2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

heirloomgal

Garden Addicted
Joined
Jan 17, 2021
Messages
4,190
Reaction score
13,465
Points
255
Location
Northern Ontario, Canada
No dry pods on Lilaschecke here (east England) yet either. But not far off I think.
Thanks for chiming in on the Lilascheke maturity @Decoy1. My plants too are rounding the corner, I pulled the pole yesterday and hid them in my carport from the coming rains. Really hoping for some good quality seeds from them, not an easy one for perfect specimens I have found.
 

heirloomgal

Garden Addicted
Joined
Jan 17, 2021
Messages
4,190
Reaction score
13,465
Points
255
Location
Northern Ontario, Canada
I think there is a very good possiblity that you will be bitten by the, I will name and make new bean varieties bug. Especailly when you start finding beans with different patterns and seed colors that are just too beautiful to pass them..... bye ! Reminds me of that old Gloria Gaynor song "Never Can Say Goodbye".
@Bluejay77 I love how you can find a musical correlation to these situations in life! I remember last year you were talking Dixie Chicks and their Wide Open Spaces! 😂 You must be a music lover along with the beans! 🎼
 

meadow

Deeply Rooted
Joined
Jan 2, 2022
Messages
1,072
Reaction score
3,373
Points
175
Location
Western Washington, USA
The Wanigan
A Newsletter - All About Beans
Vol. 1 No. 1, March 1977

Here's a tip for those eager to get in a real early row of beans. Warm the soil before planting, using sun power. As you know, bean seed often fails to sprout in a soil temperature below 60 F. Limas need 65 F. All that's needed is a mini greenhouse, or "cloche," placed over the row for a period of weeks prior to normal planting time.

Place a 3-foot strip of black mulching plastic along the row to absorb the sun's heat. Over this stick low arches of wood or wire at 4 or 5 foot spacings along the row, across the black plastic. Roll out some clear polyethylene film wide enough to cover the bows and long enough to anchor firmly at each end. Tie strings over the film at each bow or arch to keep wind from ballooning it. This mini greenhouse will heat rapidly.

Test soil temperature at a 3" depth and when at 60 F remove the black plastic (or punch and plant beans through slits), but leave the clear film in place. When sprouted, regulate heat by lifting the sides of the cloche. The strings over the bows will hold the film on windy days.
 

Decoy1

Deeply Rooted
Joined
Sep 18, 2018
Messages
183
Reaction score
703
Points
167
Location
Lincolnshire. England
Thanks for chiming in on the Lilascheke maturity @Decoy1. My plants too are rounding the corner, I pulled the pole yesterday and hid them in my carport from the coming rains. Really hoping for some good quality seeds from them, not an easy one for perfect specimens I have found.



Thanks for the warning about the difficulty of harvesting good seeds. Mine are still outside growing, and still full of younger beans too. It’s impressively productive and has become a favourite. Our weather is still dry at the moment but I’ll keep an extra careful eye on them now that you’ve alerted me to the quality issue.
 

Blue-Jay

Garden Master
Joined
Jan 12, 2013
Messages
3,299
Reaction score
10,245
Points
333
Location
Woodstock, Illinois Zone 5
@Bluejay77 I love how you can find a musical correlation to these situations in life! I remember last year you were talking Dixie Chicks and their Wide Open Spaces! 😂 You must be a music lover along with the beans!
Yep I'm a music lover too besides beans. I have a collection of cds and vinyl records that go back into the late 1950's. For radio listening. I listen to Pandora internet radio on my computer from time to time and when I'm going somewhere in my minivan I have the Pandora radio app on my phone. On September 30 when I go to Berea, Kentucky for the seed swap I'll listen to Pandora all the way there.
 

Blue-Jay

Garden Master
Joined
Jan 12, 2013
Messages
3,299
Reaction score
10,245
Points
333
Location
Woodstock, Illinois Zone 5
@heirloomgal the weather people are predicting a temperature here Friday morning by 7 am of 38 F. What is it going to be doing where you live? I'm hoping we are going to get that long range weather prediction of above normal for October. My Pole beans could use a long extended period of warm and dry. The bush bean plot will soon be all harvested out.
 

ducks4you

Garden Master
Joined
Sep 4, 2009
Messages
11,682
Reaction score
15,297
Points
417
Location
East Central IL, Was Zone 6, Now...maybe Zone 5
We are expected to bottom out at 45 degrees F. With today's heat I don't think that low is gonna make much of a difference. I saw that prediction for an above average October, too. @Bluejay77 , you live 3 1/2 hrs north of me, and I think you are in zone5b. We live just to the south line of the border between 5b and 6a. Doesn't Really mean much when we drop below -20, but if there is protection, I can grow some things that you cannot.
STILL, I will buy perennials that are meant for zones 3-7.
That protection is iffy, too. My property is flat as a pancake, although I could map the dips and tiny hills, if necessary. We get some Wicked winds that knock things over, during the Spring, Fall And winter. Our 100+yo house was wisely built so that you climb 5 steps to the first floor, therefore the first floor won't flood. Just paid to have my gutters cleaned so that I won't get water in the basement, which takes 7 steps down from ground level.
The 2nd floor has NO windows facing west. You don't see that done in modern home building.
I suspect that the first REAL freeze we will get Here is gonna be the beginning of November. All of the Fall planting I did I believe is going to pay off. HERE IS MY QUESTION:
I have "raped" the 12 purple bush beans for some 6 weeks now. They look terrible, suffering from drought, though I have watered them, getting eaten up by grasshoppers--I have seen them--still they continue to produce, though they have slowed. down.
I have just started to get a decent harvest from my later planting, especially from the Kentucky pole beans, which had nothing a week ago,now nice big beans hiding out (but that's bc I really overplanted!)
Should I stop harvesting the purple beans and let them grow nice, big pods to harvest seeds from, like in the next month? I could use some advice, bc this is New to me.
Thanks!
:hugs
 
Last edited:

jbosmith

Deeply Rooted
Joined
Oct 2, 2021
Messages
366
Reaction score
1,595
Points
155
Location
Zones 3 and 5 in Northern New England
@heirloomgal the weather people are predicting a temperature here Friday morning by 7 am of 38 F. What is it going to be doing where you live? I'm hoping we are going to get that long range weather prediction of above normal for October. My Pole beans could use a long extended period of warm and dry. The bush bean plot will soon be all harvested out.
Good luck! My zone 3 gardens are likely to get frosted Friday night, if not sooner. The forecast that night is for 35F but they're at ~1300' elevation...
 

flowerbug

Garden Master
Joined
Oct 15, 2017
Messages
16,893
Reaction score
26,384
Points
427
Location
mid-Michigan, USoA
... HERE IS MY QUESTION:
I have "raped" the 12 purple bush beans for some 6 weeks now. They look terrible, suffering from drought, though I have watered them, getting eaten up by grasshoppers--I have seen them--still they continue to produce, though they have slowed. down.
...
Should I stop harvesting the purple beans and let them grow nice, big pods to harvest seeds from, like in the next month? I could use some advice, bc this is New to me.
Thanks!
:hugs

of course, if you want seeds you should leave some pods alone to finish. i hope they have enough time to properly develop.

i prefer to actively select for some traits so i work with each variety i plant (even the bulk ones i do i'm usually planting from seeds that i've selected during shelling out or even from some plants that i've noted in the gardens and left mostly alone because i want those particular seeds).

is this a particular variety that you've got planted or some generic purple bean or?

are there any goals you might have for them?
 

ducks4you

Garden Master
Joined
Sep 4, 2009
Messages
11,682
Reaction score
15,297
Points
417
Location
East Central IL, Was Zone 6, Now...maybe Zone 5
I am pretty sure that the package was labelled heirloom.
I am sure that my later planted beans ARE heirloom, Kentucky Wonder Beans. I have an order from Baker's Creek that includes Cherokee Trail of Tears, so I will be planting purple beans next year, plus we do have a variety of box stores that sell heirloom purple beans, too.
Hoping that the deep purple beans Are heirloom, but I don't mind practicing seed saving on them.
 
Top