Zeedman
Garden Master
I grow a lot of beans as transplants, but only as seedlings. I've never tried to transfer a growing plant from soil to pot. My first response was to recommend that if you did so, that it be done as soon as possible... however...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?
Short of using some type of blind to regulate hours of daylight (which creates problems with air circulation) the only other suggestion I could make would be to try shocking them into bloom. It has been my observation that if you keep a transplant too long in its starting pot, it becomes stunted, and blooms prematurely. The shock of being dug & replanted might accomplish the same thing. Root pruning is based upon the same principle, but would be done without moving the plants, using a spade to cut off a portion of the root system.
Any shock treatment will cause wilting, and potentially the loss of the plant; but it might be the only way overcome photo-period sensitivity. I accidentally shocked some bambara I was trying to grow (also day length sensitive) by forgetting to water them for several days. They were severely wilted when I finally watered them, and some of the foliage did not survive; but upon recovery, the plants bloomed in late July. The attempt still failed, because the seeds take a very long time to mature... but it does offer some hope that plants can be tricked into blooming early.
