2018 Little Easy Bean Network - Join Us In Saving Amazing Heirloom Beans

[aftermidnight]

Hmmm,. thought I'd deleted my winter pic, I guess not.

 

[Decoy1]

@aftermidnight. Thanks Annette. I think , comparing our two graphs, that the temperature range isn't far different though your peak is just a little higher. But the rainfall is very different in that in my area, the rainfall is far more even throughout the year whereas you apparently have far more in winter. Also far more in total. My 580mm was total for the year whereas your total is nearly twice as much. Interesting to compare.
And so the slug population isn't too high here, in fact lower than in most of UK.
Here is my graph:
https://en.climate-data.org/location/9361/
Jan

 

[Decoy1]

Nomenclature. I'm wondering what the characteristics of wax beans are. Many websites simply say they are yellow beans, but Russ has a variety Best of All Wax which is white with some black markings.
Come to that there are other descriptive terms which I find quite confusing, for example, turtle beans and coco beans. Are these loose or fixed terms terms? And do they depend on rigid characteristics or on the original area of origin?

 

[aftermidnight]

"And so the slug population isn't too high here, in fact lower than in most of UK."

LUCKY, LUCKY, you. The worst year I can recall was the year one morning we picked over 40 snails of the trunk and branches of our dogwood tree, and at night they slithered across all our windows leaving their slimy trails. Alfred Hitchcock could very well have made one of his sinister movies. I swear they were a mass escape from an escargot farm.

From what I've read the term " wax" comes from comparing it to the color of candle wax.

Annette

 

[flowerbug]

Nomenclature. I'm wondering what the characteristics of wax beans are. Many websites simply say they are yellow beans, but Russ has a variety Best of All Wax which is white with some black markings.
Come to that there are other descriptive terms which I find quite confusing, for example, turtle beans and coco beans. Are these loose or fixed terms terms? And do they depend on rigid characteristics or on the original area of origin?

Coco beans are quite distinct from Turtle beans for what i have here. Coco are shiny and round, Turtle are more flat with a matte coat. this is what i see, no idea how widely the terms are used.

and for wax beans, no markings on the pods. the only shading in color is from green (when young) to golden yellow and then to tan/white when dry (the pods - seeds can be all sorts of colors/markings)).

these are my experiences and i'm not widely read or hanging out on seed sharing groups for beans so perhaps i'm missing a lot of naming conventions...

 

[Beanfan]

Here are some of my beans from this year, top- Jembo Polish which is just getting dry; lower right- Network grow-out Sarconi 1 which has done well; lower left- prolific Bosnian pole. My earliest bean to dry down was Frank Barnett, a brown cutshort bean. I'm hoping for a long fall season so some beans that are late to finish can have time to dry down.

 

[Beanfan]

@Zeedman- I was impressed with your vole trapping, I need to do that but don't know how. What kind of trap and bait do you use, just the apricots? My problem with traps has been that I have caught birds instead, baited with peanut butter, which is heart-breaking. I tried one rat snap trap at the mouth of a vole tunnel and put it under a bottomless bird cage so nothing could get it above ground, but it seems slugs or something ate the peanut butter and I didn't catch anything. My main defense has been putting lava rock in my planting trenches, and cayenne pepper, and this year when they were chewing off my pole bean stems at the ground I poured castor oil and dishwashing liquid down some holes and along the rows and it did stop that.

 

[Beanfan]

@Decoy1, my network grow-out Sarcony 1 looks a lot like especially Mrs, Fortune's but I can't compare sizes.
@flowerbug I am interested that you are growing Munachedda Pale and finding it slow, as that is another of my Network beans, also really slow for me, it started setting pods really late and I'm worried about them drying down sufficiently before frosts, though sometimes our frosts can be really late. I'm considering draping a plastic sheet over it to try to keep it warmer.

 

[aftermidnight]

"I'm considering draping a plastic sheet over it to try to keep it warmer."
It will also keep the rain off, I've got a clear plastic umbrella over some Ralph's Italian pods right now . I've used this method several times in the past with good results.

Annette

 

[Blue-Jay]

flowerbug will like these. Two new beans that I have acquired recently. Fist photo is a bush variety from South Georgia Seed Company called "Lady". Second photo is a pole bean from a fellow in Belgium called "Pale Grey Lavender" I try not to collect new varieties, but it just doesn't seem to work out well for me. LOL