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

[carly61]

Thank you! I'm pretty happy to be here, I've been following the posts here since last fall. I've really enjoyed it - so many nice photos. I've never joined a 'forum' before so it's quite the novel experience for me. I am somewhat of an heirloom seed collector, and for the past two years I've been working on building up my heirloom bean collection, and refining my growing techniques for them at the same time. I just LOVE beans! Growing 'em, and eating them!

Howdy from NH!
I'm kinda new to forums too. You seem to be doing just fine! LOVE the pictures that you posted!

 

[Artichoke Lover]

I just read tonight that North Dakota is the leading state for dry bean production, with Michigan just behind. The province of Manitoba, just North of ND is Canada's leading grower of beans for export. Anyone have any ideas why this area is such a successful legume producing area? I find this a little surprising because it's quite Northern territory, and would imagine that growing seasons could end a little too quickly for a properly timed harvest. I would have thought bean growing, on a massive scale, would be more Southern, in areas where there is little chance for crops to be ruined by early frosts or short season problems. Somewhat of a puzzle.

Maybe it has to do with the humidity levels. It’s hard to grow dried beans in most of the south because we’re so humid. They have a tendency to mold, rot, or sprout here. The heat is also a problem since it kills the blooms.
Found it! It has to do with the soil! They like sandy soil which apparently that part of the country has a lot of. And that’s another reason they don’t like the south. We have a lot of clay soil. Not much sand here unless you are really close to the coast.

 

[carly61]

is that a question? (i wish i'd said this the first time i replied )...

i've cleaned up quite a bit in here now making way for the next round of projects and coming spring plantings (eek!).

When I told my son, 25, that I had found this forum, he shook his head, rolled his eyes and declared me a "total nerd". He then patted me on the shoulder and told me that he was glad that I would have others to "play" with! LOL

 

[flowerbug]

When I told my son, 25, that I had found this forum, he shook his head, rolled his eyes and declared me a "total nerd". He then patted me on the shoulder and told me that he was glad that I would have others to "play" with! LOL

did you pat him back and say you've got some new pink garden gloves for him to wear this coming season?

 

[carly61]

did you pat him back and say you've got some new pink garden gloves for him to wear this coming season?

I think that he is glad that he won't have to hear me go on and on about the garden plan or a new bean recipe!

 

[Blue-Jay]

All dry beans for the grocery trade or export are likely bush varieties with early maturity. When these beans become mature for harvest in these growing areas cooler drier air from the artic is probably present which is near the end of summer. This keeps the crop dry and from spoiling until it can be harvested with combines. These growing areas probably tend to be dry in late summer and early autumn. I know a bean farmer in Idaho who grows seed for other farmers and they can speed of the drying process by spraying their nearly mature fields with a defoliant or herbicide. A dead bean plant without leaves is no longer uptaking water from the soil and the pods are totally exposed to sun and wind for drying.

Sometimes when I'm growing pole bean seed and I see that the pods are swollen full of seed and some pods have already begun to yellow out. I cut the vines at the ground level to stop water uptake. I also sometimes will take the time to trim away most of the plants leaves exposing them to sun and wind to speed up and enhance the drying process.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Artichoke Lover and @carly61. Welcome and glad you have joined us here. Love to have more people who enjoy growing, eating, talking about beans and sharing photos of their beans or gardens.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

All dry beans for the grocery trade or export are likely bush varieties with early maturity. When these beans become mature for harvest in these growing areas cooler drier air from the artic is probably present which is near the end of summer. This keeps the crop dry and from spoiling until it can be harvested with combines. These growing areas probably tend to be dry in late summer and early autumn. I know a bean farmer in Idaho who grows seed for other farmers and they can speed of the drying process by spraying their nearly mature fields with a defoliant or herbicide. A dead bean plant without leaves is no longer uptaking water from the soil and the pods are totally exposed to sun and wind for drying.

Sometimes when I'm growing pole bean seed and I see that the pods are swollen full of seed and some pods have already begun to yellow out. I cut the vines at the ground level to stop water uptake. I also sometimes will take the time to trim away most of the plants leaves exposing them to sun and wind to speed up and enhance the drying process.

That may apply in this case, but I think only in this case (that is, US bean production). If you add in exports from other countries (i.e. imports to here) it becomes a lot more complicated. I know from experience that pole types are grown for the bulk bean trade in some places including some odd ones, like climbing soybeans (which here you'll only find in wildlife mixes, but I have planted black soybeans from China and got climbers) and of course the Christmas lima is big there (which is a pole type).

And on the other end you have the micro beans (like azuki, mung, rice, urd, mothe, and so on) where climbing is all, or nearly all there is (I've had some rice beans that went bushy but it seems inconsistent). I have NO IDEA how those are grown on a field basis (I think they probably just harvest the whole field en masse and then winnow.

 

[heirloomgal]

@Bluejay77

I never knew you could hasten the drying up of pole beans by cutting them off at soil level and then manually defoliating them; that's very helpful to know. I've gotta try this in 2021. I always felt like it was simply up to fate whether the poles made it to the dry bean stage or not, but to know that there are actually things that you can do to help them along, speed maturity, that will come in very handy as I plan to grow quite a few poles this year. I love having new leverage on my bean plants maturity time!

I've looked in older posts about your methodology for planting poles, and I can't quite remember right now...was it 3 or 4 plants to a single pole? What do you think that comes to in terms of inch spacing between those plants? It seems the standard spacing for poles planted in a line is about 6 inches.....??

 

[heirloomgal]

Maybe it has to do with the humidity levels. It’s hard to grow dried beans in most of the south because we’re so humid. They have a tendency to mold, rot, or sprout here. The heat is also a problem since it kills the blooms.
Found it! It has to do with the soil! They like sandy soil which apparently that part of the country has a lot of. And that’s another reason they don’t like the south. We have a lot of clay soil. Not much sand here unless you are really close to the coast.

Last summer here, we had higher than typical temperatures, around and over 30 C for what seemed like a long time. I did notice that my bean plants seemed more stressed and almost delayed in growing. We are usually more between 22 to 26 C. It was a learning experience, because I assumed beans would love those high temperatures, but they didn't, and neither did my tomatoes. It was a really reduced harvest. I even think that my Succotash beans and Pretzel beans (to a lesser degree) almost seemed to stay pure foliage with no blossoms until almost fall when the temperatures dropped. I was surprised.