2021 Little Easy Bean Network - Bean Lovers Come Discover Something New !

[flowerbug]

i will be out picking again today. yesterday i got most of the Painted Pony harvested. looks like a decent enough return so that is good to have those seeds refreshed again. the shape of them is always so fun and they always remind me of hot dogs, so i call them The Hot Dog Bean in my head.

i shelled out what i have already dried down of the Cha Kura Kake Soy @Zeedman and have a nice return on those for such a small patch that was being raided by chipmunks. i ate a bowl of those as shellies and enjoyed them, Mom for some reason got it in her head that she didn't like them but the last year when i grew them and cooked them up she liked them so i dunno what's going on there... haha... people can be so funny sometimes...

also got Venda shelled out yesterday, i won't have a full 60 seeds of high quality to return @Bluejay77 but i will send what i have (maybe at least 40) that is decent and i will grow some more of the marginal ones next year to send those back if they'll repeat. they did better in sandier soil than they did in the clay. at least they're refreshed somewhat.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Speaking of being out in the gardens picking. Currently on my bean pod harvest I'm going about as fast as I can. I'm up at 5 am shelling beans until about 10 am and for about two hours in the evening. Pods have been piling up more than I can shell them. That's ok I'll enjoy shelling them all after the plants have been picked clean and I've turned the garden plots back into bare soil. However with Wednesday and Thursday's pods picks. I was able to shell out everything harvested those two days. I've been mostly picking on my two 960 square foot raised beds. When I first started harvesting these raised beds about August 20th. It would take me two days to go through one of them. Yesterday September 9th I went through the 960 square foot east bed in about 2 and 1/2 hours. The west bed has 48 varieties that I planted there and 31 of them are now totally picked out. So my movement through these beds is really speeding up.

The clean up will take place probably later this month when I remove all the weed barrier fabric and variety divider steaks. Shred all the dead plants with my lawn mower and bring in the tiller to till all the refuse under making it look like it did near the beginning of the season. Then I'll be shelling the pods that have piled up in the house. They will be nice and dry and very crisp, easy to snap open.

With as dry of a season as this has been. We've had so much more sun here. There was a time back in early July when on the U.S. Drought monitor, this county was in exceptional drought. I've watered well with a lawn sprinkler and all the varieties have matured so much faster than in a normal year (whatever a normal year is anymore). My seed quality is just fantastic this year. Well formed and filled out. I'm really happy with seed quality this year.

After all the shelling. I will photo all the varieties including outcrosses I'm working with along with any off types that were produced. Then my big bean show will start here. No doubt a lot of people will enjoy that.

 

[flowerbug]

Speaking of being out in the gardens picking. Currently on my bean pod harvest I'm going about as fast as I can. I'm up at 5 am shelling beans until about 10 am and for about two hours in the evening. Pods have been piling up more than I can shell them. That's ok I'll enjoy shelling them all after the plants have been picked clean and I've turned the garden plots back into bare soil. However with Wednesday and Thursday's pods picks. I was able to shell out everything harvested those two days. I've been mostly picking on my two 960 square foot raised beds. When I first started harvesting these raised beds about August 20th. It would take me two days to go through one of them. Yesterday September 9th I went through the 960 square foot east bed in about 2 and 1/2 hours. The west bed has 48 varieties that I planted there and 31 of them are now totally picked out. So my movement through these beds is really speeding up.

The clean up will take place probably later this month when I remove all the weed barrier fabric and variety divider steaks. Shred all the dead plants with my lawn mower and bring in the tiller to till all the refuse under making it look like it did near the beginning of the season. Then I'll be shelling the pods that have piled up in the house. They will be nice and dry and very crisp, easy to snap open.

With as dry of a season as this has been. We've had so much more sun here. There was a time back in early July when on the U.S. Drought monitor, this county was in exceptional drought. I've watered well with a lawn sprinkler and all the varieties have matured so much faster than in a normal year (whatever a normal year is anymore). My seed quality is just fantastic this year. Well formed and filled out. I'm really happy with seed quality this year.

After all the shelling. I will photo all the varieties including outcrosses I'm working with along with any off types that were produced. Then my big bean show will start here. No doubt a lot of people will enjoy that.

that's great to hear @Bluejay77


i have had mixed results as usual, but in the garden i was picking today i had to bring in the Red Ryder and Purple Dove from my bulk bean garden outside the fence. the soil quality there starts out pretty good up closer to the house and then goes towards more clay the further back you go towards the large drainage ditch. it can be a bit low and flooded at times so i perched all my rows about six inches high when i planted, by now they are all just slight mounds. i'm thinking next season i will perch two rows next to each other and make the trenches between the rows both wider and deeper to give me some more elevation. that may not do me that much good when it comes down to some conditions but we'll give it a try.

in the mean-time i do have to say that the Red Ryder beans look to have done well enough, Sunset did great, Yellow Eye and Purple Dove also did well in that garden (i still have quite a few PD left to finish drying down). the only beans that did not do that great in that garden was the Dapple Gray. unexpected by me, but that's still not bad results for what is essentially an extra garden that otherwise was space not being used for anything else due to it being outside the fenced gardens. the only beans that took most of the damage were the Purple Dove that were far in the back closest to the drainage ditch and the damage to those was by both deer and groundhogs. still the PD beans back there did give me several pickings of fresh beans to eat and will give a reasonable crop of dry beans too when they come time to pick again in a few weeks. not really that bad all things considered...

the mixed results i'll see more of tomorrow when i check the SE corner garden inside the fence. some of that has been picked already and had some ok results, but the red peppers from there have greatly swamped everything else in comparison. i picked about 10 red peppers today and they filled a 5 gallon bucket to the top. just huge peppers... i don't think Dapple Gray did very well in there but Purple Dove have probably done ok, will know more tomorrow... have to put up tomatoes tonight so not much shelling will get done here.

 

[flowerbug]

should have 80-90% of the dry bean harvest in after today's picking. rain forecast for tomorrow, the rest aren't finished enough to pick so it is all working out ok. i need more boxes to put beans in and luckily i just found some that i stashed in my closet for just this time of the year.

 

[Blue-Jay]

What I'm going to do today out at my raised beds is install pole steaks with long screws sticking out near the top and about in the middle. I will sever the plants varieties that are the straglers in drying with their root system. All the pods are swollen with mature seed and I've even picked a few dry pods from each of them. So I'm cutting off the water to the rest of the plant and will hang those plants on the screws up off the soil. I will get really speeded up drying in the sun and breeze. Want to get all the rest of these grow outs done with soon and pods harvested. So I can remove weed barrier fabric and marker steaks and get all the soil tilled and tucked away for the winter. My season is ending really early this year. Way before our October frosts. We may see some rain here this coming Tuesday evening September 14. Until then it's sun, sun sun, and after our maybe rain more upper 70's and 80 degree weather for more drying the rest of this coming week.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Shut off the water today to some of the varities of beans that were taking longer to defolitate and dry. Drying has now been shifted into Warp Speed. This is how I dry beans fast. Sever them from their roots. Hang them on pole bean steaks with long screws fastened to the steaks at the top and about in the middle. Of course all the pods have been well filled out with seed. Most all the other varieties have been picked over pretty good not yet picked clean, but that will be coming soon to those well picked over plants.

 

[heirloomgal]

this morning i went out to pick beans with the intent to get all the Yellow Eye beans picked through and then whatever else i could finish up. i managed to get those done with some help from Mom and then i also picked through most of Sunset and some of the Purple Dove.

and finally just as i was coming in i found a pod that was done enough from Spotted Pheasant to check and it was a repeat. since i only have two plants of that which survived from the five seeds i planted to get even one of those to repeat was great. i have my five seeds back, plus more green pods on the plants. a bit later than i'd like but they'll do...

i think i have about 10lbs of beans in the bags to shell out - mostly Yellow Eye.

storms on the way. i'm too tired to pick any more anyways so that is what it will be for today. i was hoping the storms were going to come through later that i could get another round of picking in today, but that isn't how the weather has turned out.

10 pounds, wow! That's a great harvest. I grew a single Yellow Eye plant this year, just to keep the seed going. The seeds themselves were very nicely formed, and I was happy they made it since my originals were mailed to me from a commercial dried bean company named Thompson's. It was a customer freebie pr thing, since I had called them to inquire about their bean culture etc. So they shockingly sent me a huge heavy box of bean types that aren't carried much in Ontario, aprons, oven mitts, recipe booklets. I hadn't seen Yellow Eye before that I don't think. But today I was at the bulk food store, and low and behold, there was a huge bin of Yellow Eyes.

I guess scarcity or rarity isn't a problem with those anymore.

 

[flowerbug]

10 pounds, wow! That's a great harvest. I grew a single Yellow Eye plant this year, just to keep the seed going. The seeds themselves were very nicely formed, and I was happy they made it since my originals were mailed to me from a commercial dried bean company named Thompson's. It was a customer freebie pr thing, since I had called them to inquire about their bean culture etc. So they shockingly sent me a huge heavy box of bean types that aren't carried much in Ontario, aprons, oven mitts, recipe booklets. I hadn't seen Yellow Eye before that I don't think. But today I was at the bulk food store, and low and behold, there was a huge bin of Yellow Eyes.

I guess scarcity or rarity isn't a problem with those anymore.

they're grown in commercial quantities in Michigan and have been most of my life at least, but i still like growing my own as then i know what has gone into their production and don't have to wonder if they were sprayed with poisons or whatever. of course i also work with them to improve them and hope to see cross breeds show up. some i have already segregated and keep track of them where i plant them so i can see what happens next.

 

[heirloomgal]

Well, here is some of the first shelled network bean 'Vaquero' @Bluejay77 .
As you can see, it is quite different! Bean size is bigger and much less flat, and colouration doesn't look so . The pods I've shelled since this photo are of the whiter type. I grew it in 2 locations, and the beans seem to have grown the same. I'm curious to see what you make of this?

 

[Blue-Jay]

Well, here is some of the first shelled network bean 'Vaquero' @Bluejay77 .
As you can see, it is quite different! Bean size is bigger and much less flat, and colouration doesn't look so . The pods I've shelled since this photo are of the whiter type. I grew it in 2 locations, and the beans seem to have grown the same. I'm curious to see what you make of this?

Wow you are getting just beautiful seed quality. The last time I grew this bean. It was grown in my small backyard plot. Since then I've found out the my soil ph on this plot was 7.8. Kinda aklaline. So that may have been the result of the smaller seed you got from me. I'm working on my backyard plot with soil sulphur and the last test I think I had the ph down to 7.3. This summer I grew some beans in my raised beds at Bean Acres that I grew last in my backyard plot and they have produced larger seed and larger more robust plants. I've got ph of 6.1 and 6.8 there. The 6.1 could be raised a little to 6.5 and the 6.8 could be droped to 6.5.

That is what I think has given you larger seed of Vaquero. I think it's soil difference. My backyard soil tests out with very high mineral content but the ph is to high also.