sicitaliano black swamp pole bean

[aftermidnight]

This one has turned out to be one needing a long season at least for me, the last pole standing in the garden everything else is finished and has been for some time.
I'm just collected and shelled the first pods today, it actually stopped raining for half an hour. I can say this variety holds up to rain really well, It's been raining for days, we've had some real downpours. I was pleasantly surprised to find a few mature pods, the pods were paper thin and not a sign of mold on any of them.
They were very easy to shell, big, black, round seeds, the pole is still loaded with pods most in the shelly stage, maybe a few further along, I should get a few more seeds out of them.

This variety although planted at the same time as the others was very slow at producing flowers, not because of any heat although we had a few hot days in June, one of the coolest summers we've had in a long time. I'll pull the vines tomorrow and dry them under cover.

Annette

[PhilaGardener]

Fall rains are the bane of my dry bean harvest.

Interesting, Annette, that you haven't had a frost yet! Is this turning into a long season for you? We have had enough cool weather here in the MidAtlantic to have most of the bean plants shutting down for the season, although my limas have stayed very green so far. We dipped to the upper 30s (F) at night last week, but this week are predicted to be in unseasonable 80s.

[aftermidnight]

Philagardener, not a long season this year, cool summer rain starting in earnest in September. We recently had two light frosts but not bad enough to kill anything although the leaves are starting to turn yellow on this one.
We never know what we'll get here, we've had killing frosts in early September and some years we don't have frost until November. Some falls are quite warm and dry, others can be wet and cool to cold.
Last year we had vine ripened tomatoes July 1st., this year a bust, no ripe tomatoes until the first week of September and only had a few before we had to pull the plants, last year we were giving them away.

I grow most of my beans on conduit poles, a cork with a nail in the top to hang 6-8 strings from, I used to use fancier toppers but have gone to this simple method. I have one top for my conduit poles where I can actually use an umbrella . I use this on 'Barksdale' if needed, works like a charm, this insures a good seed harvest every year regardless of the weather.

Annette