Bean Variety Photos

Introduction

The McClellan Ranch Project is located in the community gardens of the City of Cupertino at McClellan Ranch Park. The team members interface with community gardeners there on a regular basis and discuss any problems presented during work days. The objective of the project is to do trials of vegetables that the local gardeners might be able to grow. At an appropriate time during the growing cycle, the team puts on a tasting of the vegetable(s) of the year and invites the public to the tasting. The team thus provides input to the community to help them with their gardening activities. This year beans were the vegetable of choice and 19 varieties were planted (20 if you count the Kwintus seeds from 2 sources). The public field day was held on August 11, 2007. Flyers announcing the tasting were posted in a variety of locations in Cupertino and Sunnyvale. The weekly papers for Cupertino and Sunnyvale post free announcements of events on a space available basis. Our event was not in the papers this year.

Field Project Report

Twenty varieties of beans which could be grown by the home gardener were planted. Plant characteristics along with pest and disease problems were observed and recorded.

A public field day was held on August 11 when people toured the garden and tasted seventeen varieties of bush and pole beans. Due to the minimal advertising only about 49 people came to the tasting vs the ~120 who attended in 2005. Rating sheets were available at the field day tasting. These were tabulated and used to pick the top varieties based on flavor and texture. (See the section on Public Tasting Results.) When selecting which bean varieties to grow, home gardeners can consult these tasting results as well as the plant characteristics and pest and disease information.

The public will find that beans are easy to grow but require quite a bit of space for bush beans but less space for pole beans. The soil needs to be properly prepared.

Soil Preparation and Planting

The McClellan Ranch team uses organic gardening methods for the vegetable trials. Preparations for spring planting began in April. We normally start preparations in November when we plant fava beans. However the City of Cupertino had informed us that we might lose all or part of our garden plot due to the construction of the Stevens Creek Hiking and Biking Trail which was going to displace some of the 4H barns. The barns would be rebuilt in the southern part of the community gardens. The City would endeavor to provide us with an equivalent amount of garden space in the spring. We ended up losing the southern half of our garden plot. We were given a plot to the west of the remaining part of our garden plot. The new piece of land was covered with a variety of thorny berry plants which we removed. The newly shaped garden plot was then rototilled and beds laid out for planting the bush and pole beans. Wood chips were put into the aisles between the beds that had been laid out.

Plant Characteristics

Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co., Mansfield, MO 65704
Park Seed Co.
(1) Donated by Renee’s Garden representative. Available in local stores that sell seeds
(2) (3) Tri-color packs
Individuals donated saved seeds.

We used 6 trellis structures that had chicken wire attached to the frames plus a combination of bamboo poles and heavy twine for the pole beans to climb on. Some of the pole bean plants became taller than the 8 ft. trellises and bamboo poles. An arbor arrangement would be ideal for the long beans and also useful for the Kwintus and Spanish Musica which are heavy producers. One team member raises Spanish Musica at home and says that 3 plants provide more beans than they can use. He had downsized from 6 plants the year before.

Pest and Disease Problems

Various pest problems were encountered, primarily rabbits, birds, gophers, aphids (and ants), squirrels, and rats. This was the first year that we had a problem with rabbits. We borrowed some wire covers from Ralph E. to protect some of the most chewed plants from the rabbits and birds. With the protection, the plants recovered. We were told that the rabbits were native pygmy rabbits.

Insect control consisted of spraying water on the aphids/ants and later spraying some soapy water on the aphids/ants. Some of the aphids were manually mashed by team members. The only beans attacked by the aphids were the two varieties of long red beans. The green Taiwan Black long beans were not invaded by the aphids/ants. Only two gophers were caught early on during the season because the roots of the plants would have been destroyed by the holes for the traps. The gopher runs tended to be located under the plants such that the plant would be demolished if we did enough digging to set the traps. Other community gardeners set above ground traps and caught a variety of critters.

Harvesting Results

The first beans were picked on 7 July. The varieties picked were Spanish Musica, Kwintus, King’s Banquet, and Purple Queen. A total of 2 lb. 10 oz. of beans were picked. The poundage picked up from there and the maximum picked on one day was 65 lb. 5.25 oz. on 21 July. After that we scheduled pickings more frequently to avoid having overgrown/tough beans. The team members took beans home with them and the rest of the beans were donated to the Mt.View Community Services for distribution with the other food they distribute to the needy. Through 8 September 530 pounds of beans were donated out of 698.4 pounds picked.

The table near the end of the report gives information on number of plants.

Harvesting Tips
Several methods were used to pick the beans. The primary methods were: (1) Grasping the bean at the top where the stem attaches to the plant then pulling on the bean worked well for some team members. If the bean is grasped in the middle or lower part of the bean, the bean will frequently break and leave part of the bean attached to the plant. (2) Using clippers or scissors to cut the stem above the bean.

Pick the beans while they are relatively small for the variety for best flavor and to keep the plant producing more beans. At the end of the season you may want to let a few pods mature for saving seeds for planting the next season.

Public Tasting Results

The tasting was held at McClellan Ranch Park on Saturday, 11 August 2007 from 10 AM to 12 PM. Forty two people turned in Rating Sheets from the tasting. The results were tabulated and are shown in the table below. Tours of the garden were led by team members.

(tri-color means 3 varieties of beans in one package – seeds are color coded)

McClellan Ranch Team

The public tasting is a team effort. In some years Master Gardeners outside the team assist with the tasting. This year visitors were greeted at a Welcome Table that included photos of previous activities at the McClellan Ranch Project plus photos taken during the season.

References with More Growing Tips

“California Master Gardener Handbook,” Dennis R. Pittenger, Editor, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Publication 3382, pages 359 – 363.

Bean Links from University of California, Davis