Mottled Grey Bean Grow out, 2015 growing season (Year 2)

[Pulsegleaner]

No disagreement there from me. I sort of am reminded of a line from Alan Sherman's music/poem parody "Peter and the Commissar",

"But these people on committees; they sit around all day,
and they each put in a color, and it comes out grey.

Grey is a nice color, but not if you've ever seen
Orange or red or blue or yellow or green."

 

[Pulsegleaner]

7/8/15

STILL no real change, while the FMV has gone into full production mode (I'll probably have mature seed in under a month) only four of the MG have even begun making a tendril (and those are tiny) (they haven't made any branches either, so bush or a mixed bush pole population seems unlikely) I know they still have time. At least until September probably that and October too (heck there have been years when we didn't start getting killing frosty weather until almost New Years) But if t really is tied to day length, These may be a no go since a bean that won't even really start GROWING until the fall is probably not going to be a reliable producer for me.

Other than that more or less the same, vetch harvest is coming along apace, as are the peas (though both ae getting to the point where it's more ripening what is there rather than making more)

Oh and this happened in one of the pots. No much but it's the first time I've gotten a pansy sown from seed to flower.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Updates

First FPV pod harvested (3 seeds)

Peas and Vetches finished (well the first vetches are, the second one from the last posting is still underway)

and FINALLY, a few of the plants in the stump (one adzuki and two cowpeas) have flowers

 

[Hal]

Updates

First FPV pod harvested (3 seeds)

Peas and Vetches finished (well the first vetches are, the second one from the last posting is still underway)

and FINALLY, a few of the plants in the stump (one adzuki and two cowpeas) have flowers

I'll keep my fingers crossed that you get more pods. Thanks for the update.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I'll keep my fingers crossed that you get more pods. Thanks for the update.

Oh THAT one has plenty of pods (at least another 12); I've never had a problem with the Fort Portal Violet. It's the Mottled Grey that gives me a headache!

At the moment I'm just hoping that at least one of the flowering cowpeas is an Owl's Eye (my working name for the mottled eye cowpea I get out of the mixed bean bags from the Korean company). The odds are pretty good there I think, since I seem to recall that, out of the 20 or so cowpea plants that were NOT Owl's Eye I put in as seedlings; as opposed to direct seeding which I did for OE since I (at the time) had so much, only one actually made it. So the fact that there are two that have flowers speaks of pretty good odds. And I'm pretty confident that OE CAN produce seed here. I've distributed seed of it's bag sibling (exactly the same except that the eye is flat orange brown) to some others on the board and it did SPECTACULARLY for them. And while I often forget it, the facts is that I DID get an OE to make a pod or two way back when I was starting, it just that was really early in my growing career and I pulled the pod too soon, so the resultant seed wasn't quite ripe enough to be viable when I planted it the following year.

Actually I expect that odd one out is probably the one next to it, since it has slightly different traits than the others. It's darker green, glossier, bigger, and beginning to climb, all of which are traits more in line with some of the black seeded ones, and that's what most of the seedlings were black seeds (with one or two speckled browns). The only catch is that last one, since the one time (last year) I had a black that actually made a vine, it never actually made any flowers, it just grew to ridiculous lengths (my flowering cowpeas grow quite short, as a rule). But the space is wide enough that I am willing to let it be and hope. One good thing out of this year with everything in the stump so short and sparse, at least there is no shortage of poles for those that climb. Though I do find a touch of irony in the fact that this is the first year I remembered to pull up the tall weed that sprouts there (most years I forget, and by the time I think it will be a problem, the rice beans have climbed all over it and I have to leave it alone in order to keep them safe) and it looks like this is also the first year I probably didn't have to! (oh well everyone I pull up is one that wont make seed to re-infest the area next year, so I'm making my future easier.)

 

[Pulsegleaner]

ONE OF THE MG's HAS A FLOWER!!!!!!

And the number of cowpeas that are flowering is now 4, INCLUDING the big viny one.

 

[Hal]

ONE OF THE MG's HAS A FLOWER!!!!!!

And the number of cowpeas that are flowering is now 4, INCLUDING the big viny one.

Fantastic news about the MG.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

No so much anymore. I think the heat withered the flower before it took. Of course, where there was one flower, there may be more in the future. I have to remember to go out while there is still a trace and put a marker on that ones stem (at some point, I usually clip down the non flowerers to give the flowerers more room, and I obviously don't want to clip the wrong one.)

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Two more MG's have flower buds (including one of the few that is sort of climbing, which seems to have multiple)

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Aug 1

Things are looking worse and worse. Not only did none of the other MG flowers take either, but the plants themselves are looking really sick. At least half the total leaves have already fallen off, and the other half look so sickly. Most if not all are COVERED with little grey dots (whether this is stress or insect damage I can't tell)

The FPV isn't doing much better. It still is making pods, but it's losing a lot of leaves as well, and new flowers seem few and far between.

Actually, with the heat we've had, I'm beginning to wonder if a lot of the producers have gone into "doom mode" (where they throw all their energy into finishing off the seed they have leaving none for more). I'm noticing that, while I am harvesting, a lot of the plants I am harvesting from are totally yellowing up as soon as the pods do. The white Adzuki plant (the only one that flowered and made seed so far) did it and today, so did the first two producing cowpea plants. And the sky pointing cowpea (which is also pretty close to done) is going totally yellow too.

The corn and the Job's tears are still nice and healthy but neither seems to be showing any sign of tasseling. And the corn could only be described as being as high as an elephant's eye if the elephant in question was a tvuku (an elephant relative in a fantasy novel I was working on used like, and about the size of, a sheepdog.)