Green Beans and New Potatoes

Meadowlark

Meadowlark

Well-known member
Location
Near the Big Thicket National Preserve Texas
Hardiness zone
9a
Last year saw widespread reports of stringy blue lake green beans both as pole beans and bush beans. I also experienced that. Some speculated that possibly a genetic change of some sort was possible.

The anticipation for this year's crop was heightened as a result. My first picking is from some blue lake pole beans , one 16 ft panel out of 6 panels. The yields are strong and many younger beans are on the way.



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Snapping these and placing all in a big pot did not show any tendency towards "stringy"...so hopefully that issue is behind us. Of course, the ultimate test is in the tasting and that will be accomplished soon. The off-white potatoes are the tasty Sarpo Mira.



green beans and new potatoes.JPG
 
I had that last year with pole beans but not bush. My neighbor as well. weird thing is I preserve my bean seeds from last years beans. no issue the previous year. my neighbor buys from Amazon. his had the same issues mine had.

yours look great Meadowlark!!
 
I've been growing Blue Lake pole beans for about 5 years now. There is always a few pods out of the bunch that have strings. I can tell during the first break when the partial string dangles off the broken edge.
 
What I saw last year was a whole lot more than "a few pods".

My canned beans from last year's harvest are basically inedible because of the strings. In decades of growing them, I've never seen that before...and most interesting to me was that several others across the Country experienced the same thing with Blue Lake pole beans.

Back in my youth, they were called string beans for a reason...but modern genetics bred that characteristic out of the green beans we have today. s

One e-mail I received last year. the person believed there was a generic failure in Blue Lake pole beans that led to that. I don't know...but I am very happy to see it is not a problem this year.
 
YumYum said:
I've been growing Blue Lake pole beans for about 5 years now. There is always a few pods out of the bunch that have strings. I can tell during the first break when the partial string dangles off the broken edge.
Click to expand...
I have as well. But last year it was 60%-70%. never seen anything like it
 
1
Meadowlark said:
What I saw last year was a whole lot more than "a few pods".

My canned beans from last year's harvest are basically inedible because of the strings. In decades of growing them, I've never seen that before...and most interesting to me was that several others across the Country experienced the same thing with Blue Lake pole beans.

Back in my youth, they were called string beans for a reason...but modern genetics bred that characteristic out of the green beans we have today. s

One e-mail I received last year. the person believed there was a generic failure in Blue Lake pole beans that led to that. I don't know...but I am very happy to see it is not a problem this year.
Click to expand...
It wasnt everyone. but more so than I have ever heard. I will not know about this year for another few months.
 
I thought the strings only develop if the beans are not harvested soon enough. When preparing and slicing runner beans, I always remove the strings before slicing on the ones that should have been picked the day before (or sooner) Any that are overlooked are saved as next years seeds.
 
Could it have been the weather?

We've had leeks turning purple this spring (which they don't normally) and a lot of the first leaves on the trees were half the size due to the cold winds coming off the ice sheets well into April this year.
 
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