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Post by chrysanthemum on Sept 7, 2022 18:30:09 GMT -6
Overall, I’m very pleased with how they’re doing, but I admit that it was kind of worrying me to have them lying on the ground. This morning I asked my next door neighbor if I could borrow her unused small tomato cages, and I ended up putting them around the beans. I hope I didn’t do much root damage doing it when the plants were already growing, but I just felt better getting them up. It may be unnecessary trouble (it makes getting to the olla lids a bit more bother), but I like getting the plants off the soil, especially now that they’re beginning to bloom. All you bush bean growers can laugh at me, I don’t mind.
Now I don't grow bush beans anymore but I use to, as did all my ancestors as far back as I can recall. Now I must say, "I ain't never hurd 'a such thang", caging your bush beans lol. But if it makes YOU happy, that's one of the greatest pleasures in gardening. Frankly, I don't think the beans care all that much. *smile*
That gave me a chuckle. It also made me wonder what all your forebears would have thought of watermelons growing on a trellis. I think a lot of it just has to do with my limited space. I’m so used to going up that it seems natural to me. Some of the beans were hanging in the paths, and I was worried about damaging them when I drag my hose around. It also helped that I knew my next door neighbor had a bunch of unused cages sitting in her garden, so it was easy for me to give it a try. Only one bean looks like I may have broken part of it when I moved it. I’ll probably lose part, but I hope the rest will just keep on growing. The rest look fine in their new cages.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Sept 10, 2022 20:29:55 GMT -6
The beans have survived their transition to cages thankfully. They’re putting on flowers every day. So far I haven’t spotted pods.
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Post by hedgeapple on Sept 11, 2022 18:08:15 GMT -6
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Post by chrysanthemum on Sept 12, 2022 6:00:15 GMT -6
Wow. Those look beautiful! Thanks for the photo.
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Post by hedgeapple on Sept 16, 2022 14:13:24 GMT -6
So, can I leave my WMCB seed beans on the plant and ignore them for a while or do they split and spill?
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Post by chrysanthemum on Sept 16, 2022 20:33:13 GMT -6
I don’t know the answer to your question, hedgeapple . macmex is probably the authority on that. My WMCB beans are blooming up a storm, and I think I saw a tiny pod today. I don’t know if it’s been still too hot for them to set or just too dry. We had a couple of cooler mornings (65 and even 62) earlier this week, and I wonder if those nice temperatures helped them set. Maybe there are others that I haven’t found yet. I still have hopes for some good beans from the plants.
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Post by woodeye on Sept 19, 2022 21:00:57 GMT -6
I'm sure my germination test plot of WMCB's is too late now to have a crop before frost due to the grasshoppers totally eating their leaves completely off several times, even when sprayed with Neem oil. However I guess the oil allowed them to resprout new leaves every time. I bought 4 of those wastebaskets like chrysanthemum bought at Dollar Tree, put 2 over the beans and 2 over some turnips. The WMCB's haven't had anymore grasshopper defoliation since I did that. If I had started out with the wastebaskets from the get-go, I'd be weeks closer to bean time. They're still not much of a plant so far, but they are determined little rascals. I'll take a picture of them as soon as I remember to do so...
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Post by chrysanthemum on Sept 19, 2022 21:21:24 GMT -6
My WMCB’s are hanging in there despite some digging in their bed a couple times this week. I did lose one outright, and a couple others had root damage, but I think they may hang on. One in particular looks bad when I first see it because all the outer bigger leaves are wilted or dried up, but the inner area has healthy small leaves. I’m guess the root damage means that the roots can’t sustain the whole plant, so the energy goes into growing new leaves, and the plant just lets of the old ones.
I still have pretty blooms on my plants but not pods to speak of. The “heat high” has settled over the area again this week. I don’t expect we’ll see 100 in our part of Hill Country thankfully, but we’ve been back to the mid nineties. I’m ready for some more cool weather.
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Post by hmoosek on Sept 19, 2022 21:35:43 GMT -6
Mine are sitting here in their pots. Not a bloom in sight.
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Post by woodeye on Sept 21, 2022 9:14:31 GMT -6
You all are going to laugh at my WMCB plants, but that's okay. They have had an extremely hard life, and without the wastebaskets (which I removed for this photo-op), they would not have survived. Granted, they remind me of Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree, but after being eaten alive numerous times by grasshoppers, it's amazing that they lived and grew to this somewhat petite size. After a frost I plan to have beans and turnips, minus the beans...
And this is the grow bag right next to the WMCB's, this is Hakurei Turnips which I covered with wastebaskets too, for protection against deer. There is about a dozen turnips, not a whole lot but better than having zero turnips...
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Post by macmex on Sept 21, 2022 9:52:41 GMT -6
Teddy, Woods Mountain Crazy Bean is renowned for its ability to come back from a leafless condition, whether it be on account of drought or depredation.
I can't spend the time right now to really look, but I think I first grew it in 2011 and received my seed in late July. I only received about 20 seeds and didn't plant more than a dozen but I planted in a block in order to be able to cover them later, when temps dropped. I lost a number of the little plants to rabbits and only got to save seed from maybe half a dozen plants. We put a cold frame over them and set a light bulb in there when frost came and I swore I could have had beans until Christmas that year, but pulled the plug around Thanksgiving, after having harvested a nice jar of seed.
This bean will drop all leaves if severely drought stressed, yet it can come back with the fall rains and still set pods.
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Post by june on Sept 21, 2022 9:58:29 GMT -6
I want to try some of those next year! I planted 4 different kinds of green bean this year--had nice vines, but no blooms...I think it was just too hot for them.
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Post by woodeye on Sept 21, 2022 10:54:05 GMT -6
macmex, that sounds like good news there. I'll do something like that for mine, they deserve it. I've never had any plant that would continue to leaf back out after the grasshoppers hit them so many times. Thank You for the words of encouragement...
june, I think it's a good idea to try them, hopefully next year won't be so hot, but worth a try regardless...
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Post by hmoosek on Sept 22, 2022 16:21:30 GMT -6
FINALLY!!!! Ive been waiting for this! Woods Mountain Crazy Bean Photo Update Sep 22nd
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Post by hmoosek on Sept 23, 2022 11:04:24 GMT -6
A little better view
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