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

[Zeedman]

Two beans per pot are quite comfortable together.

I like this thought, especially with climbing beans. A 90 cm pot is about 3-1/2". That should give enough room for two plants if you leave them enough room between pots when transplanting them outside. Just need to think about it a bit.

I thought that pot sounded a little large...

The size 32 peat pots I use for pole beans are 2.5" square, and 2.25" tall. I started planting 2 beans per pot in case one didn't come up, and thinned down to 1 before planting. Then after losing a few plants one year, I had the idea to thin some time after planting, in case something damaged a seedling... and of course, forgot to thin later. Ooops. The bean pairs were spaced 12" apart, and to my surprise, did fine at that spacing; so I've continued that practice. From one 8-pot peat strip, I can potentially get 16 plants - which allows more beans to be started per tray. There are some very vigorous beans that I still thin to one per pot (Kentucky Wonder, Bird Egg #3) but pots of 2, spaced 12" apart in the row, has become my new default.

At 2/pot, bean seedlings are not crowded up to the point where they have their first true leaf. If held much longer than that, I have to thin them to 1/pot to avoid stunting. I gradually thin direct seeded beans to 4/hill, then 2/hill when runners appear. That 2-stage thinning paid off this year, when deer ate some plants from several hills - but left at least one per hill undamaged.

 

[Artorius]

i didn't know that storks did any kind of mole hunting. we have blue herons here and they don't come in the yard. if i need to get rid of a mole i have to trap it. i trapped moles as a kid along with mowing and other gardening so i'm usually able to trap a mole within a day or two as long as i have enough access to where they are running and people don't disturb the traps.

Storks are merciless predators. They kill and eat whatever they can. Often at close range, I watched white storks hunting in the meadow by the house. A captured mole is first crushed by hitting it several times on the ground and then swallowed. A bit brutal spectacle.
In Poland, white storks are not afraid of people, and people do not hurt them. They often make nests on farm buildings and high voltage poles. To keep them safe, special platforms are built for them.
In our tradition, the white stork is a symbol of rebirth and happiness. Whoever kills the stork takes a bad fate. Besides, everyone in Poland knows that storks bring children

We have one more species of stork. Black storks nest and hunt in forests near water reservoirs. These are very skittish, secretive and avoid people.

 

[Artorius]

Of the large animals, roe deers sometimes came to my garden. They ate raspberry and strawberry leaves, but never beans. Perhaps they are not used to them.

In addition, from among the large herbivores, live in Poland red deer, fallow deer, moose, wild boar and our pride - żubr (wisent). My country has the largest free-living population of forest buffalo.

 

[Blue-Jay]

It also provides some insurance in case one of them croaks. I space the canes 30cm apart, about 60cm between rows. Sorry for the metric, I'm useless with inches. Do you mean 90mm pots? With 90cm transplants you may need to employ a giant.

@Bluejay77 Do you supplement nitrogen in the early stages of growth? Some of mine seem to take forever to associate with the necessary bacteria, and sulk yellowly for a few weeks.

I do not supplement nitrogen at all for my beans. I'm always afraid if I do it will be too much for beans and affect them in a negative way. Maybe I should fertilize the soil with something a few weeks before planting. I think bloodmeal might be a good nitrogen addative. My bush bean planting is 6 inches apart in the row (15 cm) row spacing at my backyard bean nursery is 27 inches (68.5 cm). Row spacing at Bean Acres is 30 inches (76 cm). Last year I planted bush beans where I planted pole beans this year. That bush bean row spacing was 40 inches (101 cm)

Pole beans are 4 seeds around a pole. I think they are roughly 5 inches apart and have always grown well like that together. Poles are spaced 36 inches apart (91 cm) I could space them a bid farther apart. Rows a space 55 inches (139 cm)

Those plastic solo cups I showed in a prevous post it was my intention to start only one plant in each cup. If I would have used this starting method for pole beans this year. It would have entailed 524 of those cups. I was thinking about watering them at night then moving them to the outdoors in the morning in some type of box where the cups would fit together close enough so they would not fall over.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Do you supplement nitrogen in the early stages of growth? Some of mine seem to take forever to associate with the necessary bacteria, and sulk yellowly for a few weeks.

I had to use inoculant to introduce that bacteria that sets nitrogen to my soil. Now those nodules are on the roots when I pull the plants up. From what I've read not all nitrogen fixing bacteria are the same. Some fix more nitrogen than others. Not sure what strains you have.

My soil has a high sand content so nitrogen leaches out if it, we do get lot of rain down here. I get the soil analyzed and supplement nutrients as required. In certain forms nitrogen is water soluble so it is often in short supply. I dig in a slow release nitrogen fertilizer before I direct seed beans so they do have nitrogen available at the beginning and as they grow. You don't want too much nitrogen as the plant is all vines and leaves and not flowers and beans. A bit of a balancing act.

Something interesting I read was that if you grow beans in the same spot regularly the bacteria get more efficient at fixing bacteria. If you grow beans in that soil sporadically the microbes aren't as efficient. I'm not sure if that is settled scientific fact or more of a theory that has withstood some testing but needs more work.

 

[Marie2020]

I had to use inoculant to introduce that bacteria that sets nitrogen to my soil. Now those nodules are on the roots when I pull the plants up. From what I've read not all nitrogen fixing bacteria are the same. Some fix more nitrogen than others. Not sure what strains you have.

My soil has a high sand content so nitrogen leaches out if it, we do get lot of rain down here. I get the soil analyzed and supplement nutrients as required. In certain forms nitrogen is water soluble so it is often in short supply. I dig in a slow release nitrogen fertilizer before I direct seed beans so they do have nitrogen available at the beginning and as they grow. You don't want too much nitrogen as the plant is all vines and leaves and not flowers and beans. A bit of a balancing act.

Something interesting I read was that if you grow beans in the same spot regularly the bacteria get more efficient at fixing bacteria. If you grow beans in that soil sporadically the microbes aren't as efficient. I'm not sure if that is settled scientific fact or more of a theory that has withstood some testing but needs more work.

That's really interesting.

I would love to grow beans but I've never known anyone growing them here in UK

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi @Marie2020,

How nice you came to visit us. Hope you will stick around through each year. We do have at least two UK growers on this thread. ZoeV and Decoy1. Decoy1 hasn't posted in awhile but ZoeV has not long ago.

You can shout out to them by attaching the @ sign at the front of their screen name.

 

[flowerbug]

also remember that the microbe nitrogen fixing traits have been somewhat bred out of many beans so that they're not as heavily fixing nitrogen. i've seen that myself here. some beans will have very nodulated roots while their neighboring plants in the same exact soil will be pretty much barren. note that this is one reason why i've selected for certain beans here to continue working with for cross-breeding purposes.

 

[heirloomgal]

That's really interesting.

I would love to grow beans but I've never known anyone growing them here in UK

Bob Flowerdew grows beans, for dry and fresh, in East Anglia. His favourite he says is Hutterite. ☺

 

[heirloomgal]

Two colours on one bean bloom?