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

[reedy]

One thing I learned to avoid doing when I plant bean seeds (or others) in loose soil is do not pour water directly on where you planted them, not until it hardens up. You can wash them deeper, out, or to the side. Sprinkling doesn't do that, but pouring a large cup full of water on loose soil can. Don't ask how i noticed this.

I try to avoid getting the top of the soil wet as much as I can. You can't do much with rain. I don't like to work the soil above the seeds either when it is wet to avoid creating a hard crust the seedlings need to force their way through. Especially in clay. So getting the soil beneath the seeds wet sounds like a good idea to me. They do need moisture to sprout.

O' no, I never want to get the surface wet. Watering an established crop I dig out trenches between rows with my hoe and fill with water, sometimes two or more times, however many it takes to slow down how fast it soaks in. Then I put the dry dirt back on top. In extreme cases I have even been know to use a post hole digger to sink holes a couple feet deep. Plants need water under them not on top. Sprinkling on top just encourages shallow roots which are even more prone to drying back out. If you water from the top you just have to do it again in a couple days. Not mention the other issues of wetting the surface.

It isn't as much work as it sounds at least in my old garden which I'v been improving for a couple decades. The new garden is still heavy clay and farther from the spigot, so it's a little harder.

Still, my preferred method of watering is rain.

 

[flowerbug]

@reedy

Not a bad idea on filling with water. Not a bad idea at all!

the method i've been using for some years now is to use a pointy hoe and run a long trench and then i drop the seeds into that trench at whatever spacing i want and use a different hoe to scrape the soil back over the beans so they aren't being moved and then using that hoe to tamp the soil back down so there is good soil/seed contact. then i water them in and keep them watered lightly at least once a day if we don't have rains doing the honors. i plant late enough the soil is warm and usually have most beans up within 4 days or so. a few of the longer sprouting beans can be a week in showing.

it's pretty rare i have a complete failure in germination.

 

[HmooseK]

@Zeedman

These are Sierra Madre. You generously supplied me with my start way back in the garden web days. It's been several years and I wanted to grow them out to refresh my seed.

 

[VA_LongBean]

I just checked my Easy Bean Network beans. Nothing was up this morning. Tennessee Greenpod and White Turtle bush beans are showing excellent germination this evening. Paula Bush and Gold of Bacau pole are still thinking about it.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@VA_LongBean,

Thanks for the report. I know the Paula was dated at about 2008 from the SSE member I got them from. It's funny I never seem to get any seed that is newer than that. Hope the Gold of Bacau will come along.

I've got a couple of Paula seeds left. I think I will try presprouting them and if they grow put them in a flower pot.

 

[reedy]

It's interesting to me to seed folks planting beans in cups or cell packs. I have (rarely) transplanted beans when a patch came up sparsely and needed compacted but have never started them for transplant. Do they generally do OK that way? If so it sounds like a good way to give special treatment to ones you only have few of.

 

[HmooseK]

It's interesting to me to seed folks planting beans in cups or cell packs. I have (rarely) transplanted beans when a patch came up sparsely and needed compacted but have never started them for transplant. Do they generally do OK that way? If so it sounds like a good way to give special treatment to ones you only have few of.

This is my first attempt. Normally I just direct seed, but I was dealing with seeds that were 7 to 12 years old, so I wanted to try and pre-sprout them. It didn't work all that great for me. The sprouting part worked great, but when I took the sprouted beans and planted them, hardly any come up at all.

I obviously did something wrong, but for the life of me I have no idea why my attempt was so dismal.

The above picture of my Sierra Madre is my attempt at putting them in cups because I was scared to plant the sprouted beans in the garden given my poor results at planting sprouted beans.

I had 12 Woods Mountain Crazy bean sprouts and planted them in the garden, but only 3 came up. SAD!

 

[Michael Lusk]

Planted my 'easy beans' last Thursday and was worried that nothing was going to sprout...today I noticed that I've got at least a couple of all four varieties (Grandma Rivera's, Gabarone Sugar, Pink Tip and Kutasi Princess) showing up in the garden plots. While I've gardened for years, this is my first year with this group growing out the rare beans. I even built some new 'poles' for the project (see photo). Looking forward to seeing them get up to the top...

 

[HmooseK]

@Michael Lusk

Welcome! It's my first year here as well.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Planted my 'easy beans' last Thursday and was worried that nothing was going to sprout...today I noticed that I've got at least a couple of all four varieties (Grandma Rivera's, Gabarone Sugar, Pink Tip and Kutasi Princess) showing up in the garden plots. While I've gardened for years, this is my first year with this group growing out the rare beans. I even built some new 'poles' for the project (see photo). Looking forward to seeing them get up to the top...

Welcome, glad you joined.

I grew Kutasi Princess a while back, those are probably my seeds. Good luck with them. They produced well and reached the top of a 12' high trellis. Be ready for them to climb. The seed pods were pretty easy to open too. When you cook the bean half goes white, half goes dark. They are an interesting looking bean in soup. I liked the bean, they are well worth renewing.

Edited to add: I also grew some Kutasi Princess on a 5' garden fence and they did fine there too, but they did run some horizontally. It is a true pole bean.