2021 Bean Report: 4/14 26F forecast 32F. (Last frost.) Last half of June was hot. Official high on 6/28 was 108F. July was warm. 7/30 90s this weekend. 8/11 more 90+F days. 9/1 36F! 9/9 last 80 F day. 10/8 32F and frost. 10/11 forecasting 34F and clear tonight. 10/12 the hard freeze killed the bean vines.

Alice Whitis 8/11 some usable snaps. 8/15 good crop of very large fat green beans of fine quality. 8/29 Some are turning yellow. 9/17 some are dry. Some hulls are pale green and rough. Those are fibrous. 9/18 picked the last of the usable snaps. 10/2 picked the last of the dry beans.

Aunt Jean’s 8/7 full size snaps but not full yet. 8/16 had a mess of full and some yellowing pods. The yellowing ones were fine but a bit chewy. 8/24 they are drying.

Bessie bean 7/1 the strongest climber. 8/21 large shellies. 8/29 some are drying. 9/1 almost all are dry. This is a fine shelly bean.

Black Greasy 8/15 some large pods. 8/29 The crop is not heavy after the hot weather. 9/17 a few are drying. They are now the main usable beans. 9/20 there are still some immature green beans for those who like them that way but most are full and have fine flavor and texture. 10/4 all three trellises have snaps at all stages. They are best when full and green but not starting to dry.

Bonds Orcas Lima (runner bean) 7/10 the heat killed the blossoms. 7/30 heat killed blossoms again. Poor crop.

Caleb Nolan Bean 8/7 large snaps 6 inches long and medium fat. Nice mess of them, tender and tasty. 8/15 still in good shape. None yellow yet. 8/21 some turning yellow. 8/24 some are drying. 8/28 most are dry.

Chuckey Greasy Bean 7/30 healthy vines. 8/11 there is a good crop and a few are starting to fill. 8/29 a few are yellow. 9/1 steamed up a mess of fine full yellow snaps. 9/17 picking dry pods.

Clay Bank Fall 8/7 full size yellow snaps. 8/11some pink tips, fine full beans. 8/15 some red streaks. 9/9 The earliest trellises are mostly dry with some usable snaps left. This is still the finest full bean. 9/17 picked a couple gallons for leather britches. There are still usable snaps on the last latest trellis. 9/20 picked the last of them.

Cobra green bean 7/30 full size snaps from an early planting. 8/8, 9 inches long with some strings when medium plump. Longer ones have strings. There are also good size snaps on the ones that were planted as dry seed 3 inches apart on 6/1 in warm weather. On 7/17 the last dry seed Cobra were planted. 8/11 early and main ones are still usable. 8/15 the main crop are getting over large and have strings. 9/21 those planted on 7/17 are now usable. 10/2 they have lots of snaps.

Monachine/Pellegrini 8/7 full size snaps. 8/21 They are full and blushing purple 9/24 picked the last usable ones. The rest are dry.

Monte Cristo 7/30 no snaps yet. 8/8 full size snaps. 8/11 still usable. 8/29 they hold on the vine much longer than the other green beans. There are some usable ones still.

Pete Ingram Fall 8/11 snaps are filling. 8/24 many are turning yellow. 8/29 the yellow ones are good eating but are a bit fibrous. 9/9 almost all are dry.

Robe Mountain 7/30 full size snaps. 8/7 the larger ones have strings. 8/11 all are tough and inedible. They held on the vine the shortest time of all the green beans.

Nice report, @drloyd... good to see that a few of the old bean gang are still around. ;-)

Wish I had good news to follow that, but it was another horrible year for beans here. We warmed up & dried out early, so everything went in early, and got off to a good start. Then the 'Midwest monsoon' moved in AGAIN in mid-June, and drowned out almost everything... the 3rd time in 4 years. :-( The rural garden (where I grow most of my seed crops) was underwater 3 times. About 1/3 of every variety there (beans, tomatoes, peppers, EVERYTHING) died due to the waterlogged soil, and the remaining beans (all pole) were severely & permanently stunted:

• - Pole beans Brita's Foot Long, Brown King #2, Grandma Roberts, Sangre de Toro, and Sargas
• - Pole lima McClelland Heirloom
• - Runner bean Insuk's Wang Kong

All of those produced some seed, but no more than 1/4 of their normal yield. The pole wax Blue Blockeye was completely destroyed.

Cowpeas & other Vignas (mung, urd, adzuki) were stunted intitially, but made at least a partial recovery:

• 21 Peas (over half of normal)
• MN 13 (about 3/4 of normal)
• Black Seed Yardlong (1/3 of normal)
• White Cream Crowder (a new trial) was heavily flooded, and all but 2 plants died. Those 2 plants at least produced enough seed to replace what was planted.
• Yellow Mungo recovered almost completely, about 3/4 of the expected yield
• Black Mungo (Urd) produced about 1/2 of the expected yield
• Buff adzuki produced about 1/2 of the expected yield

All beans planted in the home gardens did well:

• Lima 1880's Butterbean, 4 pounds of seed & several pints of frozen butterbeans
• Pole bean Jembo Polish, which produced tons of shellies, and almost 4 pounds of seed
• Pole bean Bert Goodwin, 2 pounds of seed
• Runner bean Piekny Jas recovered late, but produced 2 pounds of seed & a lot of shellies
• Pole cowpea Thailand Pole (basically a yardlong) 2 pounds of seed & a lot of snaps
• An unknown pole black-seeded cowpea was the star performer this year - 5 pounds of dry seed from a 20' row. Wish I knew what to call it, it's a keeper.

Soybeans in all gardens recovered almost completely, and most bore close to what was expected. Those marked * were rescues started as transplants:

• An,dunscaja, Bei Liang 11, GL 2216-84, Krasnoarmejscaja*, Musan-1*, PI 427088 I*, Sakamotowase, T 239, Tengamine, Tokio Vert, Ugra Saja
• Grande was healthy, but almost completely destroyed by rodents
• DV 2371* and Hokkaido Black had poor germination, but produced enough seed to plant again
• Soybeans Pando, Sapporo Midori, and St. Ita did not germinate. Those will be rescue transplant attempts next year.

The India Bush hyacinth bean laughed at all of the heat & rainfall, and grew normally.

You two are way ahead of me, although my beans did relatively well here in Michigan.

I planted some Provider green beans, Royal Burgundy snaps and Pencil Pod yellow wax beans and they all grew well and produced their normal enormous crops of beans. I canned 20 pints of 3 bean salad and 96 quarts of green/purple/yellow snaps.

I also planted some Pink Half Runner beans for my Southern husband and we canned over 100 quarts of those, he "shares" them with his family, none of whom bother to grow anything.

I added some bush type Taylor Horticultural, some red kidney beans and some Lina Cisco Bird Egg beans. They also did well, with the red kidney being a surprise. I have never grown them before and they were prolific, I was impressed and put 28 quart bags in the freezer plus saved a pound or so for seed, out of a 50 foot row.

The only disappointments were Kebarika, which ripened so incrementally that I had to pick every day, just a few, which was tiresome and black Garbanzo beans. If I left those long enough to turn black the pods dried and shattered, scattering the beans. If I picked them when the pods started to dry, they weren't black. Shelling was tedious because there were only one or two beans per pod. I won't plant them again.

This year I'll continue with the kidney beans and the Taylor, as well as the snaps and the Pink Half Runners, and I'm adding Red Swan, Jacob's Cattle Gold and some pole beans as my lovely husband has agreed to erect some supports for those. The supports will get Christmas lima beans, Scarlet Runner, some Nonna Agnes Blue beans (which I have only 10 of), pinto beans, Turkey Craw, Trail of Tears and cowpeas. I did grow Turkey Craw before and it was one of my favorites.

It's been an ongoing experiment as to which beans will grow and mature during Northern Michigan's sometimes very short growing season, so I've tried and discarded a lot of different types of beans.

I'm looking forward to this year's garden, though, the tomatoes, peppers, cabbages and broccoli are happily under the lights on shelves in the entryway. I direct sow the beans, I just don't have room for everything I want to plant, says the woman who just added 4 elderberry bushes between the asparagus and the raspberries, LOL. I do want to try some yard long or snake type beans, I just have to decide where to plant them!

Annie