Hmmm…. I’ve got 3 varieties of green beans flowering right now. None of which should be doing so! They are 29 & 35 days from seeding!
I’m not really complaining here but looking for a little more information. The plants are so young that I don’t believe I’ll get the best crop from them. Oh, and I should mention that they are bush beans. Commodore, Roma and Blue Lake. The foliage is beautiful, but small still and the stalks of the plants are still rather puny. What can I do better for the rest of my beans that have already been planted to get them to hold off flowering until the plant is more mature? I’m afraid the plant won’t support the growth flush and will either not set or will abort the pods once they set.
Anyone with any wisdom on this? If not I’ll relish in the fact that I will have green beans fresh from the garden for dinner again soon and get over the fact that they all are going to set at the same time even though succession planted and that they may not produce as much because of it. I have 3 farther spaced out plantings for Burgandies, Romas, and French Filets so hopefully I can count on those to get larger before setting.
Since I’m on the bean patch – the limas are looking great and the few black beans that managed to escape whatever evader attacked both plantings are looking well finally, too! Still didn’t find anything in the garden that should have been stripping all the leaves and killing the plants – and there won’t be enough for more than a side dish or two. But, black beans are definitely one of our favorite mature beans so I will certainly be spacing a lot closer next year expecting that I’ll lose at least half the plants again. It hurts my head to think I’ll be buying cans of these in the winter after planting close to 100 plants. A loss of 90% to something unknown is not acceptable I just hate the idea of a broad and strong insecticide used in my beans. L
Such are the lives and times. B is sick. Pathetic really. Kate had a sniffly nose for a day and B ends up with fever and not sleeping, achey, miserable poor baby. Always seems to happen that way. Hopefully it will be short lived and by Monday I’ll be celebrating a newly healthy household again.
Till next time~
Barbie
Hi Barbie, I've had that same problem with mine before - beans growing on spindly plants that weren't ready to produce yet. Perhaps if you cut off these first flowers, they'll have time to mature a little more and be more productive later. It's done with many other plants - fruit trees, tomatoes... I haven't seen any flowers on ours yet, and we too have several varieties growing. Maybe it has something to do with the type of fertilizer you are using. More nitrogen is best for plant growth, I know that much; but I haven't really looked into this problem.
ReplyDeleteWell, unfortunately I have waited too long for that. The blooms went bonkers this weekend and I have loads of itty bitty green beans now! I'm sure i'll have the start next Harvest Monday! I will try it next time though - hopefully my others won't do that.
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