2020 Little Easy Bean Network - An Exciting Adventure In Heirloom Beans !

[Ridgerunner]

Maybe now my bean pods will stop falling off.

Bay I think our heat has a lot to do with bean pods falling off or not filling out, it's not just rain. If I plant my beans early March, a soon as the ground warms up enough, they tend to do well. But If I wait until late April productivity is a lot worse. I'l get pods that either don't set or they just don't fill out. Some do OK but I think some are really heat sensitive.
Tomatoes won't set on unless the nights cool off to certain temperatures, I think the low 70's for most tomato varieties. I wonder if some bean varieties are the same. I'm thinking hard on trying shade cloth to see if that helps on different things but I don't think shade cloth will help if the problem is that the nights are too hot. There's one way to find out. See if I stop thinking about it an do it next year.

 

[flowerbug]

I had someone pose a bean question just now that I don't know the answer to, but I figured you guys would!

She is a Master Gardener but not much of a bean person. She grew scarlet runners this year, and started picking crunchy-dried pods today to save the seeds -- and there aren't mature seeds inside the crunchy-dry pods. Any ideas on what could have gone wrong?

my guess is too dry/hot but without knowing the specifics i can't say much else. i have grown runner beans here two or three times and the best crop i had was the first time when i put in the plants that were started in the pot about a month before the weather here got warm enough. the next time i planted them they were direct sown seeds and while i did get some of a crop from them they weren't as fully developed seeds or as nice as the first time.

 

[flowerbug]

i have yet to meet a lima bean that wasn't a good shelly.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I had someone pose a bean question just now that I don't know the answer to, but I figured you guys would!

She is a Master Gardener but not much of a bean person. She grew scarlet runners this year, and started picking crunchy-dried pods today to save the seeds -- and there aren't mature seeds inside the crunchy-dry pods. Any ideas on what could have gone wrong?

The runner bean blossoms did not pollinate. Likely if the weather was too warm this was probably the underlying cause. Runner beans pollen is likely sensitive to higher temperatures. I grew Painted Lady here in 2015 and the plants did undergo some 90 + degree temperatures. I did get a successful seed crop from them. I do not know how warm it needs to be consistently for runner beans to be a failure.

 

[baymule]

@Ridgerunner if nights have to be in the 70’s it’s no wonder the pods are empty and falling off. Nights have been in the 80’s for the last couple months. The light edge of hurricane Laura gave us a half inch of rain, gifting us with a 111 degree heat index. Last night we got 1 1/4” of rain. I don’t know where it came from, but it has been pleasant outside today. Of course our northern friends might feel like fainting out there, but for me, it’s a welcome relief. LOL

Tomatoes need 70 degree nights also? Then let me recommend Cherokee Purple and Mortgage Lifter tomatoes. Mine have positively slammed me with tomatoes. They are 12’ tall and finally slowing down. I still use your cow panel trellis idea and it works splendidly. I put up 3 for a double row. I have 32’ and 16’ both double rows.

 

[saritabee]

The runner bean blossoms did not pollinate. Likely if the weather was too warm this was probably the underlying cause. Runner beans pollen is likely sensitive to higher temperatures. I grew Painted Lady here in 2015 and the plants did undergo some 90 + degree temperatures. I did get a successful seed crop from them. I do not know how warm it needs to be consistently for runner beans to be a failure.

Interesting!

She's on the peninsula in Washington state, which is typically damp and cool; but maybe the temps were higher this year than normal. Pollination was my first guess, but then I second-guessed myself, with the assumption that if the blossom didn't pollinate, the plant either straight-up dropped the blossoms, or grew the little baby pre-bean which then shriveled up and fell off. Can runner beans commonly grow a full, mature pod without pollination?

 

[saritabee]

Okay, another totally random bean question for the bean people.

I got ahold of a couple Phaseolus vulgaris varieties from Central/South America, which have some of the prettiest seedcoats I've ever seen. I planted some last year and got nothing back, but last year was such an awful bean year for me I wasn't too worried about it. I re-planted three of those varieties this year, in separate pots so I could keep an eye on them better. They are all definitely day-length sensitive (they're growing like crazy, but no hint of blossoms yet, much less pods; in the same soil and pots as all my other beans). I'd like to try and get at least a couple pods to harvest stage, though, if possible.

My first thought was to just let them keep growing, and then hand-dry the seeds at the end of the season if they manage to make beans at all. But I remember a few LEBN people had previously brought bean plants indoors over the winter, to moderate success -- maybe it would be better to repot the plants and move them inside now, so they have time to settle in before they start blossoming?

Has anyone successfully finagled seed out of a day-length sensitive bean in a northern environment?

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Artorius,

Have you ever heard of a bean called "Domaci Cucak"?

 

[flowerbug]

i've not done much with bean transplanting other than twice with two pots in the spring and they were larger pots so the roots of the plant were not disturbed when i planted them out into the garden. no real problems with either of those. the other direction later in the season i've not attempted.

 

[Artorius]

@Artorius,

Have you ever heard of a bean called "Domaci Cucak"?

@Bluejay77
I haven't heard, but I suppose it's some bean from the Balkans as the name suggests it.