Flip,

As I'm relatively new to Houston, I'm curious to know what varieties have worked well for you in the past. I had some great success with yellow wax bush beans but not so much with about three others (all bush) I tried. My experience with pole beans in the past (pre-Houston) is they get REALLY stringy so I've avoided those here. Do you have any suggestions?

As for your extra space, have you tried adzuki (long) or mung beans before? I have heard they do well here and was thinking of trying those this year.

Jim -- Oh yes, I will be planting plenty of Insuk's Wang Kong!

Tim -- I haven't grown mung beans before. I have such little space that it seems like I wouldn't get much return from those tiny beans... Or can you eat the pods? Last summer I grew cowpeas and the summer before that I grew yardlong beans, which were both Vigna unguiculata.

As for what pole beans do well here, I've only grown Genuine Cornfield and Fortex so far. Both grew beautifully for me. Cornfield beans can get stringy as they get larger, but they do so well in partial shade that I'll grow them again. Fortex remains stringless for a good while and the pods can grow quite long.

My best bush beans last year were Jumbo and Gold Mine. If you'd like, I can send you a few seeds of all the beans that did well for me.

Can anyone tell me where I can get some of these Insuk's beans to plant?? From the name, I can gather it's Korean so I'd like to grown some for my mother and aunt.

BTW, should these beans be seeded or started in doors? Also at when can they be planted? Does one need to wait for the last frost date?

Thanks.

crabjoe
Scroll down this forum to the thread "Insuks Wang Kong(runner bean). There are 47 posts,read it and if your interested send me a PM at jwr6404@msn.com with your address. The beans are named for my Wife who is Korean,by birth.
Jim

fliptx,

Like you I have found out I will be increase my garden this year. Happy days for all! Congrats!

Dean

I came up with another way to have more room for beans - I use 5/8 inch rebar/rerod in 10 foot lengths. I could have teepee'd them, but I run them around the edge of the garden with some generic planting poles wired across and between them for a place from which I can run down strings for the beans so that they are not clustered about the poles (which I did in the past). However, strong summer winds on my vines bent all of my rods one year (about a foot off center), so I now use generic planting poles of any sort, but suitable length, to wire criss-crossed between poles and wire brace poles at right angles and top to ground, which just becomes another place to start beans. I even created a form of gazebo out of mostly rebar with a homemade bamboo "mesh" bracing and serving as the top. Very successful this year, and quite a conversation piece.

The benefits: Strong, no rot or breakage; I leave them in year 'round; the rust eventually seals the surface and doesn't affect anything; if they bend a bit I can bend them back up.

Minor con's: they cost about $5 each, they are heavy in a bundle of 5 or more, and can be a bit hard to transport. Our Subaru Outback wagon is just long enough with the seats dropped and moved forward, and I pad both ends heavily with rags to protect the glass and wrap old towels around any other part that touches upholstery and I wear gloves. Also, it can be hard to harvest some of the beans except with a ladder.

I am seriously looking at putting in more next year. I have become a runner-bean fanatic.

Hi everyone!
I discovered something this weekend. More room for beans = more room for weeds.

I kind of let my garden go wild over the summer, because it was too hot to go weeding it. It was too hot to even THINK about weeding. So I went out there this weekend and it's like a jungle out there.

I've got all the raised beds cleared out but the side garden still looks like the forest primeval.

romanejo, I'd love to see pics of your rebar bean structure :)

flip,

Use mulch, lots of it. Use whatever kind appeals to you. It does wonders with weed control and, by keeping the soil from drying out so quickly, things grow a lot better. I've used mulch selectively before but, after seeing how well some other gardens did, I mulched my entire garden this year. It was my best garden ever. For the first time, I kept ahead of the weeds with ease.

Jim

Flip
IKE could be trouble. You,and other GWers, take all the preparations you can and be safe.

Good Luck

I used lots of mulch this year, but it broke down really quickly in this heat and humidity. The pine park, straw, and newspapers just turned into an extra nutritious growing medium for the weeds.

Thanks for the well-wishes for the storm. It might be coming right across my front door.