2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[Blue-Jay]

@Bluejay77

At what point can bean plants be pulled to hang upside down to continue drying the pods?

If you have a mix of green seed swollen pods and yellow seed swollen pods. All your plants can be pulled now to minimize seed loss and especially if you got some critter eating your plants and pods. They might take 3 weeks to a month to dry undercover. 2 to three weeks out in the sun hanging on something off the ground. I like to take a hand pruning shear and cut them off at the soil line then I don't have to deal with the plants roots sticking out of the end of the stem in all sorts of directions. That seems to take up more space and makes it more difficult to hang the plants.

I have repeated this many times but I will do it again anyway. I like to take a pole bean pole that I've cut a well tapered point on one end. The poles is made of 1 x 2 inch furing strips cut to about 80 to 84 inches. Then put two 3 inch wood screws near the top of the pole and about in the middle. Then drive them into the ground about 12 to 14 inches and hang bush bean plants on them right in the bean garden to dry. The sun and wind do a nice job of drying the pods and seeds. I've always gotten nice seed this way.

Here are some poles from last year I installed then hung bush plants on them. Click twice on image twice to enlarge.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Harvested a nice batch of "Weaver" snap bean pods yesterday. Nicest looking Weaver seed I've had since 2014. It's a nice flattened podded green snap variety. Many of the pods are 7 inches after drying.

Developed by the C.H Weaver Company of Brawley, California probably in the 1930's. Dry seed said to make a good soup bean.

 

[meadow]

If you have a mix of green seed swollen pods and yellow seed swollen pods. All your plants can be pulled now to minimize seed loss. They might take 3 weeks to a month to dry undercover. 2 to three weeks out in the sun hanging on something off the ground. I like to take a hand pruning shear and cut them off at the soil line then I don't have to deal with the plants roots sticking out of the end of the stem in all sorts of directions. That seems to take up more space and makes it more difficult to hang the plants.

Thank you so much!

I did find a partially eaten pod on another plant. Definitely slug work for that one. Didn't see any other sign of slugs though, and the way the leaves were eaten down to the quick makes me think grasshopper or tomato horned worm (but I've never seen those here), or possibly an animal (unlikely, due to the location and ready supply of easier food). The only scat I saw was from a tree frog.

 

[Zeedman]

Since I planted late, this will be my "mid-Summer" bean report.


""Atlas"" (left), "Blue Marbutt" (right). Double quotes around Atlas because my research indicates that regardless of arriving in a commercial seed packet labeled with that name, it is not Atlas. Whatever it is, it is a beautiful, large-seeded bean with a short DTM - and the only bean in my late garden that is even close to ripening. Blue Marbutt, on the other hand, was the last bean to bloom. Somewhat bland as snaps... but very firm, and well suited to canning. It is highly productive & the JB show no interest in it, but the late DTM makes seed saving here difficult.


"Bird Egg #3" (left), "Grandma Gina" (right). A lot of similarity between these two, in leaf size, vigor, pod size & shape, and late flowering. Even planted on time, BE3 tends to be an "October bean"; I suspect GG will be similar. Given the late start, the chances of dry seed from either of these is "iffy" at best.


"Uzice" (left), "Zlatak" (right). Uzice continues its vigorous vine growth, after previously fooling me - twice - by displaying bush habit. I would have to reclassify it now as half-runner. Longer, larger pods than previously as well, and a much heavier pod set. Not bad flavor eaten raw, but I grow this for its large shellies. Zlatak is a good dual-use wax bean; the shellies are fat, fairly large, and have great flavor. Those shellies were one of DW's favorites, she went through an entire large bowl full one year on our way to Monticello (she did let me have a few).


"Madagascar" lima (left), "Gigandes" runner bean (right). Madagascar flowered quickly & has a heavy pod set, so should get some dry seed. Gigandes set a few pods earlier in the month & a lot of pods now. The seeds take a long time to mature, so dry seed will be a challenge. My goal with Gigandes was to adapt its initially-long DTM to my climate, so if I get any dry seed from this late planting, it would be a step forward.

 

[heirloomgal]

I don't know about that particular bean, just writing to say that my first dry pod (Beka Brown) involves a round bean that produced the same shape and color pattern as your picture, except brown.

For your Ugandan Bantu, are both types being produced by the same plant? Are all of your plants producing a mix?

In the case of my Beka Brown, I know which plant this pod came from and I'll be keeping track of the production coming off of each individual plant.

I'm not sure @meadow, the packet is a mix of beans with different shapes and colours. I would have had to make a note or take photos of each seed I planted and then kept track of each corresponding plant as it grew, which I didn't do. The only thing that seems true so far is I'm finding beans in the row that I don't remember planting? So I'm thinking that the beans flop around in expression, or are unstable by nature. I wonder if the variety was a bunch of neat looking beans from a certain area that were collected and put together, then called Ugandan Bantu. Even the pod shapes are quite distinct at this point.

@Zeedman is Blue Marbutt the same variety as Blue Meerbarbe?

 

[Zeedman]

Yardlong trials. All 3 are new acquisitions from Asian Garden 2 Table, and all have ripened some dry seed:


"Long King" lives up to its name. Medium-green pods, nearly all 23-24" long - but thus far, the lowest yield of the three. Good crunchy texture, nutty not-too-sweet flavor. Dry pods have a light pinkish look.


"Vine Full #9". Light green pods, length highly variable. Sweeter & more succulent than "Long King", and heavier yielding - but slightly stringy.


"Summer Treasure". Light green pods, most 18-20", fairly consistent in size. So far, the highest yielder by a wide margin. Crunchy, nutty flavor. The seed coat is very unique.

All had very similar DTMs (55 days +/-, within a few days of each other) and about 80 days to dry seed. Given the widely different seeds, I was surprised that all 3 varieties were so similar. I have grown quite a few yardlongs, and could tell the differences between most of them. The yields above should be taken with a grain of salt though, because the different varieties may peak at different times. I should also note that DW & her Filipino friends used long beans in the snap stage, so that is how I harvest them. "Vine Full #9" is supposed to be white(ish) when the pods expand. Much to my disappointment, it had the poorest quality in snap stage.

My 4th yardlong & the only one I am saving seed for ("Galante") has a later DTM, and reached snap stage at 75 days.

 

[meadow]

I'm not sure @meadow, the packet is a mix of beans with different shapes and colours. I would have had to make a note or take photos of each seed I planted and then kept track of each corresponding plant as it grew, which I didn't do. The only thing that seems true so far is I'm finding beans in the row that I don't remember planting? So I'm thinking that the beans flop around in expression, or are unstable by nature. I wonder if the variety was a bunch of neat looking beans from a certain area that were collected and put together, then called Ugandan Bantu. Even the pod shapes are quite distinct at this point.

Ah. I didn't realize the original beans were so varied. Looks like Salt Spring Seeds is selling them as a landrace variety. The color palette is very similar to that of the Umbrian Wild Pea (Roveja).

 

[flowerbug]

I'm not sure @meadow, the packet is a mix of beans with different shapes and colours. I would have had to make a note or take photos of each seed I planted and then kept track of each corresponding plant as it grew, which I didn't do. The only thing that seems true so far is I'm finding beans in the row that I don't remember planting? So I'm thinking that the beans flop around in expression, or are unstable by nature. I wonder if the variety was a bunch of neat looking beans from a certain area that were collected and put together, then called Ugandan Bantu. Even the pod shapes are quite distinct at this point.

if the original Bantu mix was solid colors but otherwise no striped patterns then i would say that a cross may have happened which destablized things. i would not replant any of the beans that have that striped pattern.

if my statement is wrong (about there not being striped beans in the mix of what you planted) then the original mix may be unstable enough that you'll get all sorts of strange results.

in searching on-line for UB beans i see solid colors being presented as the "norm" so i would cull out anything with stripes.

my own work with solid color beans has given me many solid color beans but very few beans with stripes.

 

[heirloomgal]

if the original Bantu mix was solid colors but otherwise no striped patterns then i would say that a cross may have happened which destablized things. i would not replant any of the beans that have that striped pattern.

if my statement is wrong (about there not being striped beans in the mix of what you planted) then the original mix may be unstable enough that you'll get all sorts of strange results.

in searching on-line for UB beans i see solid colors being presented as the "norm" so i would cull out anything with stripes.

my own work with solid color beans has given me many solid color beans but very few beans with stripes.

I do recall at least one of the UB beans were larger, more kidney shaped with stripes.

 

[Zeedman]

@Zeedman is Blue Marbutt the same variety as Blue Meerbarbe?

Although I haven't grown Meerbarbe yet, I don't think so. I pulled out the seeds to compare them; although both are black, the seeds for Blue Marbutt are elongated kidney shape. IMO the "blue" in Blue Marbutt refers to the color of the dry pods.