shaefins
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Bush Bean and Snap Pea questions

I think I've read on here that bush beans don't put out a lot of beans. True? We are a family of 6 and I was originally only going to do 8 plants. Should I rearrange my plan and do more (using Square Foot Gardening - 1 square w/ 8 plants.

I'm also doing snap peas - Burpee's Organic Sugar Daddy, to be precise. I was under the impression that snap peas grow tall and need to be trellised. The Burpee site says "24 inch vines". Is the trellising necessary just because they're vines? I was going to do these in a separate 4'x4' plot with "taller" veggies (tomatoes and cukes on a trellis). Do you think I'm headed down a good path?

*sigh* This is *killing* me! :lol: I'm uppotting lettuce, parsley, spinach and peppers as I write this and I'm convinced I'm killing all of them because I waited too long to uppot from the Jiffy peat pellets and all the roots are intertwined. I'm using the swishing through water method I read on here to separate them. I think I love these seedlings more than I love my dog! :shock: :lol:

DoubleDogFarm
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I think I love these seedlings more than I love my dog

My dog Pepper, on the right, said, "What did she just say" :shock: That's crazy talk.


[img]https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h300/eric_wa/Garden2008065-2.jpg[/img]

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applestar
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Your snap peas, lettuce, spinach, and parsley should be in the ground already. They are cool weather crops -- peas will wither and die, and lettuce and spinach will bolt (go to seed) once the REAL :roll: hot weather arrives. Parsley is cold hardy and will tolerate frost, but it WILL continue to grow through the summer. If the seedlings are very small, you might just try planting out 1/3 or 1/2 of the little seedlings to start out with. Fortunately, the weather is going back to normal soon.

24" pea "vines" are supposed to be self supporting, in the sense that planted thickly, they lean on each other. But a few twiggy branches stuck among the peas in strategic locations keeps the whole lot from falling over together.

I planted "Jade" bush beans last year and it was very productive. We're still eating them out of the freezer. But 8 plants? I had two blocks of 9 plants (not strictly SFG here), planted something like 2 weeks apart so that after the first block finished producing, the other one took over. I also had two blocks -- one of 6 and another of 4 -- pole beans.

Peppers will need a few more weeks -- another 4 weeks in my garden -- before they can be planted out. So go ahead and coddle those seedlings. Give them lots warmth and light, and plenty of root space to grow.

shaefins
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Location: Pittsburgh, 6A

I used an online planting guide based on my average last frost date for my zone. I was pretty cool - told you when to start seeds indoors, when to harden off, when to plant outside, if it should be direct seeded, etc. Just double checked the pea info, and realized it never had the start seed date, just the plant out date (April 9-15). *sigh* So...no sugar snap peas for me then???

I got my lettuce seeds started late - should have been March 12-18, but I didn't get them started until March 21. They're still pretty small, and not hardened off. And I just uppotted them tonight. Am I blowing it by waiting? Sounds like it. DANG! :x I suppose I could put some of the bigger ones out this weekend. Wait - that won't work - they're not hardened off yet. Will be at least another week.

As for the beans, I have extra space which is why I was asking. If 8 plants isn't enough, I'll do more. I'm showing a direct seed date of May 7-13. I like the idea of starting them at different times - will have to try that. Is it safe to assume that any variety of bean can be started then? I have a pack of wax bean seeds I picked up on a whim from the dollar store. No info on whether they're bush or pole though - how can I tell?

ETA: Forgot the spinach. Had a start seed date of March 19-25 and did them on March 21. My harden off date is April 23-29 and plant out is April 30-May 6. It sounds like I have bad info, which is a huge bummer, given this is my first shot at gardening. *sigh* Ah, well, c'est la vie, I suppose. :(

DDF - maybe we should trade dogs. Yours look *way* more under control than my spotted freak (Australian Cattle Dog mix - the mix is 100% Crazy).

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applestar
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I would try direct seeding peas, spinach, and lettuce right now.

Spinach and lettuce you can harvest at any point when the leaves look big enough to eat :twisted: . (I often snack on baby lettuce and spinach while walking around with my morning cup of tea or coffee :D)

Peas will depend on how fast your variety matures and weather luck. Depends on variety of course, but by their very nature, Snow Peas are ready to pick earliest, then Sugar Snaps, then Shelling Peas.

If you plant so they'll get some dappled shade during mid day or late afternoon when it's hottest, they'll last longer into the warmer weather. People often plant spinach and lettuce so they'll be shaded by taller crops.

If your bean seeds have a specific variety name, try an online search for the name.

Dillbert
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shaefins -

I normally do climbing peas and bush green&wax beans - not in SFG mode but fwiw:

or peas 24 inch height is the minimum in my experience - I would have gone 36 but I had a roll of left over 48 width wire so I nailed together some 2x4 and made several trellis. I've got three - and plant on both sides, so that's 36 feet of peas. harvesting becomes difficult if they flop over on themselves, and if you get any wilt/mold being all mushed together seems to spread the disease - vs more open and airy. I tried the bush varieties a couple times and much prefer the vining type.

beans I do 'intensive' in rows - last year I put in seven ten foot rows - about 6 inches apart - and we have one gallon size bag of (frozen) beans left as the new crop is going in. I generally see two perhaps three 'flushes' of crop then they dwindle a bit. I would not characterize bush types as 'not too productive' - after the first flush I side dress with dried cow manure.

>>waited too long to uppot from the Jiffy peat pellets
I'm puzzled at this - I just leave them in the pellet - if you've got the kind with the plastic mesh - cut that off the outside, and repot into 4". I prefer the small (2" diameter?) peat pots proper - those you can break off the top edge / rim (so it doesn't become a "wick") and repot. I drill / poke a hole through the bottoms to ensure water access, arrange them snug together in trays. generally by the time for repotting the peat pots are pretty close to falling apart.

FailedSlacker
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shaefins wrote:DDF - maybe we should trade dogs. Yours look *way* more under control than my spotted freak (Australian Cattle Dog mix - the mix is 100% Crazy).
If you can, get that dog to work. My cattle dog mix is well behaved when he has his weekly agility class to get his boredom out. When class are out and I forget for a week or two, he starts to go a little stir crazy.

If you don't have time for agility or another dog sport, puzzle dishes apparently help. One of the other agility people I know has a jack russell-border collie cross (the sheer amount of crazy in this cross should be outlawed) and the dish keeps him occupied.

shaefins
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Location: Pittsburgh, 6A

Thanks for the info, Dilbert! Very helpful and I like your bean process. :D
Dillbert wrote:>>waited too long to uppot from the Jiffy peat pellets
I'm puzzled at this - I just leave them in the pellet - if you've got the kind with the plastic mesh - cut that off the outside, and repot into 4". I prefer the small (2" diameter?) peat pots proper - those you can break off the top edge / rim (so it doesn't become a "wick") and repot. I drill / poke a hole through the bottoms to ensure water access, arrange them snug together in trays. generally by the time for repotting the peat pots are pretty close to falling apart.
When I seeded the Jiffy pellets, I had 5 or 6 seeds in each. Most of the pots had multiple seedlings that looked really healthy, so I didn't want to snip them off. Because the roots were all intertwined, they were tough to separate. At first look this morning though, they all looked rather perky, so I have my fingers crossed they'll make it.
FailedSlacker wrote:If you can, get that dog to work. My cattle dog mix is well behaved when he has his weekly agility class to get his boredom out. When class are out and I forget for a week or two, he starts to go a little stir crazy.

If you don't have time for agility or another dog sport, puzzle dishes apparently help. One of the other agility people I know has a jack russell-border collie cross (the sheer amount of crazy in this cross should be outlawed) and the dish keeps him occupied.
I had him in obedience classes last fall (he needs them...big time!) but had to stop half way through as he needed surgery to repair a luxating patella (basically, his knee cap would dislocate all the time, 10-15 times a day, then go back in place - it was painful for him though). I need to get him back into something though. Sadly, since his surgery, he's been *very* aggressive at the dog park so I can't run him anymore. I liked to do that a couple times a week, and you're right, the exercise did help with his negative behavior. I'll look into those puzzle dishes you recommended - thanks! :D



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