2023 Little Easy Bean Network - Beans Beyond The Colors Of A Rainbow

[Zeedman]

with the reduction in coal burning power plants and better air quality it may make sense for me to do a side by side trial in a garden for using some sulphur this spring. i have the elemental powder on hand for acidification, but i do not have any gypsum which will not have as much of an effect on the pH. gypsum is one of my amendment trials i'd like to do anyways since it will help improve the heavy clay in the gardens. if i can find a decent source of it.

I added both soil sulfur and gypsum to my home gardens in the Fall of 2021, along with wood ashes, charcoal, and lots of shredded leaves. Those gardens were very depleted after 20 years of use; yet after that treatment, the results in 2022 were phenomenal. Last Fall, I added some wood ashes & A LOT of shredded leaves - but not the gypsum or soil sulfur. My thinking was that all of the organic material breaking down would offset the increased pH of the ashes... but I don't believe that was the case. That may (or may not) have been responsible for the poor performance of most P. vulgaris beans this year.

The very late freeze this year led to garden cleanup which has yet to be fully completed, so any soil amending is necessarily postponed until Spring 2024. I'm hoping the snow melts - and the lawn dries out enough - for me to at least collect my leaves & grass to spread on the home gardens.

 

[Blue-Jay]

flowerbug said:
with the reduction in coal burning power plants and better air quality it may make sense for me to do a side by side trial in a garden for using some sulphur this spring. i have the elemental powder on hand for acidification, but i do not have any gypsum which will not have as much of an effect on the pH. gypsum is one of my amendment trials i'd like to do anyways since it will help improve the heavy clay in the gardens. if i can find a decent source of it.


This is my source for Gypsum. 40 pound bags of pellitized product for $12.75

NutraSoft OP Gypsum - 40lb Bag

NutraSoft OP Gypsum is a granulated gypsum soil amendment for lawns and gardens, with an analysis of 21% calcium and 16% sulfur. Gypsum adds calcium without raising the pH. It is also ideal for soils with high sodium as it removes harmful salts that can prevent seed germination and negatively...

www.7springsfarm.com

 

[Blue-Jay]

Sacre Bleu - Semi Runner - Dry. I acquired this bean in 2016 from Lisa Bloodnick of Appalchan, New York who developed the bean from a dwarf German variety called Dwarf Blue. I started growing it in 2018 and have grown it every since except for 2019.

Sacre Bleu Off Type 2023 - Semi Runner. At first I thought I was seeing things. Then I shined a strong LED flashlight on my seed crop of Sacre Bleu and could see some of the black off types that were produced this past summer. Under the strong light of the LED flash light the blue coloring was very even more apparent.


Sacre Bleu...............................................................Sacre Black

 

[flowerbug]

I added both soil sulfur and gypsum to my home gardens in the Fall of 2021, along with wood ashes, charcoal, and lots of shredded leaves. Those gardens were very depleted after 20 years of use; yet after that treatment, the results in 2022 were phenomenal. Last Fall, I added some wood ashes & A LOT of shredded leaves - but not the gypsum or soil sulfur. My thinking was that all of the organic material breaking down would offset the increased pH of the ashes... but I don't believe that was the case. That may (or may not) have been responsible for the poor performance of most P. vulgaris beans this year.

if you are adding small amounts i would not expect that to be a major issue, but if you are adding enough to actually change by more than a slight bump in the soil pH or soil community it may take a season or two for it to settle out again. also i think it would matter how much you are tilling it in or just layering it on top.

same for adding organic materials, it may take several months to several seasons for them to be digested and from then on if you keep adding how much material and what kind then that maintains the system so that is often why when you read in the literature for going natural that it may take 1-3 years to get the gardens to be more consistently productive. my own continued experimentation with various methods does show this to be accurate enough. which is why when someone comes to me and asks about doing natural methods that it will take several years and that you don't want to make huge changes for your entire gardens all at once because then you are really going to take a hit to production.

after almost 20yrs here i still see the gradual improvements each season and that is slower than i'd like because i bring in very little outside materials and i no longer have been bringing in leaves from outside because i simply never have enough time to do it on top of the problems with all the trash in them. also i cannot do cover crops and leave debris on the surface through the winter as i would like. based upon what i see from many years experiments if you can leave a standing crop for any length of time you are keeping the soil protected and the worms will love you for it.

The very late freeze this year led to garden cleanup which has yet to be fully completed, so any soil amending is necessarily postponed until Spring 2024. I'm hoping the snow melts - and the lawn dries out enough - for me to at least collect my leaves & grass to spread on the home gardens.

i was hoping tomorrow would be warmer and dry enough but that doesn't look like it will happen. also rains the forecast. i may not be able to get back out either. we'll see. i've sometimes found myself out there in December able to do some gardening... good luck!

the things we do for our beanie childrens...

 

[flowerbug]

@Bluejay77 from sacre bleu, sacre black is what i've seen here also besides my other previously mentioned and pictured silvery patterned beans. no more grow outs of those for me.

 

[jbrobin09]

@Bluejay77 @heirloomgal I have some Bird Egg Blue beans I got in 2021, and I have them listed as 110 days to maturity, which is doable here. Do you think it is actually longer than that? I haven't grown them out yet but I hate the thought of having to pre-start and transplant. I do so many tomatoes, peppers, brassicas, etc. from seed to transplant that I hate to add more to that list.

 

[heirloomgal]

@Bluejay77 @heirloomgal I have some Bird Egg Blue beans I got in 2021, and I have them listed as 110 days to maturity, which is doable here. Do you think it is actually longer than that? I haven't grown them out yet but I hate the thought of having to pre-start and transplant. I do so many tomatoes, peppers, brassicas, etc. from seed to transplant that I hate to add more to that list.

Hmmm, well I planted mine first week of June and probably harvested dried beans in mid September? I tend to think in terms of heat units more so than days to maturity. We had quite a hot summer on the whole, with temps nearly 90F/low 30's in early June and on and off for the whole season. I know what you mean about not wanting more transplants to do! I balked at the idea of it, but once you try it and see how well plants tend to do as opposed to seeds it's like an addiction.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Bluejay77 @heirloomgal I have some Bird Egg Blue beans I got in 2021, and I have them listed as 110 days to maturity, which is doable here. Do you think it is actually longer than that? I haven't grown them out yet but I hate the thought of having to pre-start and transplant. I do so many tomatoes, peppers, brassicas, etc. from seed to transplant that I hate to add more to that list.

I think you could try doing half the seeds direct seeded and the other half of the seeds as pre-start and transplant. You could see how you like the transplants as opposed to the direct seeded method. Do about 6 seeds both ways.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Somebody wanted to grow these beans that were developed by University of California at Davis. Who was that? You might as well get some seed from me and grow them out. I don't know when I'm going to be able to get around to doing a grow out on them myself. I must have about 7 varieties. All been bred to increase productivity and are now also BCMV resistant.

The Rio Zape from this breeding I understand is still a very late maturing variety.

 

[Zeedman]

@Bluejay77 , if I remember the list you once gave correctly, I was interested in one of those UC Davis varieties. All bush, if my memory is correct... was one of them Tiger Eye? I once grew that bean & loved it, but ended up dropping it partially because of its low productivity. Could you please post the list again?