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

[heirloomgal]

After much thought, and even more good luck, I found a way to securely sink my tree poles for the beans. I used a scaling bar, an old relic from the mines, to drives deep holes into the ground. I went about 2 feet deep, and there was excellent suction when the poles were driven in. I swung on them with full weight to make sure I couldn't topple them over after I sunk each one.

slightly terraced bush beans

bean world

I could barely get a Greasy Grits pole bean to sprout in a pot. One succeeded. So I planted the rest of the packet in the ground thinking the germination was off, and they all sprouted.

a bean's eye view

 

[Blue-Jay]

After much thought, and even more good luck, I found a way to securely sink my tree poles for the beans. I used a scaling bar, an old relic from the mines, to drives deep holes into the ground. I went about 2 feet deep, and there was excellent suction when the poles were driven in. I swung on them with full weight to make sure I couldn't topple them over after I sunk each one.

Wow ! What a beautiful bean garden. Great pictures. Love the look of your white Birch poles. Love those low shots of the rows too. Makes them look like they are as long as a football field.

 

[heirloomgal]

A lot of my growing methods and growing choices this year are inspired by you @Bluejay77 ! I loved the idea of you using a single pole to grow a number of plants of a single variety. I could honestly find nothing on-line about growing beans on single poles and I've not done it before. Everything is teepee style now, and I kind of wanted to duplicate how you were growing pole beans. Thankfully (given the lumber situation) we have thousands of those birches behind our house in the forest, and harvesting them was an excellent opportunity to teach my kids how to use a swede saw. We had quite a bit of fun doing that together, and hauling them out too. I am also growing a number of the varieties from the Bean Collector's Window in which you used the magic words 'one of my favourite' - so, I'm trying for the 1st time Greencrop, Tendergreen and Topcrop too.

 

[Blue-Jay]

My Backyard Bean Nursery 2021. 18 varieties of Robert Lobitz beans that I'm growing for the very first time. Obtained from Seed Savers Exchange in May of 2020 after I had entered a list of Lobitz beans that I was looking for that I had not yet obtained on their Facebook Page. Then Philip Kauth Director Of Preservation at SSE emailed me and told me he had just about my entire list. I sent SSE a donation after Philip mailed the seeds. I had my 2020 grow outs already planned since December of 2019. So I decided that a grow out of them would work this year.

I had never met Robert Lobitz and will not since he passed away at the age of 66 in 2006 from a brain aneurysm. However I could easily identify with all the original self named beans Robert had introduced through the SSE yearook during his SSE years. I had introduced a number of my original named beans also during my early SSE years in the early 1980's. I am still coming up with some new ones. So I thought Robert is not here to take care of his beans and why let all the time and energy he put into them just pass by the wayside. Many of them are just so very beautiful. A century from now his and my original beans will probably become heirlooms too and people will grow them and probably not even know where they all came from.

Three Different shots of the Backyard Plot. One or two varieties didn't fill out really well but I'll get seed from what did manage to grow. So Robert's bean legacy will live on.

Robert's Self named bush beans in this plot are.

1.) Abundant Little Gem
2.) Swan River
3.) Eden Lake Pearls
4.) Koronis Red Eye
5.) Swan Island
6.) Koronis Giant Pinto
7.) Eagle Island White
8.) North Star Yellow Eye
9.) Purple Swan
10.) Cokato
11.) Purple Tiger
12.) Koronis White Oaks
13.) North Town Brown Eye
14.) Early Dawn Pinto
15.) Bonanza Valley Navy
16.) Salt Springs Gold
17.) Koronis Yellow
18.) Koronis Little Red Trout

Schokoflecken - Bush Dry. The bean was sent to me probably about 5 years ago by Cori Met of Bohnen-Atlas in Germany. The few darkened seeds sat for several years in their packet in my basement. I finally decided to send them to Saritabee one of our Network growers in Washington. A couple years passed and I thought maybe that would be the end of these pretty little beans as I hadn't heard anything about them. Then last autumn 2020 Saritabee sent me about 40 of the beans. I thought I wanted to build up their quantity so I planted 20 of them in this 11 foot row. The beans are pictured in post #23. In our extremely dry weather I've been watering this plot with a lawn sprinkler about every 4 or 5 days for anywhere an hour to an hour and a half. The lawn has really benefited too that I've been harvesting with my bagger on my lawn mower for mulch.

 

[Myrthryn]

We haven't had much water here lately, and we've had quite a hot spell (80 to 88) for this time of year. Rain barrels are all totally empty, so lots of hose work daily now. But there are two thunderstorm warnings in the next 7 days, and rain on Thursday. Here's a few bean pics. Cheers everybody to happy beginnings.


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This is my Mother's Day present, it has a 6 X 12 ft raised bed attached to either side, filled with new garden mix. DH made it from some old lumber we had in the yard. Piekny Jas is planted on either side. For some mysterious reason, the 4 on one side or not growing the same as the 4 on the other??
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Left side, finally starting to catch.
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Right side, not even a twining vine yet!

Here is a wee bit of gruesomeness, so beware, but last year I had these pesky little black bugs appear on the plants on one bean trellis. The jumping bugs were poking tiny holes into the leaves; I've never seen this before, ever. I tried neem, and diatomecous powder, but nothing seemed to work. Then I heard a BBC gardener give a talk about flea beetles and holding a molasses smeared piece of cardboard over the plants as you jiggle them,and the beetles jump off onto your cardboard and get stuck. Well, I tried it (on plastic,not cardboard) and it works. Captured about 80% of them int the first swipe. Then more a half hour later.
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Beautiful trellis!

 

[Zeedman]

After much thought, and even more good luck, I found a way to securely sink my tree poles for the beans. I used a scaling bar, an old relic from the mines, to drives deep holes into the ground. I went about 2 feet deep, and there was excellent suction when the poles were driven in. I swung on them with full weight to make sure I couldn't topple them over after I sunk each one.

Wow, you can drive poles 2 feet deep without hitting rock??? Didn't know that was possible... it sure isn't here. I struggle getting all of my T-posts lined up straight.

You have soil to die for @heirloomgal , and a beautiful bean garden.

DW & have started putting up our string trellises, we finished one for the Piekny Jas & Jembo Polish today. The Piekny Jas already have 18" runners & were reaching for the fence. This is the earliest we've ever been able to put up a trellis, I'm hoping that bodes well for the year.

 

[flowerbug]

finished the last of the bean planting in the NE Garden. i didn't quite finish the whole edge on time, but now i have the rest of the summer to do that. no rush...

 

[Blue-Jay]

Good News, Bad News​

Get the bad news out of the way first. Yesterday 6/12/21 went scratching around the big pole bean planting on Pheasant Lane and discovered that most of the seed will not be coming up. I couldn't find hardly any of it. It definitely appears to have rotted away in the hot dry soil. I watered fairly frequently too. Plus all the seed was pre-sprouted. The only thing I can think of is that the soil was so extremely dry. Our hot days between waterings must have killed off the sprouted seed almost immediately and then rotted away with the introduction of enough water. There are probably about 25 poles out of about 119 that do have at least one plant that is up. So I will water frequently and see if I can get those plants to survive to maturity. I have two rows in this plot also that I planted semi runner beans (10 varieties). The semi runners were not pre-sprouted and I have gotten the same result with them. I think it's definitely early enough to try to replant some seed of the semi runners where there are empty spaces. Should I try or would it be a waste of seed. The pole beans I think it's probably too late in the season especially for the limas that I had planted. I do like to get pole beans planted around here anywhere from about May 25th to June 1st.

Now the good news. Last weekend 6/5/21 I had completely planted 48 bush dry bean varieties in the first raised bed that was built last year at my Pleasant Valley plot where there is the deer fence. Then soaked the soil with a lawn sprinler for 3.5 hours. Watered it like that again Wednesday 6/9/21. Visited there yesterday 6/12/21 and found hundreds of new bush beans popping up in most of the rows. Wow looked really good ! The other raised bed that was built this year was planted and soaked with a lawn sprinler Tuesday 6/8/21 and watered like again for probably 3 hours yesterday again. Would expect to see bush plants popping up probably this coming Tuesday

Pleasant Valley West Raised Bed

Pleasant Valley Raised West Bed

 

[flowerbug]

2021 planting list. i forgot to write down descriptions of a few of the beans i planted of my own so it will be interesting what they are when i harvest.

Adzuki (bush) (C) ()
Brown Lima (bush) (N) (2020)
Cha Kura Kake Soy (edamame) (Z) (2020)
Dapple Grey (bush, dry) (N) (2020)
Domino Child (yellow to orange half (YE cross?)) (P) (2020)
Fordhook Lima (bush) (G) (2020)
Hidatsa Shield (semi, dry) (N) (2020)
Huey (bush) (P) (2020)
Lavender (bush) (N) ()
Lemon Slice (semi) (P) (2020)
Monster (bush) (P) (2018)
Monster Child A (?)) (P) (2020)
Monster Child B (brown to red half) (P) (2020)
Monster Child C (gray half) (P) (2020)
Monster Child L (?) (P) (2020)
Monster Child R (?) (P) (2020)
Monster Child Solid (blue gray) (P) (2020)
Montville (bush, dry) (N) ()
Mystery Bean (?) () (2020)
Mystery Lima (?) () (2020)
Painted Pony (bush, dry) (V) (2020)
Shelleasy x Soldier (N) (P) ()
Spotted Pheasant () (P) (2020)
Sunset () (P) ()
Pisarecka Zlutoluske (bush, dry) (N) (2020)
Puregold Wax (bush, dry) (N) ()
Purple Dove (bush, snap, dry) (NP) (2020 Early selection)
Red Ryder (bush, dry) (V) (2020)
Sacre Bleu (pole) (SS) (2020)
Takara Early Adzuki (bush) (GLSS) (2020)
Top Notch (bush, wax) (N) (2014)
Venda (bush, snap) (N) (2020)
Yed (semi) (P) (2020)
Yellow Eye (semi,dry) (P) (2020)


this year i've increased the number of some bulk beans i've planted and backed off on special projects by quite a bit.


Notes:

Purple Dove - large plantings this season of selected beans from last year, many were interplanted so i'm hoping to see some crosses.

Red Ryder - large plantings.

Yellow Eye - trying to get these bulked up again, i hope i can get at least 10lbs this season.

Painted Pony - a good bean if the weather cooperates - would like the have enough to cook again.

Dapple Gray - first year going for bulk amounts.

Brown Limas - first year going for dry bean cooking amount.


remind myself next year to write everything down!

 

[flowerbug]

aw @Bluejay77 are you going to reseed? it would be a shame to waste all that nice space and good soil. some may have enough time to finish.