Carminat Pole Beans

[chrysanthemum]

One of my children in particular enjoys purple vegetables, and I try to do what I can to get my kids excited about the food we grow by letting them ask for particular things or pick out new varieties from time to time.  We grew a small number of purple pole beans as a fall crop a couple of years ago and really enjoyed them.  We didn’t save seeds because they were mixed in with two other varieties.

This year we are trying to grow a different purple bean: Carminat Pole beans that are a slender filet bean.  I don’t know a lot about them and wasn’t sure how they would do in the heat, so I planted them out at the end of March to try to get them flowering before the intense summer temperature set in.  In one sense that worked because they started flowering just recently when average temperatures should be in the 80’s.  Unfortunately we had a heat wave with temperatures over 100 this weekend, and while it has cooled to the nineties now, there looks to be unseasonable heat in the forecast for a while.  That circumstance made it extra exciting for me this evening when I noticed a few baby beans on the plants.  





I was surprised that they weren’t all purple at the outset.  I don’t know if they’ll darken as they mature, or if the green is showing up as a response to heat stress.  (I’ve had that happen with purple basil before.)  I’m enjoying the dark stems and the beautiful blossoms on these.  I certainly hope that they’ll set a good crop and bear all summer the way my Rattlesnakes did last year.  Last year, however, was cooler and rainier than usual, and this year is supposed to be hotter and drier, so even if Carminat doesn’t do as well, I won’t know how much that is due to the variety and how much will be due to the weather.  I’m just excited at this point to be seeing baby beans.

[hmoosek]

Good Luck! It’s been H-O-T hasn’t it?

[macmex]

" I don’t know if they’ll darken as they mature, or if the green is showing up as a response to heat stress. "
You mean they've cooked on the plants 

Couldn't resist!

It will be interesting to see if they shape up or if, perhaps, there's been a cross where the seed was produced or some other seed got mixed in with it.

I've GOT TO get some beans planted a.s.a.p. This is always a very challenging time of year for us.

[heavyhitterokra]

I used to grow Black Pearl pepper plants. When the plants are mature, the leaves are so dark purple that they appear almost black, but the new leaves were quite green when they first unfurled. It would take several days of bright sunlight to darken them up. I don't know if that's true with other plants having purple foliage or purple fruit, but it's a thought.

[chrysanthemum]

macmex , I hadn’t meant quite that by “heat stress,” but that’s one way to look at it.   You gave me a good hearty chuckle.  It’s 97 degrees and sunny right now. Thankfully my beans are on the side of the garden that gets afternoon shade first.

heavyhitterokra , the beans have acted like your pepper plants and darkened up. I just picked my first handful (it can’t be called a mess). It’s not enough for us to have a meal, but I didn’t want to leave them on the plant while waiting for more. I’m not even sure if more will set in these temperatures.

[heavyhitterokra]

I hate picking veggies a few at a time and trying to save up enough for a meal. That's how my asparagus does me early in the season. Maybe, you could mix them with corn and chopped carrots and make a mixed vegetable dish with them?

Which reminds me: Because of your earlier 'Succotash' post, I've planted an entire row of my garden with French horticultural beans, sweet corn, tomatoes, onions, and red bell peppers --- Everything to make Succotash, plus some cabbage, Kennebec potatoes, and squash too, just for fun.

The rest of my garden is okra, but that one row is the row I enjoy the most.

[chrysanthemum]

I mixed them with sautéed onion (from the garden) and mushrooms (from the store) and made a small side dish. Everybody liked it.

I think it took me over a week to harvest enough purple asparagus spears for a meal. I kept them upright in a cup in the fridge with a little water in the bottom, and they did well staying fresh. It made a nice treat for a Mother’s Day dinner for me. Now it’s producing a bit more, but we’re letting it go since the stand is still young.

That “succotash” row does sound fun. I remember your referring to my garden as a “backyard grocery store,” and I love to think of it that way. I’m not harvesting much yet, but some onions are ready, and potatoes are getting close. (We’ve had an invader digging again, and some of the potatoes are being uprooted, so we’re grabbing those. I’m betting it’s a coon. We need to borrow the neighbors trap again if they’re not still using it. They were having armadillo problems a couple weeks ago.). It’s great to be able to go out and grab some ingredients to turn into something good to eat.

[heavyhitterokra]

A few years ago, an old man at the feed store told me his recipe for catching coons in a live trap. (I was having zero luck at the time, using canned cat food, dry cat food, tuna, dog food, fresh eggs, or sardines). He told me to get an old, empty, one-gallon can and pour chocolate ice cream topping, peanut butter, and marshmallow cream together inside of it. Heat it on the stove until it all becomes a gooey mess, then take a cheap paintbrush or a clean rag and mop the gooey mixture onto the bottom of the live trap, leading to the trap pan in the bottom of the live trap cage.

He said, "That ol' coon will get to sniffing and licking that stuff and forget he's even in a cage. Then, when he gets to that trap pan, he'll lick that too, and WHAMMO! You'll have yourself a coon!"

Before I tried his recipe, I'd never live-trapped a coon in my life. But after trying it, I trapped 5 of them in a row.

[chrysanthemum]

I just wanted to post an update on my Carminat beans. After that photo I posted back on May 15th, I haven’t had more than a handful of beans set. My kids get an occasional one as a garden snack, but there just haven’t been any pods during this crazy high heat. I believe I’ve seen exactly one form in the last couple of weeks, even under shade cloth.

I know it’s a good idea to give varieties more than one season to show their stuff, but I don’t see myself buying another pack of Carminat to give it that trial. The plants are beautiful and the color and flavor were both great, but I’ll go back to my saved Rattlesnake seed for the future. I’m tempted to pull these out entirely, but I think I’ll try to keep them going until temperatures cool down somewhat and see if there’s any improvement. It will probably depend in part on whether we get any more rain in my tanks soon. I’m not sure I can justify watering these all summer for the possibility of a crop in September.

[heavyhitterokra]

When it gets above 100 here with a little wind, the petals and reproductive parts of the blossoms get dehydrated before they can pollinate. Like Bon mentioned on another thread, "By Late July, a wind like yesterday will simulate a convection oven." I'll bet your super low humidity really plays havoc with the delicate blossoms of most anything that you try to grow there. That would be a tough situation.

[macmex]

This is probably one of those varieties whose pollen can't handle hot, dry conditions; just like Barksdale Wax Pole Bean. They might produce well when cooler temps arrive. With Barksdale, though, they survive, but if they have to survive more than a couple three weeks of extreme heat before being ready to flower, they usually fizzle by the time cooler temps do arrive. With Barksdale, the trick for me is to get them in late enough that they don't have to languish in the heat very long, yet early enough that they can produce both pods and dry seed. 

[chrysanthemum]

I think you guys are right about the heat and aridity doing a number on my blossoms. We really can’t expect any let up of heat until September at this point, so I made the tough decision to cut the vines off and put them in the compost. They were really beautiful plants, and I think they could have done well for a late spring planting had our weather been typical. It was just so much drier and hotter than usual that they really didn’t have a chance. I can’t blame the beans when July arrives in May.

I have some seed for different varieties (Rattlesnake and Tennessee Cutshort), but I’ll need to wait to plant those till much later in the summer.

[hmoosek]

Jun 21, 2022 6:49:35 GMT -6 chrysanthemum said:

I think you guys are right about the heat and aridity doing a number on my blossoms. We really can’t expect any let up of heat until September at this point, so I made the tough decision to cut the vines off and put them in the compost. They were really beautiful plants, and I think they could have done well for a late spring planting had our weather been typical. It was just so much drier and hotter than usual that they really didn’t have a chance. I can’t blame the beans when July arrives in May.

I have some seed for different varieties (Rattlesnake and Tennessee Cutshort), but I’ll need to wait to plant those till much later in the summer.

I planted my Tennessee Cutshort in the middle of July last year and was able to save seeds. The exact date is recorded in the TC thread. 

This year, I planted them as a spring crop, but don’t think I will do that next year. Of course I’ve been planting in buckets and they might very well do better in the ground. I love beans, but it just gets so hot here that it’s a tough crop for me. The vines look ok this year and I was able to eat a few, but it sure would help if it was 20 degrees cooler!