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Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 12, 2023 7:00:19 GMT -6
The dried Woods Mountain Crazy Beans made the drive with us from Texas to Virginia. The last of our boxes arrived Monday, and I was able to retrieve my bean counter. My mom, one of my daughters, and I shelled out about one hundred seventy five good beans. They’re in the freezer now for a while before I transfer them to refrigerator storage. My mom hasn’t been able to grow beans this year as they keep getting eaten off by something or other. I’m considering putting in a row of these to see if we can get a fall crop.
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Post by macmex on Jul 12, 2023 7:24:06 GMT -6
Here in my location, I've planted them as late as the middle of July and still harvested some dry seed. No problem at all to get snaps. So glad you made it to VA without mishap!
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 17, 2023 20:27:01 GMT -6
Well, it's the 17th of July, and I soaked 20 Wood Mountain Crazy Bean seeds during the day and planted them in a small part of my mom's garden where she had dug potatoes earlier in the season. It was really different working in her red clay soil. I hope I didn't bury the beans too far down or pack the soil too tightly above them. I tried not to, but I've been working with raised bed garden soil for the past decade or so, so I'm not so sure what I'm doing here.
My mom had planted both bush and pole beans earlier this year, but the plants kept getting eaten off. If I can figure out where my wire wastebaskets are, I might try to deploy some of them, but I'm not sure that I know where they are or can get hold of them. Her garden is fenced all around, and she has added a variety of smaller fencing at the bottom of her deer fence to keep out rabbits. She has caught some coon in the garden, and she thinks squirrels are eating into her ripe tomatoes now. We'll see whether any beans sprout, and if they do what happens next.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 23, 2023 6:27:43 GMT -6
Well, the Woods Mountain Crazy Beans have started coming up. We spotted the first one up and cut off on Friday morning, July twenty-first, I believe. Yesterday afternoon,, I counted a dozen that were either breaking through the soil or with wholly unfurled seeds leaves. There was one that was cut off. I don’t know if that was the same one I saw Friday, or if it was a second. In Texas the cut-off one would have shriveled away and disappeared in a day, but I’m not so sure about here.
I carried water to the seedlings [and to some cucumbers and Rattlesnake Pole beans that we seeded a bit later]. My mom wasn’t so sure that I needed to, but I’m having a hard time imagining not giving new plants water, so I watered them only lightly.
I think I might put on some boots and go take a look at them this morning before I get dressed in church clothes. It’s a beautiful cool morning here.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 25, 2023 18:12:41 GMT -6
My mother told me this morning that the Woods Mountain Crazy Beans weren’t looking so good this morning. I believed her, but it was still something of a shock when I went out and found only one bean seedling in each of the three rows. From more than a dozen to three in one night was rather painful. I could see where some stems were still standing where they had been cut off. I don’t know if it was cut worms or something else. So far the row of Rattlesnake beans hasn’t been hit, but time will tell.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jul 29, 2023 20:01:03 GMT -6
We’re down now to one original Woods Mountain Crazy Bean, and one that has bravely sprouted new growth after having its seed leaves chewed off. When I first found beans cut off just after sprouting, I assumed it was cutworms. After a few days of growth when the tops started disappearing, I wasn’t so sure. Then I went out one evening and saw at least one, possibly two bunny rabbits hopping away to take shelter in the raspberries. My mother put her trap in there baited with a carrot. I put one of my traps where the beans used to be baited with a pot of beans my mom planted a while back when her beans got alll eaten off. I don’t know if it will do any good, but we’re trying. I also have a row of Rattlesnake Pole Beans that had been nibbled. With some help from my husband and daughters this morning, we put up some fencer wire that we had left over from other projects. I don’t know that it’s really tall enough to protect from hopping bunnies, but it’s worth a try as a deterrent.
The second picture is where the seed leaves got nibbled off, but they’re putting out new growth, too. I had to do something to protect those valiant little beans if I could.
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Post by woodeye on Jul 30, 2023 13:37:00 GMT -6
I also have a row of Rattlesnake Pole Beans that had been nibbled. With some help from my husband and daughters this morning, we put up some fencer wire that we had left over from other projects. I don’t know that it’s really tall enough to protect from hopping bunnies, but it’s worth a try as a deterrent. Try as I may, I am not sure how I'm supposed to look intently at the Rattlesnake Pole Beans (even though they are outstanding beans) because I zoomed in on this picture and saw those beautiful ears of corn in all their splendor!
Anyway, I think your fencing will help matters tremendously. Good job, chrysanthemum...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 10, 2023 10:56:08 GMT -6
Chrysanthemum,
That is such a beautiful garden spot! I'm jealous of the plants I see there. Someone has done a very good job of maintaining the topsoil there and it shows!
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 11, 2023 5:46:29 GMT -6
Chrysanthemum, That is such a beautiful garden spot! I'm jealous of the plants I see there. Someone has done a very good job of maintaining the topsoil there and it shows! All the credit for the topsoil has to go to my mother. She built the garden about fifty years ago and has been taking care of the soil over since. At one point two little Woods Mountain Crazy Beans tried to regrow, but I’m back down to one seedling now. It would be fun if it could survive to produce, but it is still unprotected. The protected Rattlesnake beans are growing nicely. Just yesterday my mom and I put up a second tier of wire fencing above the first as a trellis extension. We’re hopeful that some of the vines will be needing it soon.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 11, 2023 21:45:07 GMT -6
Chrysanthemum,
Could you possibly tip the live trap on end, wire the tin door full open, and drive a stake beside it, to be used as a wire cage to protect the last baby bean?
Just a thought ...
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 12, 2023 20:43:26 GMT -6
That was a great idea, heavyhitterokra. I went out and looked at the three live traps my mom and I have between us. All of them have doors that project beyond the front, so they wouldn’t really sit on end, but it was definitely worth investigating. I wouldn’t want to try to bury the door in the red clay soil, but I did consider it. I still have that one bean out there unprotected, but I thought this evening that since the traps haven’t caught a thing, maybe I should place them all in a triangle around the bean. It was late and dark by the time I thought that, but I think that’s the next thing on my garden agenda. Thanks for spurring me to think more on it.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 15, 2023 7:12:49 GMT -6
I went out on Sunday morning and discovered that my lone Woods Mountain Crazy Bean survivor had been nibbled. I have named this survivor “Una” since she is the only one left. Thankfully she still had leaves, but I did enact the triangular enclosure with the traps that had been in other places in the garden. As of yesterday morning, she hadn’t been nibbled more, though I am worried that the small trap won’t provide enough of a barrier. We’ll see.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Sept 3, 2023 13:49:44 GMT -6
The protective barrier made of traps seems to be working for “Una,” my sole surviving Woods Mountain Crazy Bean. It has a good number of blossoms down below.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Sept 11, 2023 20:43:42 GMT -6
“Una” hasn’t been harvested yet, but it turns out that I do have Woods Mountain Crazy Beans to harvest now. When my mom and I planted the Rattlesnake Pole Beans, I hadn’t soaked enough seed fo the row. My mom filled in with some dry seed, but it turns out that she planted from the Woods Mountain Crazy Bean jar rather than the Rattlesnake jar. I didn’t figure it out till quite recently, and now that I’m harvesting, it’s quite apparent that we have two different beans to pick. I got six and a half ounces of WMCB on Friday and picked another twenty four ounces today. I’m very pleased.
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Post by macmex on Sept 12, 2023 5:53:32 GMT -6
Well, at least you're getting lots of beans! Some Woods Mountain Crazy Beans will climb too.
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