Bush Beans Gone to Seed

As gardening for me seems to be about trial and error, I figured that it would be good to post up some pictures of my green beans that have hopefully gone to seed. I'm not quite sure of the variety but they are some sort of a bush bean that I seem to think works better with my elevation and soil than I would imagine the climbing varieties would fair.

This years batch was grown from the beans collected from last year after I figured that purple flecks must have meant something. It was at least worth a shot to figure out if they amounted to anything when planted. Not all seeds popped into the soil sprouted a seedling, (around 15% failed) but all-in-all the relocation from a rocky back plot to my new one cut out of the grass in my front yard, meant a happier patch.

Without a hefty crop, and the fact that my dad had bought a giant bag of the same veg from the market, my little things mostly amounted to me snacking on them while gardening as opposed to becoming side dishes with dinner. I have to say that it reminds me of that Christmas tree movie from the 90's that is all heartbreaking because all he wants to be is a "proper" Christmas tree with a star on his top and presents underneath.

For the most part my harvest last week appeared to be a bit hasty. I left about 30 beans growing on their little branches but pulled about 16 that once opened I don't think will create much other than a good lesson for next time

When the pod is still mainly green and has a thick wall the beans inside are quite pale, with only a little purple colouration.



At this stage you can see that something is really starting to happen. The pod is dying back, turning yellow and is much thinner than at the earlier stage. The beans certainly look like something is going on inside but they still have a milky pearlised luster to them. I get the feeling that this will can still go towards next years crop but we will just have to wait and see.



Ahh...now here is where I think I hit it right. When I picked these they looked like nothing I would want to eat - dryish yellow pods with thin walls that seem to have had all of their goodness leached into the little beans inside. It's fruit are smaller, more densely compacted and dark purple.


For my next steps I'm going to peel back the rest of the green pods I had picked, organize them by colour, and put them in little dishes to dry out for the time being. It would be most adorable to make little paper packets for them which will note their 'classification' for next years planting. Once organized into rows this will help me to better understand what works and what doesn't for the seeding process as well as make cute little presents for friends when it comes to passing on the dark purple ones.


-Sarah