Topic: Phew... started getting dry beans...

[chriscross1966]

Have had my first picking of dried beans today, so seed stocks for Giganda, Mennonite Stripe, Bridgewater, Polish Climber, Egyptian Pea Bean, Bird Egg, Cherokee Trail of Tears, San Antonio, Yin-Yang and Flajoly.... so was able to clear out the stored stocks for cooking up... just as well because after last years disasters most of that seed was two years old and self-saved... Need some more Bird Egg before I'm completely happy there and the climbing pinto and Painted Lima have got to get a move on (nearly there though, another couple of weeks should see them through).... Ernies Big Eye and Soldier are  worries, the dwarf beans didn't do as well as the climbers this year.... should get some though....

[Toshofthe Wuffingas]

Crikey! How much space do you have to grow that list?

[chriscross1966]

I got that lot in two 12-foot double rows this year, plus another 8 square feet for the dwarves... all a bit cramped. I'll probably have to do it again at home next year but will also put a buncch out on the allotment and hope the manure contamination has faded....

chrisc

[goodlife]

My climbing pintos have loads of pod but are long way from harvest yet. They grown taller than ever before..?? I always classed them as 'semi-climbing' and they've never reached more than 6ft...BUT..this year they've gone 'wild' 8ft and still not fully stopped!

[Toshofthe Wuffingas]

I have read here many references to Gigantes/Giganta seeds. I presume it is something between a runner bean and a butter bean. I also presume it is worth growing from the remarks about it. I haven't seen it in the seed catalogues that I've looked at. Can enthusiasts give me a bit of a description and evaluation and hopefully where I can get a few to try out? Thanks.

[squeezyjohn]

These gigandas sound amazing but I can't find anywhere that has a source for the seeds.  I love big fat drying beans in the winter.  Where did you get yours?

Now my allotment is much more cleared for next years growing I'm going to be doing a lot of beans and climing peas. 

[chriscross1966]

Some of mine came from Jeannine via Goodlife IIRC, or possible Jayb.... mind is a bit fuzzy, anyway, from one of the avid swappers :D... The others came from a pack of dried beans from a Greek deli, also I believe the variety Corona di Spagna is the same thing http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Climbing-Beans-seed-Corona-di-Spagna-/370337932223?pt=UK_HomeGarden_Garden_PlantsSeedsBulbs_JN&hash=item5639dc63bf
Giganda's aren't a "cross" really, they're a white-seeded Phaseolus coccineus so the same species as runner beans, it just so happens that they've been bred for their big white seeds rather than their green pods (other strains of the species are grown for their tuberous roots....)

I notice no real difference between the self-saved seeds adn the bought ones for viability, they're all pretty good, the plants are monsters adn need some pruning, they also flower and set late, so always let the first beans dry through for seed stock, the rest can be dried if they make it or eaten/frozen "wet" if they don't.

[Toshofthe Wuffingas]

Thanks for the alternative name - Corona di Spagna. I found some for sale here:
http://www.originaltouch.co.uk/acatalog/What_s_New_.html

They also had the pumpkin with the edible huskless seeds that I grew 30 years ago and haven't seen since.

[Digeroo]

I dried a lot of beans on top of the radiator a few years ago.  They were fine about germinating.  I just made sure they did not come out of the pods until they were really crispy.One of my plot neighbours says the viability of my seeds is better than boughten ones.

She brought back some huge bean seeds from Greece.  Hope to beg a few.  Plants not huge but very big pods.
Are they particularly good for cooking? 

Do be careful of your own compost Chris, the AP contamination can be carried forward on plants such as brassicas and sweet corn stalks which did not show problems. They guy on the next plot to me put his whole compost bin to a trench for his beans and caused havoc.   Also if you buried the manure, you need to dig it up to the surface, as it will continue to be a problem.  It seems to needs light and bacteria to decomtaminate.

[chriscross1966]

THe manure on my potato plot was pretty much on the surface, but there's a whole section that wasn't manured this year.... I don't bother trying to compost sweetcorn stalks, they're just too fibrous, I generally burn them if they dry out or green waste them if they don't.... Looks like this weekend will be the big sweetcorn harvest.... I bought a proper shucking tool form ebay and it makes very quick work of getting the kernels off the cobs...

[Digeroo]

I bury my sweet corn stalks and then plant the new sweet corn on top.  There is nothing much left by the time I dig hole for the next lot.  Last year all sort went down the hole including brassica stalks and a nasty slimey bag of partly decomposed dandelion roots. 

My sweetcorn bed has finally cleared of contamination, I grew beans up the corn and there was not cupping of the leaves.

[chriscross1966]

That's good to know... I might try the burying trick too.... pumpkins and squash are going where the sweetcorn was for next year, so I might as well just bury the stalks in poo..... I'm mighty intrigued by these big seeded non-jungle-forming gigandas.....  Any chance I can "Beg through"?.... I can offer any of the ones I grow for swaps.... or some very big tomato seeds... the yellow spanish giant is probably the best grilled tomato I've ever had.....

[Uncle_Filthster]

My beans have been a disaster this year, as have my squashes and sweetcorn.  Feel like I've wasted my time completey with this years weather.  I'm hoping the few Ernie's Big Eye pods I have dry out well so I can build up some stock next year.  I don't think the surviving Mennonite Stripe will produce viable seed, my pea beans don't even have pods and my soldier beans got consumed by snails. Aaaaaargh!
At least I have a few toms, though nothing on last year and they are taking their time ripening.

[chriscross1966]

Hmm... What time did you plant out Uncle F?... My sweetcorn, pumpkins/squashes and beans were all a bit late by the standards of the rest of the site and I've got easily the best crop with all three of them, I've got a good bean crop given the small area I could have, the biggest cucurbit I've ever grown along with the second and third biggest are ripening up now and I've tons of sweetcorn....... I think this year if you planted to the usual calendar you got caught out a bit adn if you were a couple of weeks late you dodged a meterological bullet...

[chriscross1966]

Oh dear.... I've foudn a guy on ebay in the USA who ships to the UK and has a truly enormous collection of beans.... I really fancy a few more species (cos they'd hopefully not interbreed) and also some alternatives in the ones I do have.... as long as I grow one P. lunatus at home and one on the plot I should be OK, and ther are a variety of other ones out there..... hmm.....

[Uncle_Filthster]

I think it was second week of June when I got them all in.  We were having a decent period of warm and dry weather after all the rain so after holding out for a good window I got them all planted.  All nice healthy plants but then the cold and wet hit again 

The few Ernies Big Eye pods I got were dry enough to shell today so the good news is I have a grand total of 10 beans of those to start building up a stock next year.

[goodlife]

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I think this year if you planted to the usual calendar you got caught out a bit adn if you were a couple of weeks late you dodged a meterological bullet...This year the weather was so bad during most of the main growing season, so in our area, being late, in time or even early with planting would not have any effect to the sweetcorn and squash crops.....they just would not grow. Too cold and too much water most of of the June and July.
My sweetcorn has big beautiful cobs on..but I doubt they will ripen up anymore...they have ran out of time and warm enough weather.

[Uncle_Filthster]

None of my more tender crops did any real growing till August whn it warmed and dried up a bit.  Only started getting male squash flowers at the end of August so no chance of any fruit.  Not even a single corn cob yet.

[chriscross1966]

I think it was second week of June when I got them all in.  We were having a decent period of warm and dry weather after all the rain so after holding out for a good window I got them all planted.  All nice healthy plants but then the cold and wet hit again 

The few Ernies Big Eye pods I got were dry enough to shell today so the good news is I have a grand total of 10 beans of those to start building up a stock next year.

I've found one dry Ernies Big Eye bean so far this year.... plants are hanging onto green pods for grim death at the moment.... usually it is so early too...

[chriscross1966]

None of my more tender crops did any real growing till August whn it warmed and dried up a bit.  Only started getting male squash flowers at the end of August so no chance of any fruit.  Not even a single corn cob yet.

Ahh... kI always give them a head-start , heated propagators then pots in the greenhouse.... mostly they go into the ground from 4" pots or with beans it'll be 3 plants in an 8" pot with a short cane to train them to... what I plant out might well be a foot or more tall, and that's in late May or early june.... even then things like GIgandas and Borlottis are pushing the edge of getting a crop... you have to let the first gigandas dry for seed, I don't bother saving Borlotti, I just pick up a pack in the Wyevale 50p sale each year. It's not worth my time and effort to try to save seeds from something so easily commercially available that cheaply... I'd rather give the sapce over to somethign we can't pop down the shop and pick up :-)...

Part of the reason I hav eto do it that way is becasue I spedn alot of the summer at festivals, so I need the plants to be pretyt robust on\e they're in the ground... indeed I sow almost nothing straight into the ground, it all starts off in pots and modules, some heated, a few not.... even things like carrots and parsnips (toilet roll tubes pushed in 24-cell modules)...