green beans, lots of leaves, no beans

My green bean vines are going crazy with leaves, but no beans anywhere. The soil is from my compost heap, very loose and the vines are on a trellis. We are having very hot weather and I'm having to water. Any suggestions to kick these into production? Thanks!

Cathy, while I do have some beans on my vines, there are no where near the amount that I'm used to seeing from this many Fortex plants. I don't know if it's the hot weather or what. Mine are very lush with very few flowers. Are you seeing any flowering?

Not a single flower yet.

My bush beans are putting out masses of beans, but my poles are not producing yet, either. A few flowers, but not hardly what I'm used to.

Thanks for this info, maybe if it ever cools off here they will start.

Doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon!

All my beans were planted at the end of May. I have picked the bush beans four times. I didn't have a single flower on the Kentucky Wonder pole beans until about ten days ago. Right now, the beans are popping out like crazy. Best advice from my uncle,"Be patient". Dan

Thanks Dan, it's that time of year when I crave the fresh beans in a pot with onions, a bit of bacon and the new potatoes. Everything else is ready.

Cathy, My uncle told me that beans have a built-in survival instinct that shuts down much of the production during the really hot weather. I don't know about your weather,but we had record heat recently. It has cooled a little to the low 80's and they may be why the beans have started to grow. Last August my beans looked done for the year,but in September the vines were loaded again. By the way, I know all about the beans,new potatoes, pearly onions and salt pork. LOL Good luck. Dan

Dan, it has been in the high 90's, a good 10 degrees more than normal. You are right, that is probably the reason. Guess I'll have to wait for cooler weather, boo hoo.

OK - I have all of those ingredients in my garden - 'cept the bacon of course - that's in the freezer.

Can someone tell me how to prepare it? Sounds yum-my!

That does sound wonderful. Recipe, please?

I really don't have a recipe. For a large pot I put in about 1/4 lb of bacon cut into thin strips across the package. Cook that until it gets crispy. Scoop out the crispy pieces, then put a large onion that has been chopped into fairly large pieces in the drippings. Then I put in a thick layer of green beans that have been trimmed. My husband like them left long, some people cut or break them into smaller bites. Last I put in potatoes. I like the new red ones, cut in half or 4ths, but you can use larger ones cut up. Gently stir them to coat everything, cover and simmer on very low heat until the beans and potatoes are soft. You may need to add just a bit of water. Add the crispy bacon back in before serving. Don't stir too much or the potatoes will start to fall apart. I don't peel the potatoes if they are small and fresh from the garden.

Another option that I used a lot when I was working was to put it all in a crock pot (minus the crispy bacon) and set on low. Coming home to a big crock ready to eat and smelling soooo good just made my day.

Now my DH likes to have some meat with his dinner, but I can eat this as a meal. Add a tomato and maybe a fresh ear of corn, heaven on earth.

This is not a low fat meal, haha, but you have to die from something, right?

Added: I forgot to include "pepper to taste."


This message was edited Jul 30, 2010 4:28 PM

Sounds wonderful. A little more work than I want for a Friday night after work, but it WILL be on tomorrow night's dinner plate!!!

you guys need to check out food.com or allrecipes.com and by the way, add a can of chicken stock as you simmer those green beans, chuckl, you'll be tickled, and for those of us who cannot handle those tasty drippings it replaces the grease... and you left out the garlic clove

Don't forget Epicurious.com if you're looking for "printed" recipes. However, at this point, I wanted HER recipe, and it was great - just the way she wrote it! Yum - dinner for 2, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it,

Thanks, Cathy!

You are quite welcome, I'm happy you liked it.

Served it with poached eggs and hollandaise, and while it was the most fattening meal EVER, it was fit for king!

Hey guys have any of you ever planted soybeans, I have almost all soybeans and they have the small beans growing but they have been small for a long time, I am wondering will they ever get big. Also I have some lima beans full of little flowers but no limas at all, is this due to the extreme heat? Will they start producing once the heat is not so brutal?
So glad that you posted this, thank you.

My Fortex beans have shut down, too. Fortunately, they have been producing very well during the past few weeks, so I have plenty in the freezer. I think it's the hot weather that has made them stop blooming. Once September rolls around, I'm hopeful they will start up again. I've told my hubby to stop watering them - my June water bill was three times what it usually is, and I'm thinking it's not worth spending the money on water when the beans have quit.

As to soybeans - mine filled out nicely, and are in the freezer. If yours have shut down, I suspect the heat might have something to do with it, although from what I have read, they like hot weather.

Honeybee that's what I thought as well that they like the heat, the soybeans are there but they are still tiny and not filling out, do they just take a long time for the pods to fill out?

I'm going to cut my bean back. The leaves are so thick I couldn't find beans even if they were there.

carminator1 - To me it seemed like the soybeans took forever to fill-out. The seed I set around May 15th were finished July 25th to July 31st.

Mine were "Green Pearls" from Burpee. Have a look at your seed packet and see how long they should take. Mine looked just like the bright green Edamame that can be purchased frozen in the supermarket, and tasted like them, too.

Sequee,
Next time, start the crock pot that morning, and you'll come home to a Friday night dinner!

I cook red beans, beef stew, and ESPECIALLY "Lilly Mae's Greens" overnight in the crockpot. Oh, and I just figured out I can cook GRITS overnight, too.

NO MORE SPLATTERED STOVE!!!

Linda

Gonna experiment with oatmeal REAL soon...