stuff in there. Opening the dried pod and finally seeing what the bean looks like is just like a kids Christmas when there were surprises and you didn't know what you were going to find.

Russ, a couple of those "solid" Bluejays have come up and look vigorous. This first one looks like the regular Bluejays in the garden, other than birds have a place to perch above this one.

The growth habit of the second one seems to be a bit different however. I'll call this my first surprise of the year.

I have a question on growth habit. How do you identify the growth habit of beans and how many different ones are there? Pole versus bush is easy, but what makes a half runner, for example. Are there any I should know about other than half runners?

The garden has finally dried out enough I can work the ground after our last rainy spell. I got the area prepared yesterday so today I'll replant all those that did not come up from my first planting in the main garden.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi @Ridgerunner,

Pole beans growth habit is 8 ft or more. Many pole beans will actually grow to 12 ft. or more. Half runners are the 4 to 6 ft catagory, and semi runners about 2 to 3 feet.

Love everyones Photos. I am also growing out Refugee this year. The last time i grew it out was 5 years ago in 2012.

Maybe I will put up a list of all the beans I have planted this year. Some are recent outcrosses from the last 5 year. I started planting finally some pole beans on June 3rd and 4th. On the 4th I planted a bunch of semi runners. June 5th planted about another 12 kinds of pole beans. Yesterday June 9th. I planted a 37 varieties bush beans, and 5 more pole beans. Today June 9th I will plant about 48 more varieties of bush beans. Tomorrow June 10th will finish up planting with 43 more varieties of bush beans. I think I'm close to about 180 kinds of beans this year.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Thanks for the growth habit information, I've saved that where I can find it. That might come in handy when I'm taking notes. The info I'm trying to record this year is growth habit, flower colors broken down into parts now that I know what I'm looking at, whether the pod is solid or striped, and of course the appearance of the dried bean. If a plant is producing well so I don't have to worry about getting enough seeds, I'll try to eat a pod to see if it is stringed or stringless and maybe assess the taste and texture but those can be subjective.

I got the last of mine planted yesterday, the ground was in good shape. I did use inoculant with all of them, hopefully that will help productivity.