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

[Hal]

Thought You all might enjoy a little shot of my home bean patch behind my house where I'm growing a crop of carrots, bush, and pole beans. The bean plants have really been cranking out snap beans the last couple of weeks. I just picked more today and have already frozen 45 quarts.

This is a shot from the south looking north. 4 - 12 foot long rows of Atomic Red Carrots just beyond the rabbit fence then 8 varieties bush snap beans then 6 varieties of pole snaps. The whole garden is 12 feet wide and 24 feet long.

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This is a shot from the north looking south.

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Three of the six snap beans I've grown this year. From left to right. Cassie's Purple Pod, Louisiana, and Weaver. A lot of these pods are from 7 to 9 inches long. All three are very handsome looking varieties.

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Those are very nice pods, Louisiana has brilliant colouration and Weaver looks so big and broad!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi 1honeycomb,

Sounds like your having fun with beans and they are growing well for you. Bless those bean for making you smile. Also as you have watched these beans grow if you can keep a little record of how tall the pole beans grew, how long their pods were, if the pods were wrinkled or smooth. Color of the pods, or if they had markings on them. Is alway kind of neat to know some of this stuff. I have planted pole beans that I wouldn't even call pole beans. They grew short runners and could have been grown on the ground like a bush bean. I would call those types semi-runners. It would be neat if everyone could do something like this. Just a little general info about the beans they grew.

I assume the wrinkled or smooth you'd like is after they dry, not when they were still fresh. A smooth dried pod is usually pretty easy to hull; a wrinkled pod can be a pain, at least from my very limited experience. I'd think all pods would be smooth when fresh.

I took my first dried pods from Lazy Housewife Red and Mahlathini yesterday. Four pods of Lazy Housewife gave me enough beans to meet my 25 commitment to you with a few beans to spare but I'll wait and send all four varieties I'm growing back at the same time.

 

[the1honeycomb]

@Bluejay77 , the wozi bean is at least 7 feet, I think it would grow taller if the sticks were taller! the pods are smooth green, like snap beans, and they are about 7 inches long! very pretty. the ?lazy housewife? is only about 4 feet tall and the pods are also smooth green about 4 inches. we are having alot of nice drizzly rain so they are quite happy right now.
@baymule I hope you find something good in the box and not a shocker!!! good luck!

 

[Blue-Jay]

I assume the wrinkled or smooth you'd like is after they dry, not when they were still fresh. A smooth dried pod is usually pretty easy to hull; a wrinkled pod can be a pain, at least from my very limited experience. I'd think all pods would be smooth when fresh.

I took my first dried pods from Lazy Housewife Red and Mahlathini yesterday. Four pods of Lazy Housewife gave me enough beans to meet my 25 commitment to you with a few beans to spare but I'll wait and send all four varieties I'm growing back at the same time.

Hi Ridge,

You hit the mark, it would be interesting info to know if the pods are wrinkled or smooth after they dry. You are right about the wrinkled pods being harder to shell out. When those wrinkled pods dry they tighten up around their seeds. The pod walls seem to be thicker also.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Bluejay77 , the wozi bean is at least 7 feet, I think it would grow taller if the sticks were taller! the pods are smooth green, like snap beans, and they are about 7 inches long! very pretty. the ?lazy housewife? is only about 4 feet tall and the pods are also smooth green about 4 inches. we are having alot of nice drizzly rain so they are quite happy right now.
@baymule I hope you find something good in the box and not a shocker!!! good luck!

Hi 1honeycomb,

You have taller poles supports for you beans than I do. Mine wind up being about 6 feet tall. Whatever height you have them at least they have enough support to get a bunch of good seed from them without the plant laying on the ground.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Those are very nice pods, Louisiana has brilliant colouration and Weaver looks so big and broad!

Hi Hal,

Just curious do you ever grow pole beans?

 

[Ridgerunner]

My Lazy Housewife Red topped my 12' tall trellis pretty early. A windstorm did a fair amount of damage to it up there so I'm not sure what it would have wound up doing but it had started falling back down. Still, it is going strong enough. I'll have plenty of seeds.

 

[journey11]

I made the rounds last night, taking more field notes on the 40 varieties I have growing this year. I am going to have to make myself a chart of sorts to simplify note taking. It would be nice to just check a box rather than have to write so much out.

Most of the bush varieties are finishing up and will be ready to collect soon. Excited!

Russ, both Star 2056 and Molley's Zebra are full of pods now and both turned out to be snap beans.

About half of the beans on Molley's Zebra have a purple blush with a purple line. The other half are pretty much plain green as you can see from the first two pics. The vines started out reddish, but turned green as they went up. The blooms are lavender. I have them on a 7' pole and I think they'd keep going if they could, a very healthy and vigorous climber. Pods are 6-7" long, plump, string-less, sweet and juicy, rather smooth and almost fuzz-less. The yield is very good. The first pods were ready to pick in snap bean stage last week. (I'll get the DTM calculated for you and days to dry pods after a bit. These were planted on June 7th.)

I really like Molley's Zebra and will definitely plant her again.

Star 2056 (below) is a compact bush growth habit. Very small white blooms come on thickly all at once. Pods are slender and pencil-round (what you'd call a filet bean?), about 6" long, string-less, very heavy yields on such a small plant, not particularly tender or sweet, but I have enough to cook up a handful to better judge their flavor. These were planted on June 14th.

Won't be much longer 'til I'll be putting your beans in the mail.

I also really like the Gold of Bacau that @marshallsmyth gave me. I need to get a pic of their huge, yellow wax pods. They are so pretty. (And tasty!)

 

[Hal]

I made the rounds last night, taking more field notes on the 40 varieties I have growing this year. I am going to have to make myself a chart of sorts to simplify note taking. It would be nice to just check a box rather than have to write so much out.

Most of the bush varieties are finishing up and will be ready to collect soon. Excited!

Russ, both Star 2056 and Molley's Zebra are full of pods now and both turned out to be snap beans.

About half of the beans on Molley's Zebra have a purple blush with a purple line. The other half are pretty much plain green as you can see from the first two pics. The vines started out reddish, but turned green as they went up. The blooms are lavender. I have them on a 7' pole and I think they'd keep going if they could, a very healthy and vigorous climber. Pods are 6-7" long, plump, string-less, sweet and juicy, rather smooth and almost fuzz-less. The yield is very good. The first pods were ready to pick in snap bean stage last week. (I'll get the DTM calculated for you and days to dry pods after a bit. These were planted on June 7th.)

I really like Molley's Zebra and will definitely plant her again.

View attachment 3965 View attachment 3966

Star 2056 (below) is a compact bush growth habit. Very small white blooms come on thickly all at once. Pods are slender and pencil-round (what you'd call a filet bean?), about 6" long, string-less, very heavy yields on such a small plant, not particularly tender or sweet, but I have enough to cook up a handful to better judge their flavor. These were planted on June 14th.

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Won't be much longer 'til I'll be putting your beans in the mail.

I also really like the Gold of Bacau that @marshallsmyth gave me. I need to get a pic of their huge, yellow wax pods. They are so pretty. (And tasty!)

Journey, Molley's is one from my country and I'm glad to hear that you like it. The purple blush and purple line are normal for that particular bean, all the zebra cultivars grown here display some purple in the pods be it stripes or along the strings. I'd be interested in seeing what the final seed looks like compared to mine.

 

[Blue-Jay]

My Lazy Housewife Red topped my 12' tall trellis pretty early. A windstorm did a fair amount of damage to it up there so I'm not sure what it would have wound up doing but it had started falling back down. Still, it is going strong enough. I'll have plenty of seeds.

Wow 12 feet that is impressive on top of some storm damage. It's a strong climber. I like strong climbing pole beans. Everyone has done such a superb job of growing their beans.