Steve Peek wrote:
songbird wrote:
Steve Peek wrote:

So why not the bugs? I found the first two Mexican bean beetles today.
They
met with an untimely end or perhaps that was timely?

[you do know that mentioning the word "bean"
around here is dangerous right? ]

?

a bit of a joke at my expense... since
whenever the topic of beans of any kind comes
up i tend to perk up a bit and write too much...


are these the same beetles that used to be
sold as mexican jumping beans to kids in the
back pages of comic books (along with sea
monkeys )?

I don't know. These are just a little bigger than lady bugs and metallic
bronze in color with black spots. They can turn bean leaves to lace quite
quickly.

ah, ok, i don't think i've seen these yet.
do they have any predators?


....
The bean I'm growing this year is an heirloom pole bean locally called
"greasy beans". The strain has been in my family and one other for well over
100 years. I usually grow it every other year for canning and leather
britches. I wouldn't dream of planting another bean at the same time for
fear of crossing them although I do grow soybeans the same year.

"and leather britches"? i'm not familiar with that
usage or if it is a bean variety?

anyways, good to hear about old time varieties still
being around. someone said this past late winter that
they would send me some of their greasy bean variety but
then they forgot or something happened as i never got
them... so i won't be growing them this season.

i'm not worried too much about cross-pollination
here as i plant various kinds of beans of the same
variety in areas farther apart. most beans self
pollinate. and if the types seem to mix and not
stay true then i can sort out the odd-balls and
eat them or perhaps even get some interesting new
variety. we'll see what happens this year, i've
already started applying some selection pressure
to see if it makes much difference.


I plan to try to grow "yellow eyed beans" from supermarket seed. They are my
favorite soup bean. Hopefully they are a bush type bean, this trellising is
a big job. It took a dozen posts for three rows.

yellow eye are bush beans according to what i've
read. this is my first season of growing them. at
+$4/lb organic it is well worth growing them and
any other beans i can squeeze in any empty spaces.
we like to put up three/four/etc bean salad and
if i get a huge surplus perhaps the guys down the
road who run veggie stands will take the extras off
my hands for a few $...

last year i grew about 15lbs of pinto beans
and Ma likes them too, so i'm expanding production
this year of these, plus lima beans and many other
types of beans too. just for grins and because
i do like the different colors/shapes/sizes and
sorting beans is very tactile and appeals to my
hands on sense of things too.


have you ever grown adzuki beans?

I'm not familar with them.

similar in taste/texture to lentils but larger.
i'm about to find out if i can grow them here and
what their habit is.


songbird