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

[so lucky]

I have a nutrition problem resulting in bean failure. the plants are big beautiful & empty. this is a bed that got old manure but otherwise nothing extra - but it must have been to high in nitrogen. I've never grown beans before, so don't really know how they go, but it's bouncing around 100 every day with the nights @ 80. we will keep going on like this until some time in October. I don't want to keep babysitting them if this is the result. it's too hot to be fun. will they still get down to business this late or are they going to be just a great big green bean plants w/no beans?

bj, I'm sure not a bean expert, but here's my 2 cents' worth. Are you talking about bush beans or pole beans? I think pole beans can take a long time to produce flowers; kind of like they have to reach a certain height before they stop to get down to business. If you get tired of waiting for them and decide to pull them out, you could leave 3 or 4 plants there. They might do something yet. Maybe the excess nitrogen (if that is the problem) will dissipate with time.

 

[897tgigvib]

BJ, I think you should keep watering those beans. Try giving them water during the afternoons. Overhead water will help keep them cool. Maybe an oscillating lawn sprinkler will be easiest. Just set it at a good place and turn it on daily for as long as checking on it shows you need to have it on.

Trying to remember which kind you have. Were you the one with the Black Coco?

One year way back I fertilized my Beans a bit too much with Osmocote. I don't use it anymore. But the beans grew ok after all. Their leaves were many, sort of small and rounded, and too deep a green color. They also kind of rolled back making them look even more rounded. They turned out ok though. The first flowers did not take, then they made a huge flush of flowers.

But old manure should not be too bad for them. Just, Beans don't seem to need much in the line of fertilizer, oh, I guess for most soils. Some soil can be deficient in some nutrients, but usually working in a little bone meal fixes that. In fact, I think that I'll work in my bone meal after the garden is done, not right before seeding. Just enough and early enough to let it mostly feed the soil more than the actual plants.

I find that some varieties tolerate the hot heat better than other varieties.

Oh. I was picking dry pods this morning and saw that Ora's Speckled, a variety I got from Journey, has made a good number of really delicious looking Cutshort pods. They were hiding in the vines. Yes, Ora's Speckled's pods look different than Greasy Grit. They just look better. About the same size, much less marking on the pods, and they fill out better. Ora's Speckled are getting a nice soft buttery yellow just at what should be picking stage for beans n bacon. Resisting temptation to pick any for eating though. I want their seeds!

White Seeded Kentucky Wonder will have dry pods probably in a week or so. Experience tells me those huge foot plus long pods take awhile to dry. One has yellowed so far. Mccaslan is a bit behind them.

 

[the1honeycomb]

I got 82 beans from my stock after all the trouble!! I put them in the mail today!! Thanks for letting me be a part of your network!!!!

 

[journey11]

The Appaloosa have maturing beans on them now and the Top Crop have just started blooming.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi BJ


Well I don't know what it is exactly with the beans you've grown this year, but I can tell you that beans are not heavy feeders. So we can only make guesses as to what might be the problem with them not making pods. Could be the heat the heat too. However last year we had almost constantly Mid 90 degree weather here and I was wondering if the beans were gong to set pods, and they did pretty good. Although your weather might be notched up another 10 degrees in Texas and that might make a difference. I would water them at the root zone, but not get the plants wet. Your high heat and sunshine just might cook the plants. I have no experience with beans grown in Texas so it's hard to say what is going wrong or might be wrong. I am a member of Seed Savers Exchange and there are members from your state that successfully grow beans. I will take a look in the yearbook and see if I can find some Texas members who list their email address and ask them if they ever have these kind of problems and see what they say might be the problem. For now I would say water them at the root zone and allow the plants to keep growing. Like you say it could be a soil problem too. Next year with my garden I'm going to see if I can get a soil test done. I'm just curious to see exactly where my soil stands as far as necessary nutrition for the plants and soil ph levels.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi Honeycomb

You only needed to return 50 seeds and the rest were yours for future growing. I had sent you 25 seeds. I hope growers are understanding they don't have to return all the seed. That way they have some of the seed to continue on with the variety for themselves in future growing seasons.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi Marshall !

I think my Vermont Appaloosa dried in their pods nearly the same color as what I had planted however just a little lighter. New seed will be lighter and brighter. If you got something really different maybe it's your climate or soil. It will be interesting to see a picture of them. However they will darken with time. I think you probably already know that soil and climate can sometimes does affect some beans. Years ago I got a bean from John Withee that was similar to Jacobs Cattle. It had larger spots of red on the white background. I had grown the bean in a heavy clay type top soil and when I harvested seed in late August and September the White areas on seed had nearly disappeared.


Hi Monty !

The pictures of Winterfare don't look all that bad. Just stick with them and I'll bet you'll get plenty of beans from them. You should see how badly the japanese beetles skeltonize the leaves on plants here and the plants still produce a good amount of beans. For some people growing beans this year it's a brand new gardening experience. I would say stick with the plants that you have and let's see how they turn out in the end. This is a new experience for me to see how beans turn out in different soils and areas of the country.

Hi Honeycomb !

Would you like to do this again next year? If yes I will send back some of the extra Black Coco beans you sent to me. Anyway I do hope you would like to do this again next year. It's wonderful having everyone we can get be on board with this.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi BJ !

I got some information about possible problems with the two lima varieites you are trying to grow in the Easy Bean Network. If the plants are not even producing blossoms that might be and indication of two high of soil fertility brought on by the old manure you used. If the plants are producing blossoms but they are dropping the flowers. That would be and indication of the plants response to too much heat. Your plants look beautiful so they are not diseased. It's probably one or the other of the two things I have mentioned. I would just let them continue to grow and give them water at the root zone when ground seems to have not had enough water for a time. When the weather cools down they just might suddenly produce pods and seed. Only time will tell.

 

[baymule]

BJ, I know you have seen my green bean thread. The first two years I planted them, I got nothing until fall. I composted the soil like a good little gardener and all I got was VINES and LEAVES! The third year, last year, I planted in April, they started producing in June and swamped us in green beans until November! This year, they were a little later, probably due to the crazy last minute frosts we had. Like Russ says, keep your beans watered and I bet you get swarmed with beans in the fall when it cools off some!

 

[897tgigvib]

Oh the Dapple Grey Beans win the award for beauty!

Yes, white with the grey hilum side, small dots too. Not just the bean seeds so pretty, but the pods are pretty, firm and fleshy. I am sure they are very edible pods, perhaps with strings to pull. Her plants are award winning pretty too. Among all the other bush bean plants, Dapple Grey's pants are the nicest green, with healthy large leathery textured leaves. The stems are a nice light green, healthy and strong. The plants don't flop over. They do not easily lodge. I suspect in her ancestry is Kidney bean somewhere way back. It shows in the stand up ability of the bush plants.

My garden is now at that stage of mid summer. The early bean plants are mostly doing a catch breath for a second flush of harvesting. Now, the mid season beans, Dapple, Chickasaw, Anasazi, Sangre de Torro, Steuben, Rio Zape, Golden Lima, Harvey's Haricot, Beauty Pod Cranberry, and some others my poor brain can't think of right now, are starting. In 3 weeks or so I will almost be wanting a crew to help me harvest and process the beans!

Yes, today I will try to do some photos.