Bloke Down The Pub wrote:
...
Thanks for the run down.

I garden using two principals, one put forward by George Harrison "We have
around 40 seasons to get things right" and two learn from others mistakes as
we don't have time to make them all ourselves.
Having said that if your looking for a small bean for next season I can
recommend the adzuki bean. It has grown well for me here in Western
Australia, where we have what is known as a Mediterranean Climate and
watering has become an art.

i'm in USDA zone 5, (mid-Michigan USoA). here
there is usually enough to too much moisture at
times (we did have a near drought last summer with
high heat for about 7 weeks so it does happen we
do get dry spells, but they are usually not that
severe).

the red adzuki is on my list of additions to the
varieties i'd like. i also heard of a black adzuki
bean that would be interesting to try.

if adzuki beans are sensitive to fungi from being
rained on later in the pod drying stage it would be
good to know.

if i could find someone who sells variety packs
of bean seeds like the soup bean mix i bought at
the store for a few $. i'm going to see what the
health food store has come spring as for a few $ that
worked well to get the varieties from a few to a
dozen and a half quickly.

i'm using the following list as a reference
for types to look for:

http://www.foodsubs.com/Beans.html

of course, i have no real plans of finding all
the different subvarieties as it looks like there
are thousands.

it's funny, i'm so tactile that once in a while
i like to run my hands through the pile of beans.
it's like sorting buttons or what i like to do in
the fabric section of the store. get my hands
right in there and let them talk.


songbird