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Welcome To Kevin's Pole Bean Page
This photo journal begins at the beginning. The first pole bean seeds went in the ground on March 15th, 2008. The first bean seedlings broke through on April the second. You'll find the pictures and information below.
In the coming weeks we will also be planting tomatoes, squash, and corn. Since this garden gets a limited amount of Sun, the timing of the planting is crucial.
Click on the thumbnails below for full size photos. What you're seeing is basically the garden as it was first prepared. The upper row are some thumbnails of the pole bean seedlings. The beans broke the surface on April 2, 2008 so they're very hard to see. The lower row are pictures of the prepared garden. It will become increasingly green and full as growth continues.
April 2 - 2000
April 8 - 2008
Here's the beans on their first birthday. They're one week old and looking pretty good for the limited Sun they're getting right now.
April 14 - 2008
Well the weather was very hot here in San Pedro the last four days. It finally cooled off a bit today. The important thing is the night temperatures have been somewhat warm the last few weeks so the seedlings and the seeds have survived the early Spring temperatures. Our first Grey Zucchini Squash germinated last night so there's two more to go. No pictures of the Squash yet. They're too small to bother with. The Pole Beans are looking good and they're getting more sunshine each day. Because of the location of the garden relative to the amount of Sun it gets, timing and plant location is crucial. Here are a few new photos below. The two-week old Pole Beans are on the left and the three furrows that will be planted with the Ferry Morse Silver Queen White Corn are on the right.
April 27 - 2008
Some new bean photos. The growth is still slow and something is snacking on the leaves at night. We'll take care of that one soon enough. A couple of shots of the squash in this collection too.
May 4 - 2008
Here's some new shots of the beans. Still growing kind of slow but the plants are putting out runner vines now so they want to reach the stars. Something is still snacking on the leaves that may be either snails or worms. We don't want to harm the young plants by using insecticide so I'm looking for an organic solution to whatever pests we have. We've also got raccoons, squirrels, and skunks in the neighborhood so we'll have to watch out for varmints now. Anyway, here are this weeks photos.
May 5 - 2008
A picture of a squash seedling (far left) and 3 empty furrows of corn. The corn is Ferry Morse sweet white hybrid Silver Queen corn. They should start germinating in the next week to ten days. They're a short season corn (85 days) so we should have some fresh ears by August or maybe Labor Day. One other squash seedling broke the surface this morning but the damn thing was really too small to photograph. I'll get some pictures of that one in a week or so.
May 11 - 2008
The beans are climbing fast for the most part. We still haven't figured out what's eating a couple of the plants. I guess it's time for some home-made insecticide. I'll have to check on the web for a recipe. We made a simple trellis out of a few pieces of wood I scrounged up. Looks like it will work pretty good. Here's some new pictures below.
May 29 through June 02 - 2008
Things have been slow the last two weeks. We had a very heavy Marine layer and some light rain/drizzle last week so it put a damper on the garden. It's nice and sunny today. Not too warm or too cool. Things should start picking up. We're already getting little flowers on the bean vines. Time to feed the plants this week. Here are the latest pictures below. The upper row of photos are from last week. You can also see a few corn seedlings and the squash in the top row. At eight weeks the beans are starting to flower.
June 9 through June 19 - 2008
New bean photos here. Lots of little flowers now. We picked our first beans on June 19. Not a whole lot but two plants haven't begun to produce pods. All plants are flowering so more beans will come. I planted three more seeds to replace the ones that died. We have a Raccoon with two babies in the neighborhood so this may be a problem soon with our squash and corn. Right now the neighborhood cats are using our plot as a shit-box. We just have to deal with the varmints whether they're wild or domestic. The two pictures on the right are the latest photos.
June 28 through July 2 - 2008
We're picking beans about two times a week. Two more bean seeds have germinated. The quality of the beans looks very good. We'll have more quantity later in the Summer. Beans are usually very easy to grow but for some reason this year's crop has been difficult. Things are now improving and we'll do much better now.
July 7 through July 12 - 2008
These pole beans have me puzzled. For about two weeks the started producing some really nice looking beans and then they just quit. I lost another vine to disease last week. Now I have a couple of new vines coming along and they look fine. I may be over watering the damn things. I'll have to rig up a better system to irrigate them. Since this plot of land is on a downhill slope with the beans at the lower end they tend to get much more water than the rest of the garden. As usual, all photos are thumbnails so click for a full size image. The latest pictures are on the right again.
July 17 through August 9 - 2008
Our last three bean vines have decided to start rocking again. The earlier ones have died due to too much water I believe. Our other vines are growing strong in a little dryer spot. No flowers though. That has me puzzled. The latest picture is on the right. As the corn they're growing next to finally gets harvested they get much more Sun and should improve production.
August 19 - 2008
Well after over a month of looking sick the beans we planted are making a comeback. As the cornstalks come down the beans are getting more Sun hence the late growth. They began to flower again last week so some fresh beans are on the way. They look healthy and we have very few garden pests this year. It seems the Hornets are keeping down the bug population. There is a large Hornet nest in our garden. I leave them alone and they reciprocate. New bean photos are below.
August 22 - 2008
We're getting little baby beans now. After a non-productive late July and August it looks like September and days beyond will be very good. The beans began flowering again last week and now they're starting to produce. The latest bean photos are below. With any luck we should be getting beans right through November. A Thanksgiving Green Bean Casserole sounds good to me.
August 28 through August 31 - 2008
We're getting beans again. After several false starts and a couple of pounds of beans in the early Summer we are picking once more. We're going to try and sneak in a couple of more vines for some late season crop. We planted four new seeds today. Although it's Labor Day weekend and the Summer is winding down our beans don't know that. The latest pictures are below.
September 6 - 2008
Our beans are really producing now. We're picking every two days and sometimes more often. This is very good production for only having four vines right now. We had four more seedlings break the surface this weekend so let's see if we can sneak in a few more beanstalks late in the season. This part of the garden is still getting lot's of Sun this late in the year. New pictures are below.
Bean Harvest Information
Date Weight Picked (est.) Comments Total Weight To Date 06/09/08 1/2 pound Nice pencil sized beans 1/2 pound 07/02/08 1 pound Same as above. A couple were huge 1 1/2 pounds 08/28/08 1/4 pound One big one, the rest were pencils 1 3/4 pounds 08/31/08 1/2 pound Decent sized handful 2 1/4 pounds 09/01/08 1/4 pound Same as above. Nice sized beans 2 1/2 pounds 09/03/08 1/2 pound Great big handful. Nice sized beans 3 pounds 09/04/08 1/2 pound We picked another nice handful today 3 1/2 pounds 09/06/08 1/4 pound Another small handful today. 3 3/4 pounds 09/08/08 1/2 pound Real nice handful. Cleo Peck got them all. 4 1/4 pounds
Pole Bean Summary And Information
After picking a couple of pounds of beans in July the vines quit producing. We came to the conclusion that poor water drainage was causing the beanstalks to quit producing. We lost about half of our vines and had to re-plant. As the cornstalks adjacent to the beans came down the beans received more sunshine and began to produce again. In late August our new vines began to flower and now we are picking beans once again. We are also going to sneak in a couple of more vines for a late season crop. Pole beans must be picked when they're young or they get stringy and tough. When I comment they're large it means we left them on the vines too long.
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