A Story About Beans

This year our beans in the Heritage Demonstration Garden did fantastic in our Three Sisters Garden. They produced a LOT of bean pods and spiralled up the corn stalks like they were supposed to. In fact there were probably TOO many bean plants in such a small area. I protected these plants using some wiring as the squirrels were here with a vengance. The bean plants grew all over the surrounding wiring as well. They are probably the crop that thrived the most this year.

 

However, being new to gardening, instead of properly allowing the beans to dry out in the pods before picking them, I picked them thinking it would be best to save them from the squirrels. I placed all the beans into a bag and left them to "dry out" in the window...COMPLETELY forgetting my 1st-grade project of growing beans in a plastic bag in the window.

 

Apparently, there was enough moisture in the bag even without the typical added wet paper towel and this morning I came into the office to a hilarious mistake and surprise. Many of the beans have SPROUTED in the window, reminding me of the project I did so many years ago.

 

Anyhow, not all is lost, apparently, it's good to do a seed germination test to see if the seeds will actually sprout before you go through the effort of planting them next year. I am not sure if this is a good indicator as the seeds aren't totally dried out yet but I read if 50% or more of your tests seeds spout then you have a good batch to plant next year. I placed the sprouted beans back in the bag with a wet paper towel just for fun to watch them continue to grow just like I did in 1st grade.

 

 

Lessons learned, luckily I only planted a small amount of our bean collection this year AND we have an actual farmer on staff now to teach me the ways of planting and harvesting.

Hope you enjoyed my silly mistake, as always if you have any gardening tips I am ALWAYS welcome to them.

 

Instructional Coordinator, Carly