The European pole beans have entirely displaced the North American Kentucky variety within the garden. The new bean seedlings have grown remarkably fast within the last week. The Japanese beetle threat seems to have greatly diminished. With the potato harvested and the Native American bean plants consumed to death, the beetles seems to destroyed their own food supply. Within a week, what had once been a population of hundreds of eating, fighting, and mating beetles have been reduced to just a handful.
With the beetles gone, the surviving European pole beans are now producing in force. The trick to harvesting large amounts of beans is to not allow the seed pods to grow large and harden. If that ever happens, chemical changes will alert the bean plant that it's reproductive cycle is complete. And when that message is communicated, the bean plant will cease to produce any more beans for us to eat. By harvesting young and tender beans, the plant is tricked into producing more and more offspring(beans) to make sure that some of them will make it. This of course produces great yield.
So over the last 4 days, the garden has produced a total yield of 3 pounds of beans. This trend will hopefully continue until September. By late August, the new bean plants set down a week ago(on the potato bed along with the turnips) will compensate for the declining yield of the first wave of beans planted in May. This type of succession planting can serve to ensure a very stable and reliable supply of a protein rich food.
The European pole beans have entirely displaced the North American Kentucky variety within the garden. The new bean seedlings have grown remarkably fast within the last week. The Japanese beetle threat seems to have greatly diminished. With the potato harvested and the Native American bean plants consumed to death, the beetles seems to destroyed their own food supply. Within a week, what had once been a population of hundreds of eating, fighting, and mating beetles have been reduced to just a handful.
With the beetles gone, the surviving European pole beans are now producing in force. The trick to harvesting large amounts of beans is to not allow the seed pods to grow large and harden. If that ever happens, chemical changes will alert the bean plant that it's reproductive cycle is complete. And when that message is communicated, the bean plant will cease to produce any more beans for us to eat. By harvesting young and tender beans, the plant is tricked into producing more and more offspring(beans) to make sure that some of them will make it. This of course produces great yield.
So over the last 4 days, the garden has produced a total yield of 3 pounds of beans. This trend will hopefully continue until September. By late August, the new bean plants set down a week ago(on the potato bed along with the turnips) will compensate for the declining yield of the first wave of beans planted in May. This type of succession planting can serve to ensure a very stable and reliable supply of a protein rich food.
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