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Post by triffid on Jul 29, 2022 9:41:30 GMT -6
Oh dear! It can be a risky business being a seed saver with family in the garden. I hope those beans were especially delicious I can see that you have so many great beans that do well later in the season that runner beans probably aren't worth the effort. An old gardeners' tip here is to spray the flowers down with cool water on hot evenings - it's said to aid with setting pods. Also to trench the ground at least 2ft deep and fill with all manner of organic matter the autumn/winter before the runner beans go in. Common beans and peas would benefit from this, too, but it's almost always specified for runner beans. There are a few commercial varieties that have been crossed with P. vulgaris, and the self-pollination trait has been carried over to these runner beans. A friend told me that some runner varieties are just naturally better at self-pollination than others, namely the old Painted Lady. I recall a RHS trial mentioned a variety named Red Rum will set at higher temperatures, but perhaps not as high as Insuk's Wang Kong.
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Post by triffid on Jul 29, 2022 13:49:43 GMT -6
Here are a couple of pods from two individual plants grown from the Frye's Golden Goose offtype seeds. Not visible in the picture is that the pod on the left is quite shiny and smooth.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 29, 2022 16:28:35 GMT -6
triffid, I’m glad you’ve got pictures in the thread now. I love seeing what people are growing. That Blackpod heirloom runner bean looks quite striking. I have never grown runner beans, and now that I live in Texas I don’t see myself even trying. I think it goes from too cold to too hot too fast down here. They are beautiful, though, and I hope you get a great crop. Are you growing these mostly for seed, or for eating and seed? Do you use them as a snap bean or dried bean? macmex, I admire your forbearance in not telling your daughter what she had harvested. Did she ever find out?
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Post by triffid on Jul 30, 2022 15:21:15 GMT -6
As I managed to gather a fair amount of seed last season, this year they're for eating as snaps. I'd like to try them as Japanese pickles and in Mum's bean curry. I do grow some giant white runner beans for dry seed - last year it was the Dutch 'Boerentenen' and this year I'm growing 'Piękny Jaś Wrzawski' from Poland.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 31, 2022 8:11:03 GMT -6
Thanks, Triffid. I hope you get a good crop and enjoy some tasty pickles and curry. Feel free to share recipes. We enjoy that, too, on this site.
I looked up both those varieties of white runner bean. It sounds as if both are very rare, so it’s great that you are able to grow them. How is your season going at this point? You had mentioned the fan-assisted oven-like temperatures a while back. Has that moderated at all?
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Post by hmoosek on Jul 31, 2022 14:32:48 GMT -6
Piekny Jas is a wonderful bean! Had seed, Lost seed, found seed! Seed in freezer!!! Me, Annette and spike went on a hunt to locate this bean back in 2018. I had seed many years ago, gave it to a friend that lived in Martha’s Vineyard because I knew I couldn’t grow it right away. Lost contact with friend. Annette found seed somewhere sent me and spike some, I had a nice plant growing but heat killed it! Last year zeedman had a nice crop and sent fresh seed to me. Love that big bean!
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spike
New Member
Posts: 39
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Post by spike on Jul 31, 2022 14:55:39 GMT -6
Piekny Jas is a wonderful bean! Had seed, Lost seed, found seed! Seed in freezer!!! Me, Annette and spike went on a hunt to locate this bean back in 2018. I had seed many years ago, gave it to a friend that lived in Martha’s Vineyard because I knew I couldn’t grow it right away. Lost contact with friend. Annette found seed somewhere sent me and spike some, I had a nice plant growing but heat killed it! Last year zeedman had a nice crop and sent fresh seed to me. Love that big bean! Incorrect! I have a friend in Poland that sent the seeds to me and I shared with you guys. I didn't save any seeds but due to the war over there I have lost contact which is terrifying.
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Post by hmoosek on Jul 31, 2022 15:30:04 GMT -6
Piekny Jas is a wonderful bean! Had seed, Lost seed, found seed! Seed in freezer!!! Me, Annette and spike went on a hunt to locate this bean back in 2018. I had seed many years ago, gave it to a friend that lived in Martha’s Vineyard because I knew I couldn’t grow it right away. Lost contact with friend. Annette found seed somewhere sent me and spike some, I had a nice plant growing but heat killed it! Last year zeedman had a nice crop and sent fresh seed to me. Love that big bean! Incorrect! I have a friend in Poland that sent the seeds to me and I shared with you guys. I didn't save any seeds but due to the war over there I have lost contact which is terrifying. spike Oh dear, I’m sorry bout that. Looks like my ol’ pea brain went caput again! I have a pill jar of them in the freezer. I’ll send you some!
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Post by woodeye on Jul 31, 2022 15:42:09 GMT -6
Incorrect! I have a friend in Poland that sent the seeds to me and I shared with you guys. I didn't save any seeds but due to the war over there I have lost contact which is terrifying. spike Oh dear, I’m sorry bout that. Looks like my ol’ pea brain went caput again! I have a pill jar of them in the freezer. I’ll send you some! Sorry, I just can't pass up this opportunity. moose, you just got...
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Post by hmoosek on Jul 31, 2022 15:46:36 GMT -6
spike Oh dear, I’m sorry bout that. Looks like my ol’ pea brain went caput again! I have a pill jar of them in the freezer. I’ll send you some! Sorry, I just can't pass up this opportunity. moose, you just got...
spike gave me a flying Tomahawk didn’t she? What’s that can of stuff called?
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Post by triffid on Aug 4, 2022 17:13:52 GMT -6
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 5, 2022 14:26:11 GMT -6
I’m glad the worst of it is past, triffid , though I’m very sorry to see how little rain you’re getting in your part of England. I read the link you provided, and that looks hard. What is your source for water for your garden? We’re in what’s called an “exceptional drought” here, but I’ve been blessed to have water in my rain tanks all summer. Just this morning I ran out of water at the garden for the first time. Our two largest tanks at the front of the house have no water above the spigot (a little below but inaccessible), and the smaller back tanks have only a hundred or so gallons left. I used water from air conditioning condensation that we collect to finish watering the last of the garden, but I think I’m going to have to start making choices about what to let go in the coming days. droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?TX
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Post by triffid on Aug 13, 2022 12:14:05 GMT -6
That's very concerning. I was going to ask if you have the option of using mains water if necessary, but then I looked at the impact table for D4... so that is probably ruled out. How often have you experienced one of these exceptional droughts? I really hope you don't have to let anything go. We use a combination of rainwater and mains water at the allotment. Definitely going to try to up the rainwater capture capacity this winter. Ususally there would be enough rain that most of the water use would be for seedlings and potted plants. Last year I believe I used the hose only once, but it was exceptionally rainy. Right now most of the county is under a hosepipe ban. There are widespread crop losses and wildfires. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/aug/13/more-wildfires-across-uk-feared-as-temperatures-forecast-to-reach-35cSome thunderstorms forecast for next week which may lead to flooding as the ground is baked solid. Too dry to drill autumn sown crops and likely no rain to soften the soil in time. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/aug/09/uk-braced-for-drought-conditions-in-octoberOn the microscale here I'm dealing with the same issue... way too dry to prepare new beds and even established beds just suck the moisture away from any modules transplanted into them. Direct seeding is definitely not an option, they'd never germinate. I'm not sure what to do about the winter carrots, it's looking like there just won't be a good time to sow them. This is the first time I've seen weather that is hot enough to upset beans and squash... I should have tried okra
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 13, 2022 20:31:23 GMT -6
triffid , England’s drought is now making regular headlines over here in America. I’m sorry you and so many others are going through it. We had a couple of wildfires nearby this summer. They didn’t threaten our home, but they were scary, and there were those who suffered from them. Firefighters have been really stretched here. I understand about how the dry conditions just suck all the moisture away. You mention that your beans and squash have been upset. Have you been able to keep your allotment going this summer? I’ve kept my garden alive but had very little productivity. I’m hoping for more when temperatures cool, but if we don’t get rain, I may not be able to keep the plants going, though we do have some access to water from our paid water system, what you would call “mains water.” The water to our house is provided by a community well. It’s run by a water services company and provides water to 250 homes. It’s fed by a deep well to an aquifer. Right now we are on Stage 2 water restrictions, which does allow us to water on one day of the week (our day of the week varies by address so as not to tax the pump too much) with restricted hours and rules. I did use that water this past week when my rain tanks were empty. I knew we had a better shot at rain this week, and I wanted to keep the plants alive to see if we got any rain. Thankfully we got about two tenths of an inch of rain on Thursday evening so that gave my plants a break from the heat and sun and some needed moisture to get me through another day, and we may have collected 300 or so gallons of rain water. This morning we pumped all the water collected in our front rain tanks to our garden tank, and I was able to give the garden a good watering from that. It won’t last long, though, so I’m praying for more rain to come through. There is some tropical moisture in the northern Gulf of Mexico that is moving toward south Texas. We’re too far north and west to see much rain, but we have the possibility of a few showers. Our water system uses tiered rates for their billing, and we need to stay in the lowest tier. We therefore try to avoid using the community well for any watering at all, but I did need to do it this week. (I’m also concerned about the hard water and chlorine that’s added to the water if I use the community well water.). I estimate that it takes me 150 gallons of water to fill all my ollas and to soak my beds, and I’ve been doing that two to three times a week during this drought, but that will not be possible with our water restrictions if I don’t have rainwater in my tanks. We have the capability of storing more than 3,000 gallons of rain water (we’ve invested in rain tanks over the years to get to that level), but we need the rain to fill them. I moved to Texas not quite five years ago. Since I have lived here, I have been in drought more often than not. It’s not usually the exceptional level, though. Moderate, severe, or even extreme is more common. I think it may have been exceptional our very first summer here, and then in September of that year (2018) and the first two weeks of October, it rained and rained and rained. We got thirty inches in six weeks, and that’s almost the entire average annual rainfall for this area. Last summer was not flooding rain like that, but it was also a summer where we weren’t in drought, and that was unusual and wonderful for my garden. I’m not sure that we have actually ever really experienced “normal weather” in this area since we’ve moved here. It has been quite an experience learning to garden in such an extreme climate, especially when the extreme climate experiences a lot of different extremes. I’m curious. Have you ever grown okra? Is that something that the English ever cultivate and eat? I know that normally you wouldn’t have the heat for it, but there seems to be a lot of polytunnel culture to overcome that.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 13, 2022 22:05:50 GMT -6
triffid , I’ve been reading a bit more about your drought, and an image from one of the article really provided a striking visual. I copied it from The Guardian, and they say it is satellite imagery taken Wednesday that shows how the vegetation and soils have dried. For some reason my browser gives me trouble linking to The Guardian, but I’m putting the picture here so that others can see it.
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