The Little Easy Bean Network - Get New Beans Varieties Nearly Free

[897tgigvib]

I've been entirely off grid for 5 years now...oh, the propane truck comes twice a year, but I really don't need a fridge or heater or stove. Wood stove is fine. Solar panels I will get in 6 months or so, and switching down to a tiny 500 watt generator, and get this, down to one smaller 12 volt battery. Most folks want super huge battery and charging systems. Smaller is better.

I guess almost all my beans now are in stages of blooming or making beans but some of the sierra madre varieties.

The race is on for which variety will bone dry ripen the first pod. Vermont Appaloossa? Louisiana Red Kidney? Or will one of the others suddenly break into a sprint to ripen first?

 

[so lucky]

Marshall, you don't need a fridge? How do you keep your beer cold?

 

[MontyJ]

Marshall uses cool mountain spring water...and ice from the beach babes coolers He has that whole hippy zen thing going on that just draws them in.

Meanwhile, my Winterfare are now 6 feet tall and have reached the top of the trellis.

 

[897tgigvib]

I actually don't drink much alcohol unless it's given to me, lol! And they usually give it to me cold.

Sure cool to hear your winterfares are growing so well Monty!

Next year I'm going to try to get about 30 varieties from Russ for growing for trade in the bean network. I also have a list of some more Tepary mixes to get and then sort them out into varieties. That Paiute mix sorted into some really neat separate varieties. I only have left with that project 2 things: To make sure I have that dominant gene for speckling on the orange speckled stabilized, and also the large flat orange may well sort into a pale orange and a medium orange.

whooph, going to be another hot busy day. We have us a leak in the upper line somewhere.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Spent 14 and half hours the last two days weeding and cultivating my bean field. The patch looks great now. The pole beans are beginning to climb and twine around my single poles. Nothing is blooming yet, but hope that will come soon. I took a before and after picture of my pole bean section to show the dramatic change from a weedy patch to a cultivated bean field. The third picture is Marshall's Nova Star. Planted 8 seeds of them. 6 of them grew and all six will become pole beans. They are all developing runners on them. Not a bush type in the bunch. Marshall I would imagine this bean probably doesn't resemble anything you remember of it's discovery from your garden last year except that it's green.

Love Monty's pictures of the Winterfare and Tobacco Patch. Both look just outstanding.

Weedy Patch

Cultivated Bean Field

Nova Star

 

[MontyJ]

Tobacco Patch are forming blooms now. The Winterfare have over-topped the trellis so I'm just going to let them grow back down it.

 

[897tgigvib]

Russ, those Nova Stars will all be one of the most vigorous pole beans. Last year the progenitor plant was a pole, but was in among the Mayflowers, and the Hidatsa Shield Figure pole beans grew into among them from one side, and the Tarahumara Purple Ojos pole beans grew into among them from the other side.

Add to that, suddenly having a new variety growing in there I was not really thinking for sure would happen, I was not watching its growth as much as I should have been.

I was only expecting to maybe get a Mayflower with larger seeds.

My planting of Nova Star are all very vigorous pole plants, and they are even faster than Dow Purple Pod. I will probably have to put more twine up in their row at the tops of the poles.

Your garden is so organized! Mine are all starting to grow one into the other.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Marshall !

Last year I had the problem of my pole beans growing into each other too. In 2012 my pole rows were 3 feet apart and the poles within the row were 2 ft apart. I sometimes had beans growing in the row next to each other that had a similar looking seed, and I had to be very careful when picking mature pods to follow down the vine to make sure what row it came from so as not to get seed mixed up from similar looking ones. What a job that was.

This year the pole bean rows are 5 feet apart and the poles within the row are 4 feet. Unlike last year I am also going to take little strips of velcro and help train any straying pole bean vine to stay wrapped around the pole in was planted next to by strapping those straying vines to the pole with those velcro strips.

My bush bean rows this year are 24 inches apart and I could just get the rotiller between the rows without tearing anything up when I cultivated the space between the rows. I will only be able to cultivate the bush bean rows one time as they will spread forming a canopy closing in that space not allowing for any more tiller cultivations.

The pole bean rows could be narrowed down about 6 inches next year to 4 feet 6 inches. Allowing me to cultivate between the rows with the tiller in two passes instead of three. The bush beans row spacing I think will be increased to 28 inches so the space isn't so tight. Cultivating this time between the bush beans really kept me on edge as the tiller just fit between the rows. I'm going to add 16 feet to the length of the garden next year. That will allow for all the changes in row spacing. I will increase my bush beans rows from 16 to 20 and pole bean rows from 6 to 8.

This year I had 5 bush bean varieties planted to each row. Next year I will plant only 4 varieties per row, but increase the number of seed planted to each variety. That will allow me to plant the same number of varieties each year, but make up for any plants that don't come up and make up for the plants that my deer friend might bite off and eat. I have had a deer visitor this year and he came about two times that I can figure by observing the number of times I saw the tracks change in the patch. He or she munched about 15 to 20 plants through out the patch. The deer hasn't been back in about two weeks and really didn't snack that much with each visit. There were over 1.500 seeds planted in this patch, and the deer didn't bother with the pole beans. Only the bush ones. Perhaps the deer didn't like going near the poles standing in the garden. I will also increase the planting of pole beans from planting each variety around two poles to three poles with less varities per row. That will will make up for a little bit of germination failure. I think planting each pole bean variety around only two poles with 4 seeds around each a little bit slim. However I do get such good production from those climbers.

Last year my 3,360 square foot garden produced 53 pounds of seed. Now this year with good amounts of rain. It will be interesting to see what the difference in total seed will be with this years 3,381 square feet of space. My little bean field this year is 49 feet wide and 69 feet long.

Bush beans rows 24 inches apart.

 

[baymule]

Your bean garden looks so nice!

 

[MontyJ]

OK, I have beans on both the Winterfare and Tobacco Patch. Do I let them dry on the vine, or dry after harvesting? Baring some unforeseen catastrophe, I'll be sending Russ a lot more beans than the agreement called for