2016 Bean Trials results

[Kevin Gay]

Hi all,

I live in Mountain View, CA. I grow organically in a highly intensive planting garden. I planted my bean plants on the fringe of raised beds which were filled with tomato plants spaced roughly 1' apart and 5 rows deep in 5 and 1/2' x 11' beds.

Well I ended up as I mentioned before with four of my seed germinating. I think I made a mistake on which plants germinated based on the results of bean seed. The Black Nightfall and all three Ayocote plants germinated.

The Black Nightfall produced early but died early sometime around August, due to my bad watering technique which sprayed the leaves and caught downey mildew from the watermelon plants next to it. i did get about a 1/6 small sandwich bag of seed from this plant.

I transplanted the white Ayocotes to give it more room when it was about 1' tall. The delayed and stunted this plant. It did leave fruit on the plant until I think January and did final harvest, but it didn't produce that well. Beautiful yellowish flowers which were prolific. I got enough seed to plant again, maybe 40-50 seeds.

The other two ayocotes grew huge and flowered incredibly prolific and beautiful deep orange color. Unfortunately flowering was around Aug. Sept. when if was really hot and the flowers fell without setting. Once the weather cooled in October, I think, all 3 ayocotes started to set fruit. I left fruit on the vines up through January, I believe then did final harvest. I think the Maroon Ayocote seeded the best with the Black a close second maybe 80-100 seeds each..

I left the three Ayocotes in the ground in hopes of perennial plants this spring. I think the 'White' died in the freeze. The other two are still alive through the frost. I plan to leave them in this year and see how well they do this second year with an early begging for growth and flowering.

Happy growing this year to all the bean buddies.

Best,

Kevin

[Tom Murphy]

I live in an unincorporated area of Lafayette, Ca.

After a couple of smaller purchases in 2014, I purchased a bag of almost every bean (I was light on the limas). I tried growing most of them.

The surprising bean that seems to keep producing more and more each year is the Santa Maria Pinquinto. This year it was two+ quart zip locks. Rio Zape, Yellow Indian Woman, Red Nightfall, Frijole Xculibul, and Yellow Eye are the other ones that have done well. The runner beans have also done well: Scarlet, Morado, Blanco, and Negro. There are others that produce enough to keep them going into the next year

For my 2017 season, I have a bean support system that will hopefully survive  the pull of the beans. It should help increase the harvest. 

[Rancho Gordo Retail Advocate]

Thank you for all the good information!

[Kevin Gay]

I also grew blue moro, and Old Indian Woman with great success although the plants only grew about 1 foot tall as they were planted under my tomato plants, they produced pretty good for their size and time of year. 

Tom, I would have like to meet in Napa, but I have been rebuilding my car engine and wouldn't have had transportation this year. I am interested in meeting up and swapping seeds next year 2018!

Kind regards,

Kevin

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