2019 Little Easy Bean Network - Come And Reawaken The Thrill Of Discovery

[Zeedman]

The forecast for tonight went from "frost advisory" 24 hours ago, to "freeze warning" for all of Wisconsin tonight... so my hopes of more ripening time for the Aeron Purple Star runners have been dashed. I harvested all remaining pods. There were quite a few that appear mature enough to dry for seed; the rest (about 50% of the total yield) will be shelled & trialed as shellies. My growing season is now officially over, except for chard, which will survive the freeze.

All beans have now been shelled, except the last Fortex & quite a few APS.


Serbian Pole, sent to me by Annette (@aftermidnight ). It is a great shelly bean. It was relatively unaffected by the rains, very little was discarded. There are 2.5 pounds of seed, so I will be able to skim off a pound to test as dry beans.

 

[Zeedman]

This is Hopi Pole lima, from SSE member William Weaver:

Hopi Pole. It is one of my favorite limas, for flavor, for the wonderful color variations, and for a decent yield. To avoid crossing, I only grow one lima per year (and one additional variety in the rural garden), and plant a longer row... so limas usually have the highest yield. This row was 24 plants, to preserve as much of the diversity as possible. We harvested 3.5 pounds of dry seed, and harvested the rest for freezing as butter beans - about 11 pounds shelled.

Hopi Pole had a very long DTM when I first grew it; I got only a cup or so of dry seed, and the plants were still loaded when killed by frost. I nearly gave up on it, but loved the flavor, so tried it again. It was about 10 days earlier the second time & the frost came late, so nearly all pods matured. This year, even planted almost a month late, the DTM was even earlier - about 90 days for the first dry seed. It seems that with each successive generation, it is becoming better adapted to my climate.

 

[Blue-Jay]

10 Mintues to 7 am this morning. The Weather Channel website sites say 32 degrees right now in Woodstock, Illinois, but I don't see any frost forming on anything. I got up at 10 after 5 am this morning and the site said 35 degrees at that time.

One of our network growers from Iowa sent me a photo he took yesterday of Tarahumara Purple Ojos he's growing this year. The plants have been prepared for the seasons first frost. He says the beans need about 10 more days for harvestable pods for seed.

All Dressed Up And Ready To Go

 

[Blue-Jay]

Time is now 7:41 and the Weather Channel Website says 33 degrees. We didn't get our first frost of the season yet. Possibly this next coming week I can still harvest bean pods. I have more Marico I would still like to harvest.

 

[flowerbug]

This is Hopi Pole lima, from SSE member William Weaver:
View attachment 33257 View attachment 33258
Hopi Pole. It is one of my favorite limas, for flavor, for the wonderful color variations, and for a decent yield. To avoid crossing, I only grow one lima per year (and one additional variety in the rural garden), and plant a longer row... so limas usually have the highest yield. This row was 24 plants, to preserve as much of the diversity as possible. We harvested 3.5 pounds of dry seed, and harvested the rest for freezing as butter beans - about 11 pounds shelled.

Hopi Pole had a very long DTM when I first grew it; I got only a cup or so of dry seed, and the plants were still loaded when killed by frost. I nearly gave up on it, but loved the flavor, so tried it again. It was about 10 days earlier the second time & the frost came late, so nearly all pods matured. This year, even planted almost a month late, the DTM was even earlier - about 90 days for the first dry seed. It seems that with each successive generation, it is becoming better adapted to my climate.

oh man, i'm really green with envy! i'd love to get a sample of those sometime before next planting season (what can i send you?). please, please, please! lol i really need a well adapted lima bean for our location that can stand up to the season and the rains. how do they fare if the pods are dry but get rained on a few times? the red lima beans i have now develop a split after they dry so the seeds can start getting fungus on them if i dont' get them off the plants soon enough. the Flossies don't look to be even close to being short enough.

we did have a pretty good crop of Fordhooks this season. i have the last of them shelled out in the fridge to be cooked in the next few days. i cooked another batch a few days ago and those are great. we could eat lima shellies a few times a week if we had enough of them. and the dry beans get eaten later after the shellies are gone. since i picked so many shellies i have fewer seeds than normal for dry beans or for samples to give away, but i'll save some anyways. they have been fairly reliable even if they aren't always fully formed beans. the Fordhooks do not get that split in the pod after they dry but they can shatter and surprise you...

this year i did find out more about them, that they like a bit better drained soil than what i have in a lot of gardens. so next year i can put some rows in another garden which is on a slope that i've been weeding all summer. will be so good to put that space back in production again. looking forwards to next season.

 

[Zeedman]

Fordhook is a great-tasting lima, probably one of the best. I've grown it a couple times, but bush limas are problem prone here. Rodent damage & rot caused too many losses. The pole variety King of the Garden is very similar in flavor, and even larger... but its been "iffy" for me, even using transplants. Many of the smaller-seeded limas are much more reliable.

The Hopi pods do open slightly on the top when dry, but because I pick them every day or two, there were very few losses. Don't know if they shatter, since they are not left on the plant long enough to find out... the only ones that shattered indoors were ones which had been cracked while picking.

I've got two other limas that are even better adapted than the Hopi:

Cave Dweller Black is a bush variety, shiny black seeds about the same size & shape as Hopi. Nearly all mature here, but like any other bean grown close to the ground, there are some losses. Hmmm... I just grew it again last year, but don't seem to have any photos on file. There is a red version of Cave Dweller also, which I have seed for, but have not yet grown.

Sieva is a white-seeded pole variety. It is the best adapted, and highest yielding, lima that I've grown. Those can shatter... pods drying in the house were snapping & crackling all night long. If soil conditions allow in early June, it is the only lima I would direct seed.

@flowerbug I can send some Hopi seed in a couple weeks, once they have dried enough to mail safely. If you would like to try either of the other two, just let me know, I can enclose some of those as well.

 

[flowerbug]

Fordhook is a great-tasting lima, probably one of the best. I've grown it a couple times, but bush limas are problem prone here. Rodent damage & rot caused too many losses. The pole variety King of the Garden is very similar in flavor, and even larger... but its been "iffy" for me, even using transplants. Many of the smaller-seeded limas are much more reliable.

The Hopi pods do open slightly on the top when dry, but because I pick them every day or two, there were very few losses. Don't know if they shatter, since they are not left on the plant long enough to find out... the only ones that shattered indoors were ones which had been cracked while picking.

I've got two other limas that are even better adapted than the Hopi:

Cave Dweller Black is a bush variety, shiny black seeds about the same size & shape as Hopi. Nearly all mature here, but like any other bean grown close to the ground, there are some losses. Hmmm... I just grew it again last year, but don't seem to have any photos on file. There is a red version of Cave Dweller also, which I have seed for, but have not yet grown.

Sieva is a white-seeded pole variety. It is the best adapted, and highest yielding, lima that I've grown. Those can shatter... pods drying in the house were snapping & crackling all night long. If soil conditions allow in early June, it is the only lima I would direct seed.

@flowerbug I can send some Hopi seed in a couple weeks, once they have dried enough to mail safely. If you would like to try either of the other two, just let me know, I can enclose some of those as well.View attachment 33260

i will gladly take all of them to try out. once i get enough grown to share i'll be sure to spread them around here too for others to grow. Mom will be psyched too because she was actually willing to help out this year with picking them and so i could focus on picking the more complicated gardens where i had to keep things separated by batches/gardens. that saved me a few days and she's really been liking the eating them too. good thing when it all works as it should. thank you so much!

 

[Lori B]

Wesley Railroad Spike. These were quite a different bean than what i have grown before. This is a pole bean and had no problem climbing up the fence and over to the 10 ft. sunflowers i had close by. The pods are huge and fat! When dry the seeds look shrunken in. Pretty good producer. Don't think they would be good greenie as they didn't stay very small very long. Good at the shell stage in Chili.

 

[Lori B]

Pale Grey Lavender. Also a pole bean, but didn't exceed my 6 ft post. Set rather quickly and then was done for the season in early September. Beautiful bean. The three seed pods i am holding are 2 Wesley Railroad Spike and a dry Pale Grey Lavender.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I like that seed pod comparison photo. It puts it into perspective.

Some of my beans did not climb nearly as well as they have before. I'm in a new area so that might explain some of it, yet some did go bonkers. Not sure what is going on.