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songbird[_2_] · 20-10-2020, 04:29 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible

wrote:
....
Just as other legumes, green beans are nitrogen "fixers" which simply
means thatwith a little help from some friendsbeans can take
atmospheric nitrogen (N2) from the air and convert it to ammonium (N4),
a form useful to the plant. Some legumes can be induced to support more
of the nitrogen-fixing bacteria than needed, allowing some of them and
of the nitrogen to remain in the soil. There's more to it than I've
stated but the process isn't complex or expensive.

some of the more modern beans have had this trait largely
reduced or eliminated as i'm finding in my own growing of
many varieties. some do not have many or any nodules at all
on the roots and others have plenty.

....
It sometimes seems that everything that has a mouth likes bean
plants. Down here, major culprits are cutworms, grasshoppersand "root
knot" nematodes. Each of those may be controlled with "naturral"
pesticides.

some of the bean plants here have been chewed off by
cutworms this season when i started out and i replanted
those. i could not find the culprit but i did get
enough plants to sprout to get some seeds back which is
why i was growing those particular plants.

what was interesting to me this season was that the
north garden (which doesn't have a fence around it) did
pretty well even if some of the bean plants were chewed
off by deer, rabbits or groundhogs.

the other day i weighed just one type of bean i grew and
it totaled over 23lbs with 12lbs coming from that one
garden (i don't keep track of how many beans i pick fresh
from the gardens so we did pick and eat some fresh beans
and also several pounds of shellies). for a very small
bean that is a large number of seeds. they're good eating
so we'll keep growing them as they're more reliable than
the pinto beans i've grown in the past.

songbird