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

[flowerbug]

Wow! I'll be curious to see if they make it through the next month, keep us posted!

will do for sure!

the past few years i've managed to get mid-April beans to survive and give me an early crop of fresh beans. even if these don't make it they're not a major loss because i have plenty more to replant. i didn't plant anything risky that would disappoint me if a frost takes them out. i'm two weeks later this year. snow and frosts up until just a few days ago, but it's warm this coming week and the ground is not cold, i think these beans will sprout and grow as well as they usually do. Purple Dove beans are pretty hardy in my experience to date.

 

[heirloomgal]

I used to have series of gardening books by a wonderful gardener named Lois Hole. Delightful, old timey books with a lot of charm. Lois was a huge proponent of the 'early plantings experiment', with a lot of different vegetables. She was in Alberta, in a tough growing zone too. She recommended everyone do it to see what might be possible, worst case scenario you plant again she'd say! Or you just might get lucky and have some early vegetables!

 

[Artorius]

I'm also starting, the weather forecasts are promising and therefore I will not be making seedlings this year. I plan to put the previously sprouted seeds directly into the holes in the ground. I will cover the rows with a layer of black compost earth, they will warm up faster.

 

[Michael Lusk]

I was cleaning up some of last year's garden today and found a few seed pods which I missed. Several were in sad shape but a few looked airtight. These are the Presley pole limas from @Bluejay77 I grew last year. Are seeds that over-wintered in the garden any less viable than the ones I cared for in a more proper way?

 

[Zeedman]

I was cleaning up some of last year's garden today and found a few seed pods which I missed. Several were in sad shape but a few looked airtight. These are the Presley pole limas from @Bluejay77 I grew last year. Are seeds that over-wintered in the garden any less viable than the ones I cared for in a more proper way?

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Personally, I almost never have any over-wintered Phaseolus beans (common, runner, or lima) sprout the next year. They seem to rot too easily. Vigna beans though (cowpeas, yardlongs, adzuki, mung) often volunteer the next year. Soybeans often volunteer too... especially if I till up a vole's pantry.

I have a rule though, that any beans left over after planting are considered contaminated, and may not be returned to storage. So I typically just toss those over the garden fence, to fend for themselves... which can be hilarious when I suddenly find I have a lawn full of bean sprouts. It makes me wonder how well beans would grow in a lawn.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I was cleaning up some of last year's garden today and found a few seed pods which I missed. Several were in sad shape but a few looked airtight. These are the Presley pole limas from @Bluejay77 I grew last year. Are seeds that over-wintered in the garden any less viable than the ones I cared for in a more proper way?

Rig up a trellis for them and plant them. I would bet that most of them will grow. You can get another crop of Pressley limas this year.

I don't know how you would have missed any pods in great condition. None of my missed seeds will survive my lawn mower when I shread the garden just before tilling everything under.

 

[Michael Lusk]

Rig up a trellis for them and plant them. I would bet that most of them will grow. You can get another crop of Pressley limas this year.

I don't know how you would have missed any pods in great condition. None of my missed seeds will survive my lawn mower when I shread the garden just before tilling everything under.

OK, I'll give them a try, I like the pole limas! I had these growing in an area along a fence and didn't have much time as they didn't dry until basically winter. The vines and all were just left until I started getting the area ready to plant this weekend and I found the pods once I pulled everything out, they were just well hidden I suppose.

 

[Michael Lusk]

Personally, I almost never have any over-wintered Phaseolus beans (common, runner, or lima) sprout the next year. They seem to rot too easily. Vigna beans though (cowpeas, yardlongs, adzuki, mung) often volunteer the next year. Soybeans often volunteer too... especially if I till up a vole's pantry.

I have a rule though, that any beans left over after planting are considered contaminated, and may not be returned to storage. So I typically just toss those over the garden fence, to fend for themselves... which can be hilarious when I suddenly find I have a lawn full of bean sprouts. It makes me wonder how well beans would grow in a lawn.

That makes sense not to mix them with other seed, and I would also be curious to see the bean lawn.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

It makes me wonder how well beans would grow in a lawn.

Excellently, in fact. Happened to us last year with some Bortolloni beans we tossed out for the birds. Actually got a handful back.

Actually, a LOT of the seed I have came about that way. Any regular red rice beans I have harvested came from plants that came from seed I tossed on the lawn for the animals which either never got eaten or got stashed away by the squirrels. Ditto my Sky Pointed Cowpeas, I never INTENTIONALLY planted them, a few just wound up in the flower garden rather than the lawn; beyond the gardeners mowers.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Actually, I sort of wish I HAD planted some Sky Pointers intentionally (or, at least, had put some leftovers away rather than tossing them all to the birds) Not only might I have had a bit more variation (whatever kind of cow peas it was I was pulling out of those bags, either none of them made it to production or none of them were Sky Pointers.) But I might have some idea of what size the things get to if they are actually TENDED (for my garden standards they actually produced reasonably well, but I can't believe that, in field size cultivation, anyone would want to deal with a cowpea that produced only the amount I got, or that required special farm equipment to compensate for being so short. Same story as always, by the time you realize that the thing that was super common at the time is of interest and you want to seriously work with it, the supply is totally gone and never returns*). Holmes' Law in action.

*Or (as in the case of the tiny Southeast Asian cowpeas), the owner of the only place you know that has them won't allow you into the store anymore; which works out to fundamentally the same thing.