Zeedman
Garden Master
That's about the longest germination I've had too. Longer than that, and they rot in the ground.
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- Thread starter Blue-Jay
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flowerbug
Garden Master
it seems that most of them come up between 5-7 days and then i may have a few others that were planted deeper or were older that take a little longer.
i've wanted to go out and see what the germination rates have been for everything planted and to note the failures and poke in some replacement beans, but have been sidetracked the past few days.
Zeedman
Garden Master
I just put in the replacement transplants for the runner beans & limas that were destroyed. Caught the culprit that did it too... a ground squirrel. Hopefully there will be no further losses. Putting up poles for the beans today (Emerite and Bosnian Pole), they are healthy & much further along at this point than they have been for years.
saritabee
Deeply Rooted
All the beans I transplanted have really seemed to kick in in the last couple weeks... the first pole bean (an Auntie Wilder) hit the top of its pole yesterday! It's beautiful to see. 
Gordo, one of the "unknown" network beans I'm growing out, sure seems to be living up to its name! The dry beans looked pretty unassuming, but boy howdy, the leaves are almost as big as my hand. Huge, lush plants. (Bush, but probably 2+ feet tall.) The "unknown" Mugungi has just started putting up some wimpy-looking runners at about the same rate as the Flor de Mayo I'm growing, so I think Mugungi will end up being a semi-runner too.
Harriet's Black Hook is looking pretty great for how poorly it started off... 3 of the 5 beans I got germinated, and that was a pleasant surprise for the state the bean seeds were in (oooooold and shrivelly).
I was laughing a couple posts above when flowerbug said sometimes beans can grow new leaves from the cotyledons... our cat managed to eat the tops off two baby beans, and of course out of the 50 he had to choose from, he decided to eat Harriet's Black Hook, the one bean I didn't have any replacements for. But lo and behold, they both sprouted new leaves from the cotyledons and a bit of naked stem. (*phew!!!*) Those two are a bit behind still, but the one that didn't get eaten is the tallest of the pole beans in the bed out front.
Blue Heron and Small Speckled Bunch have both been struggling in the back corner bed... apparently there's some crazy slug pressure out there I didn't know about. The weird thing is that they are right next to the Auntie Wilder that topped its pole yesterday... the only difference is I planted the network beans as germinated seeds, where the Auntie Wilder was transplanted about a foot tall. That foot of height was just enough so that the slugs weren't interested, I guess. The transplanted beans take a LONG time to settle back in after you transplant them, but the pests find them so much less desirable, it seems like transplanting them is worth it.
Small Speckled Bunch has gotten its runners up in the last couple days, though, so hopefully it's only up from here (hardy-har-har)!
Rwanda Rainbow looks like it's struggling, too... not quite sure why. Maybe just age? Either that or they may not actually be pole beans. There is one pod on one of the plants, though.
Lekatt and Giant Red Tarka are both looking great.
I put about a hundred tulle bags on various bean blossoms two weeks ago, and now I can see some little baby beans starting to grow in a couple of the bags, huzzah!
Question for you guys -- has anyone grown Tzutuhil Red? I was under the impression it was a bush bean, but about a 30% of the ones I am growing have started putting up long runners. (This is the first time I've grown them.) Is this normal, or should I maybe dig the ones with runners out of my bush bean bed and treat them as a possible outcross?
Gordo, one of the "unknown" network beans I'm growing out, sure seems to be living up to its name! The dry beans looked pretty unassuming, but boy howdy, the leaves are almost as big as my hand. Huge, lush plants. (Bush, but probably 2+ feet tall.) The "unknown" Mugungi has just started putting up some wimpy-looking runners at about the same rate as the Flor de Mayo I'm growing, so I think Mugungi will end up being a semi-runner too.
Harriet's Black Hook is looking pretty great for how poorly it started off... 3 of the 5 beans I got germinated, and that was a pleasant surprise for the state the bean seeds were in (oooooold and shrivelly).
I was laughing a couple posts above when flowerbug said sometimes beans can grow new leaves from the cotyledons... our cat managed to eat the tops off two baby beans, and of course out of the 50 he had to choose from, he decided to eat Harriet's Black Hook, the one bean I didn't have any replacements for. But lo and behold, they both sprouted new leaves from the cotyledons and a bit of naked stem. (*phew!!!*) Those two are a bit behind still, but the one that didn't get eaten is the tallest of the pole beans in the bed out front.
Blue Heron and Small Speckled Bunch have both been struggling in the back corner bed... apparently there's some crazy slug pressure out there I didn't know about. The weird thing is that they are right next to the Auntie Wilder that topped its pole yesterday... the only difference is I planted the network beans as germinated seeds, where the Auntie Wilder was transplanted about a foot tall. That foot of height was just enough so that the slugs weren't interested, I guess. The transplanted beans take a LONG time to settle back in after you transplant them, but the pests find them so much less desirable, it seems like transplanting them is worth it.
Small Speckled Bunch has gotten its runners up in the last couple days, though, so hopefully it's only up from here (hardy-har-har)!
Rwanda Rainbow looks like it's struggling, too... not quite sure why. Maybe just age? Either that or they may not actually be pole beans. There is one pod on one of the plants, though.
Lekatt and Giant Red Tarka are both looking great.
I put about a hundred tulle bags on various bean blossoms two weeks ago, and now I can see some little baby beans starting to grow in a couple of the bags, huzzah!
Question for you guys -- has anyone grown Tzutuhil Red? I was under the impression it was a bush bean, but about a 30% of the ones I am growing have started putting up long runners. (This is the first time I've grown them.) Is this normal, or should I maybe dig the ones with runners out of my bush bean bed and treat them as a possible outcross?
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Blue-Jay
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Question for you guys -- has anyone grown Tzutuhil Red?[/QUOTE]
I have no experience with Tzutuhil Red. Where did you acquire the bean? Since there is such a mix of bush and climbing types among your growout. I would definitely think one of them is a product of outcrossing. Likely the types that want to run as that is a dominate trait over the bush type.
I've noticed you seem to do entries on Bohnen-Atlas. Are you able to do those entries yourself? I tried registering on that site but it never seemed to work out for me. The registration never seemed to go through. Perhaps I messed up something. Possibly I could register with my google email address. Can you guide me in getting registered on that site. They have a bunch of Robert lobitz entries but no bean photos for those varieties. However I have the seed for them and I could possibly put up the photos myself and possibly fill in some narative info for them as well.
I have no experience with Tzutuhil Red. Where did you acquire the bean? Since there is such a mix of bush and climbing types among your growout. I would definitely think one of them is a product of outcrossing. Likely the types that want to run as that is a dominate trait over the bush type.
I've noticed you seem to do entries on Bohnen-Atlas. Are you able to do those entries yourself? I tried registering on that site but it never seemed to work out for me. The registration never seemed to go through. Perhaps I messed up something. Possibly I could register with my google email address. Can you guide me in getting registered on that site. They have a bunch of Robert lobitz entries but no bean photos for those varieties. However I have the seed for them and I could possibly put up the photos myself and possibly fill in some narative info for them as well.
flowerbug
Garden Master
@saritabee i'm glad you had sprouts which recovered from grazing. most of the names you list are not familiar to me at all so i'm always interested in looking them up and hearing about their growth/habits/uses and how they turn out.
today i started trying to take stock of plantings and germination rates. i did not mark the beginning and end of some plantings and in some rows did plant more than one variety per row so that is a mistake to avoid in coming years. i can't always tell by looking which ones grew and which ones didn't. the silly thing is that i have markers i could have put down but thought my spacing would be obvious, so i didn't do it. heh... overall should be ok on sorting seeds per garden because i rarely mixed anything close alike in looks in any single garden.
the good news is that most of the network beans seem to have viable plants growing. as long as i can keep them alive and they get pods/seeds it's been a good start for them so far. i'd say 80-90% germination over all. the only one for sure that did not make it at all is the Red Bollito. others i'm not sure of in a few cases and it's going to have to wait until harvest time to know how those went.
the bad news, many of the seeds of some kinds i planted of my own to evaluate didn't go as well (maybe 60-70% overall germination rate). i think this is largely because last year was such a tough year and many of my selections were from those seeds. now i have to figure out some short season replacements and poke them in and hope i can keep it all straight what is what. i do still have a few late sprouts coming up. i really need to get some weeding done this week and the weather may not be cooperative for that. Momma Nature sure has a will of her own.
also a few seedlings in my own selections were discolored and i was worried they were diseased/sickly so i removed them. gotta be careful with this many plants and in my own selections i've sometimes put an entire crop down because i didn't want it to influence any of the rest. i don't want plants i have to baby.
some chewing and mole damage. can't ever be 100% protection here with fencing and layout we have, but am watching. most plants are now past stage where chipmunks damage them, and also groundhogs won't take them completely down. the last garden out in the open is the most vulnerable and last planted with bulk beans and ones i didn't care if they get eaten somewhat. good thing, we have deer around way too much this year. they've yet to take out the mystery bean plant so perhaps they'll leave things alone... but right when i think that something comes along and changes the scenery so until i have dried seeds in my hot little grubby mitts i'm not counting this a done deal...
tasks this week will be weeding and getting any heading for the fence lined up so they'll be ok. hope the rains are enough but more than anything need sunshine now to get them going.
most of the names you list are not familiar to me at all so i'm always interested in looking them up and hearing about their growth/habits/uses and how they turn out.today i started trying to take stock of plantings and germination rates. i did not mark the beginning and end of some plantings and in some rows did plant more than one variety per row so that is a mistake to avoid in coming years. i can't always tell by looking which ones grew and which ones didn't. the silly thing is that i have markers i could have put down but thought my spacing would be obvious, so i didn't do it. heh... overall should be ok on sorting seeds per garden because i rarely mixed anything close alike in looks in any single garden.
the good news is that most of the network beans seem to have viable plants growing. as long as i can keep them alive and they get pods/seeds it's been a good start for them so far. i'd say 80-90% germination over all. the only one for sure that did not make it at all is the Red Bollito. others i'm not sure of in a few cases and it's going to have to wait until harvest time to know how those went.
the bad news, many of the seeds of some kinds i planted of my own to evaluate didn't go as well (maybe 60-70% overall germination rate). i think this is largely because last year was such a tough year and many of my selections were from those seeds. now i have to figure out some short season replacements and poke them in and hope i can keep it all straight what is what. i do still have a few late sprouts coming up. i really need to get some weeding done this week and the weather may not be cooperative for that. Momma Nature sure has a will of her own.
also a few seedlings in my own selections were discolored and i was worried they were diseased/sickly so i removed them. gotta be careful with this many plants and in my own selections i've sometimes put an entire crop down because i didn't want it to influence any of the rest. i don't want plants i have to baby.
some chewing and mole damage. can't ever be 100% protection here with fencing and layout we have, but am watching. most plants are now past stage where chipmunks damage them, and also groundhogs won't take them completely down. the last garden out in the open is the most vulnerable and last planted with bulk beans and ones i didn't care if they get eaten somewhat. good thing, we have deer around way too much this year. they've yet to take out the mystery bean plant so perhaps they'll leave things alone... but right when i think that something comes along and changes the scenery so until i have dried seeds in my hot little grubby mitts i'm not counting this a done deal...
tasks this week will be weeding and getting any heading for the fence lined up so they'll be ok. hope the rains are enough but more than anything need sunshine now to get them going.
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Blue-Jay
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Once we get some of this older and sometime shriveled seed renewed with new and better seed. The future grow outs should be much better. I'm also taking some of the seed especially when more than 60 get returned. Storing them in the freezer where they will keep for a very long time.
flowerbug
Garden Master
@Bluejay77 i think 80-90% germination is pretty good.
i've been surprised by a few of my older seeds (7-8yrs) that i've planted this year to renew their line. i thought for sure some of them would be difficult or not very good but they seem to be doing ok so far. and i'm not storing them in a freezer or refrigerator or even in air tight packages. it doesn't get above 80F in here often and they aren't in direct sunlight but otherwise they're sitting on shelves in yogurt containers.
in some plantings they're doing better than seeds i grew last year. heh...
i've been surprised by a few of my older seeds (7-8yrs) that i've planted this year to renew their line. i thought for sure some of them would be difficult or not very good but they seem to be doing ok so far. and i'm not storing them in a freezer or refrigerator or even in air tight packages. it doesn't get above 80F in here often and they aren't in direct sunlight but otherwise they're sitting on shelves in yogurt containers.
in some plantings they're doing better than seeds i grew last year. heh...
saritabee
Deeply Rooted
The Bohnen-Atlas is such a neat resource (and taking all those photos lets you play with beans in the off-season, lol). It's like the Wikipedia for beans. Thank goodness for Google Translate!
As far as I know it's just one lady who runs the site, so it took a couple days for her to approve me. I can't quite remember, but I feel like I had to register twice, too, so I wonder if her submissions form was having trouble for a while.
You go to the "Registrieren" link on the left-hand side of the site and put in your info, and once she approves it you can start logging in in the top right-hand corner. If you still have trouble, I can PM you her email address and I'm sure she could add you manually.
Edited to add: Sorry, I missed a part! Yes, you can edit varieties or add new varieties yourself. If you add pictures they'll show up immediately, but if you edit/add varieties Cordula will manually approve them before they show up on the site. Photos have to be under 120 kilobytes.
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Blue-Jay
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@saritabee, Yes why don't you PM me the ladies email address who runs the site and maybe I can ask her to clear out all my old registration data. Perhaps I can reregister with my current email address. I could literally put up all my collection that hasn't made it's way there already. All I get now if I try to register is a message stating that the email I'm trying to use has already been used.
