Yea, right! Well, let me tell you! I planted a flat of qts. 2-3 per qt. They started coming up while I was in Indy (about 10 days). I got back & noticed something had helped themselves to my new babies!!!
Well, I haven't found any dead deer or any dead rabbits! So, they evidently aren't poison to my critters.
I have now moved them inside some chicken wire enclosures & we will see if it was deer or rabbits, that helped themselves to my babies!!!
:~)
Hyacinth Bean
Bariolio, that warning is for dried, uncooked beans. Same goes for the common Kidney bean.
My BIL gave me a great book, Wicked plants: the weed that killed Lincoln's mother & other botanical atrocities.
Very interesting read and surprising how many things we eat on a daily basis could be considered deadly if improperly eaten.
Cocoa, that book sounds so good I just ordered it from the library! Thanks! And thanks to Smockette, I'll have a few beans to plant. :)
I want to borrow that book, also. Let me know when you take it back so I can order it fr the library.
Since I do so much traveling in the last yr, I now have a collection of library cards! Magnolia & Montgomery Cty, Hou & Harris Cty, Ft Worth, Hurst, Indy. etc. lol
:~)
Mine were still good after three years in the door of fridg , in zip loc bag .
I had bought a package a few years back and it says they can be sowed until Aug in Texas.
I wouldn't think they would have time to bloom before a chance of a freeze.
About 3 years ago there was an article on Daves about the Hyacinth bean vine and it was reported that all parts of the plant are edible but the beans are mildly poisonous and need to be boiled and rinced then boiled again and it seems like the article warned about pets eating the beans that will fall to the ground ..Now about what the horses will not eat Don't think they would eat the leaves and stems of the trombone zuchinni not poisonous just very stickery.
I wrote to Daves and asked if they would rerun the article ,we shall see I hope I have finally found a good spot for mine as I have an awful lot of shade..Where I have the vines now is full morning sun and they are climbing up a dead crab apple tree and have now reached the seven foot mark ,so far no blooms but I think this will happen..
Thanks Grits, I've never grow enough to to think of them as a harvest, or eaten them. I found this interesting conversation on GW http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/edible/msg0817464813566.html
After some of the unpleasant descriptions, "tuff, stringy, odd color cooked, not good tasting as a mature bean". Tho, some did say they liked them. I'm left thinking, I rather take my chances eating limas.lol
Smockette, Bariolio, enjoy the read!
Nobody ever told me "sun or shade"?
I was told sun.
Happiest in sun. Mine are on the east side of a wall so are in shade after about 2pm. Planted them 3/15, they are now taller than the wall -- 6 1/2 feet. If you pinch them off they'll grow more branches.
They do grow quickly - I know mine had blooms and beans on 5/15, so if you sow them early August you might get some blooms before they freeze (depending on where you are).
Josephine, is it too late to plant the hyacenth beans? Should I just wait until fall or next spring? I can plant them next week, but just wondering if they have enough time still to bloom this season.
I really can't answer that personally, because I have never grown them, Cheryl gave those to pass around.
But I know they are fast growers so they might make it, we still have a good four months of growth time.
Save some for next year and you nothing to lose and could gain a lot.
Glenna said her beans were up in record time...try some and save some as Jo said. I have never had much luck with them and now I read (above) where you should soak them. So I think I will try some now also.
Passed some on to Bariolio, today & she is going to soak over nite & plant.
As hot as it is down here, I would venture to say she will get some blooms & seed pods!
Time will tell!
:~)
Thank you, Smockette! I will report when the beans are up and growing!
Re: soaking - Since I have more than enough beans, I first planted a couple of pots without soaking. Those came up in 2 days ! In the meantime, I had soaked several beans for 24 hours and those actually took a day longer to come up. But all are thriving. This must have been the bean that Jack and the Bean Stalk story was based on. LOL. It grows by leaps and bounds.
So in my limited experience, soaking doesn't seem to make any difference.
Verrry en-ter-resting!!!! (Laugh-in little person, remember?)
Just my old habit.
:~)
I find they come up quickly without soaking to, if you keep them moist. I created the ugliest arbor ever! Two plastic over metal plant stakes with a big piece of fencing over it. Those 3 plants I put near by better cover it soon...
C
Mine are barely growing , not enough sun .
We have LOTS of sun in Texas lately!
Maybe it was the timing then...but I put them in the ground and forgot them. Going to start in a pot this time.
If flowers can be considered 'staples', this would be one of mine!!!
:~)
Pic:
Beautiful, Peony1066. I have never seen the actual HB vine before. Your pic makes me want to plant them everywhere. May even sneak into the neighbor's yard and plant a few while they are on vacation. ROFL.
I'd like to plant some to overtake the neighbor's asian honeysuckle they planted a couple of years ago.
Let the Flower Wars begin... Sounds like a new "reality" show in the making!
I wish I could get ANYTHING that blooms to be "invasive" in my bare yard....Jo
I think I could drop the seeds along our back fence (shared) and let them go. Whaddya think??
Kick a little dirt that way & with a little water to start them off, I bet they would grow. Who knows, your neighbors might like pretty purple flowers & beans better than white & yellow!!! Or maybe the mixture!!! lol
:~)
Make some seed balls and drop them along the fence! LOL!
Excellent idea, Sheila!!!
& what a great page for Stephanie's journal!!! ROFLOL
:~)
Oh Lynea....your question, the seedlings are at the top of the fence now!!
GREAT idea, Sheila!! I'll have to get some seeds from someone at the fall RU.
Chuckl, you guys are AWFUL. They are beans, kissing kin to a scarlet runner bean, the Latinos I always knew name them Jacob's Beans, & trust me, cows and horses think they are food and will eat them to the ground, safely. They are nitrogen fixers, great cover for awnings, and will not survive a freeze. I believe the ones you are planting now are more vigorous a grower than those I grew in the late 70's and 80's, and I consider them more an 'ornamental' than a vegetable, but hey, whatever trips your trigger, chuckl, they will grow full sun or partial shade-gratefully so. Enjoy the vine, it gets lots of attention.
Mine are now at the 8' mark climbing on the dead crab apple tree,I have the HVB and a couple of the trombone zuchinni both climbing the old dead tree and am checking everydat for blooms so far NADA for the HVB but the trombones are producing squash aplenty