2025 Little Easy Bean Network - Growers Of The Future Will Be Glad We Saved

[flowerbug]

Some more recent bean mail. This is a beautiful bean I ran across about two weeks ago. From a grower in Pescadaro, California. The grower says the bean is a cross between Anasazi and Rio Zape. I believe it is a pole bean.

View attachment 74088
Anna Zape - Pole Dry

lovely!

 

[flowerbug]

... They’re all a foot or two tall now. I plant them in cut off plastic bottles to protect against the worst freeze and wind but they will stand quite a lot of cold. As @heirloomgal says, the round seeded varieties are hardier than the wrinkled seeds and can survive right through the winter if they don’t get attacked by rodents.

you're in a place with much milder winters than what we get here.

i do have pretty good luck growing Green Beauty peas into August here as long as they are kept watered. the clay seems to help, i think they would give up earlier in sandier soil (which also gets warmer).

i agree though about later planted peas often having powdery mildew issues that don't show up in the first crop. it is too bad though since it would be nice to have a second crop of peas and pea pods.

 

[Decoy1]

you're in a place with much milder winters than what we get here.

i do have pretty good luck growing Green Beauty peas into August here as long as they are kept watered. the clay seems to help, i think they would give up earlier in sandier soil (which also gets warmer).

i agree though about later planted peas often having powdery mildew issues that don't show up in the first crop. it is too bad though since it would be nice to have a second crop of peas and pea pods.

We have frosts down to -8 but not often and not for days on end.
I was assuming that by March peas would be able to survive your conditions, but perhaps I under-estimated.

It's often round-seeded podding dwarf varieties which are sown early here, like Kelvedon Wonder and Meteor but there are some tough mangetout types as well, like Winterkefe and Frühe Heinrich