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Post by nicollas on Mar 3, 2016 1:58:10 GMT -5
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Post by templeton on Mar 3, 2016 3:16:44 GMT -5
For the fat-fingered and dull of sight members, I can recommend curved forceps and a head magnifier   relatively cheap. Or you could send me a check for $259.99 for the patented Templeton's 'Mr Propellerhead combination bike helmet/pollination magnifier' as featured in my avatar.  T |
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Post by reed on Mar 3, 2016 7:58:03 GMT -5
nicollas, thanks for pointing me to that other thread, interesting stuff there. I never knew there was such a thing as perennial lima beans. Do you know any particular varieties know for that or sources for them?
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Post by reed on May 12, 2018 2:53:25 GMT -5
I'v been thinking about my bean landrace and thought I'd revisit this thread. Since starting down this road I have discovered that random crossing by bees is way more common in my garden than common information indicates. I'm sure this has always been the case but most of my beans used to be grown just to can for green beans so the vast majority were canned or eaten before they were discovered. That, and I only grew a few kinds for dry beans, tending to grow a lot of just one or two kinds. Since I increased my dry bean crop and introduced many new kinds I keep finding lots of new variations in my dry beans every year. So, I have concluded that at least in my garden with all the bumblebees all I have to do is plant lots of kinds and let nature do the rest.
Now I'm turning my attention to, for lack of a better term, wilding my pole beans. In 2016 I planted a mixed patch and for various reasons never got around to putting up their supports. I ended up actually abandoning them to total neglect, no watering and totally overgrown by weeds. Surprisingly I ended up harvesting about a quart of dry beans. Some had the ability to stand up a couple feet above a lot of the weeds and then flop over on top. Others made some beans despite the fact they were almost completely covered up. I called them survivor beans. Last year I grew a small patch with supports and greatly increased my supply of Survivor Bean seeds.
This year I took the hoe and roughly chopped up a spot about 40' x 3' and raked in a bunch of those seeds as well as other new kinds. I did the same among a pile of tree branches off the north corner of the yard where a bunch of ash trees had died. I pitched some discarded wire tomato cages someone gave me over the 40' x 3' patch to give them a little something to help get above the weeds but that is all I'm gonna do. I also roughly planted seeds here and there around the edges of the yard among the weeds, trees, wild berries and so on.
Based on the 2016 experience, some of these beans are going to make seeds. I'm gonna set a time limit of two or three weeks from finding the first dry pod and if I end up with a good enough amount of the early ones they will be the only ones saved for the next year. Otherwise they will just make the highest percentage.
Some pole beans can compete with and come out on top of weeds. Some can produce even when covered over by weeds. Also, last year I found some can grow planted under small trees, using them for support. They of course, are not parasitic to the trees and the nitrogen they provide is a fair trade for any light competition when their leaves make it to the top.
Anyway, I think it might be possible in a fairly short period of time to develop a diverse line that will grow almost like weeds, producing good food with very little effort.
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Post by nicollas on May 12, 2018 3:11:10 GMT -5
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