The 2014 Little Easy Bean Network - Get New Beans On The Cheap

[Blue-Jay]

Hi honeycomb,

If you have six foot plus stakes for the pole beans you have got good support. Beyond that if the beans want to grow on the corn let them. You will get plenty of beans on the six foot stakes. I had a bean climb up a tomato stake last year. My pole beans will over grow my six foot five stakes, and they just flop over a bit, but all is fine with them.

 

[Hal]

What sort of timber are the stakes made out of?

 

[journey11]

@Bluejay77 I put stakes up for some of my vine growing plants, the stakes are 6 plus feet tall!! my beans are at the top and looking for more room! how should I handle this? could I put string from stake to stake? they are close to the corn should I let them grow over to the corn? the corn is just a little taller than the stakes. everyone seems happy but want to make sure we get a good harvest and I don't mess things up!!

My rule of thumb is not to stake them any higher than you can comfortably reach. They'll flop back over after awhile or reach over and climb on their neighbor. Doesn't really hurt anything to let them do that.

 

[aftermidnight]

Russ, here's a picture of your Comtesse de Chambord 226, with the one plant climbing a stick, it stopped at 33". Possibly an outcross, I guess this plant would be classed as a vining bush? The other 3 plants are definitely bush and loaded with flowers. I've bagged a couple of the bush type and I'll bag a couple of flowers on the climber, I'm growing so many different beans this year I'm bagging flowers on all of them, most of them are planted pretty close together, just in case I get some crosses.

Also the leaves on the climbing plant are bigger than the other 3 plants.
Annette

 

[897tgigvib]

Howdy Russ, my beans are most all at the stage of waiting for the first flush to ripen and dry.



Looking at the very productive Stevenson Black Eye. Plants did some climbing then slowed, like what I call a

Quarter Runner.

One of them is making very light green pods almost leaning toward yellow, but the other plant is making what sure look like Wax Beans. (I really like Wax Beans!).

Do they normally make yellow pods like that? The seeds sure looked like the photo on your website, so if this variety does not normally make wax bean looking pods, these might be F1 plants.

And I think that is a really wonderful thing! I've actually been wondering for some time if there are any Wax Bean/Dry Bean multipurpose varieties out there. Course, practically any snap or wax variety can also be a dry bean, but it'd be real cool to develop a nice old fashioned Wax variety that needs good old fashioned stringing, and is as productive as these are.

Oh man, chomping at the bit waiting for this first flush of ripe pods! Russ, there is going to be some really special stuff coming from this endeavour. One of the Flamboyant outcrosses is coming along like a thorobred, growing like a USDA introduction all america selections award winner, same with some of the other outcrosses. Sandpiper and Blue Aspen are making the prettiest almost red blossoms. Windmere is making very beautifully striped pods. Some of the African Premiere plants are exploding with flowers. What an excellent variety that is for a place where life giving food is so important to produce. Outcrosses from that will be highly interesting.

Looks like about a month give or take...waiting...for those first crisp pods.

I got the paper plates all labeled and ready. Still want to get the shelves ready for the plates.

Harvested all the Peas. 103 days seed to full plant harvesting of seed. The purple seeded golden podded snow peas still need more single plant selecting, but I got 3 basic types. 2 plants made all normal seeds, 2 plants made high percentages of purple seeds, and one plant made twice as many seeds, larger too, as all the others, and it made seeds of all colors. That one starts it's own selecting route! Some of its seeds are red, some purple almost black, some green, some yellow, some spotted.

 

[PhilaGardener]

one plant made twice as many seeds, larger too, as all the others, and it made seeds of all colors. That one starts it's own selecting route! Some of its seeds are red, some purple almost black, some green, some yellow, some spotted.

@marshallsmyth , were those colors all mixed in individual pods? Can't say I have ever seen that in a pea before! Sounds amazing!

 

[897tgigvib]

Yep Phila, some pods on that pea plant had several colors in them.

 

[Hal]

Howdy Russ, my beans are most all at the stage of waiting for the first flush to ripen and dry.



Looking at the very productive Stevenson Black Eye. Plants did some climbing then slowed, like what I call a

Quarter Runner.

One of them is making very light green pods almost leaning toward yellow, but the other plant is making what sure look like Wax Beans. (I really like Wax Beans!).

Do they normally make yellow pods like that? The seeds sure looked like the photo on your website, so if this variety does not normally make wax bean looking pods, these might be F1 plants.

And I think that is a really wonderful thing! I've actually been wondering for some time if there are any Wax Bean/Dry Bean multipurpose varieties out there. Course, practically any snap or wax variety can also be a dry bean, but it'd be real cool to develop a nice old fashioned Wax variety that needs good old fashioned stringing, and is as productive as these are.

Oh man, chomping at the bit waiting for this first flush of ripe pods! Russ, there is going to be some really special stuff coming from this endeavour. One of the Flamboyant outcrosses is coming along like a thorobred, growing like a USDA introduction all america selections award winner, same with some of the other outcrosses. Sandpiper and Blue Aspen are making the prettiest almost red blossoms. Windmere is making very beautifully striped pods. Some of the African Premiere plants are exploding with flowers. What an excellent variety that is for a place where life giving food is so important to produce. Outcrosses from that will be highly interesting.

Looks like about a month give or take...waiting...for those first crisp pods.

I got the paper plates all labeled and ready. Still want to get the shelves ready for the plates.

Harvested all the Peas. 103 days seed to full plant harvesting of seed. The purple seeded golden podded snow peas still need more single plant selecting, but I got 3 basic types. 2 plants made all normal seeds, 2 plants made high percentages of purple seeds, and one plant made twice as many seeds, larger too, as all the others, and it made seeds of all colors. That one starts it's own selecting route! Some of its seeds are red, some purple almost black, some green, some yellow, some spotted.

Marshall do you happen to have any photos of those almost red blossoms? I am quite curious because I remember seeing a red flowered P. vulgaris somewhere online ages back.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hey Marshall,

It will be so exciting when you premier the Marshall Smyth 2014 Bean Seed Show. Hope you can put up some pictures if anything new pops up. I actually don't remember what the Stevenson's Black Eye did as far as pod color. I would suspect what you are getting is probably normal for that bean. I will grow a few an see next year. You know I don't think I've ever seen a red bean blossom. I will have to be on the look out for that among those two when they begin to bloom. Blossoming time for my beans should be coming up in about a week and a half.

 

[the1honeycomb]

I love this site!!! learning so much from everyone!!
@Hal my stakes are made from different small trees that have overgrown some property I just purchased nothing fancy at my house try to use all the natural resources I can get my hands on! All my pods are full and many trying to get dried out now! can't wait to share them back!