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  • From: Bill Shoemaker <wshoemak AT illinois.edu>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Bush Beans was Greenbeans in the Rain
  • Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 07:30:17 -0500 (CDT)

If you look at the real cost of hand-harvest and the value of bush snap
beans, it's probably more cost effective to pick twice and move to the next
scheduled planting. Its very expensive to hand-harvest and you'll pick the
bulk of a planting's productivity the first two pickings. Good management of
scheduled plantings can really improve the bottom line in market farming.

Bill



>I agree that bush beans won't last forever and several
>good pickings is normal. However, I think you have to take
>the weather into consideration also.
>
>I am on my 3rd picking of Contender green beans. I don't
>have alot, because it takes so much time to pick. For a
>one man picking crew (myself) it is hard to justify them
>sometime. 1st picking 20 pounds, 2nd picking 48 pounds
>and 3rd picking 18 pounds. The 2nd picking the weather
>was very cool and the had lots of moisture to work with.
>The 3 picking we just went through a heat wave of 98+
>degrees for a week and 25 mph winds. I couldn't keep the
>moisture to them fast enough. I hope I will have a fourth
>picking and then I will be on to my next planting.
>
>This is just my experience.
>
>Jay
>
>--- On Wed, 8/12/09, Allan Balliett
><aballiett AT frontiernet.net> wrote:
>
> From: Allan Balliett <aballiett AT frontiernet.net>
> Subject: [Market-farming] Bush Beans was Greenbeans in
> the Rain
> To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Wednesday, August 12, 2009, 5:29 AM
>
> >I do repeated plantings of bush beans, and don't figure
> on
> >harvesting any one planting for longer than three to
> four weeks.
> >
> >-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
> >Fresh-market organic produce, small scale
>
> I know Ellen at Potomac Vegetable Farms here outside of
> DC has said
> that she has found it most effecient to harvest bush
> beans one time
> (maybe one week?) and to plant closer successions. I
> used to nurse a
> planting for a month and found it worthwhile. It seems
> to me, though,
> that recent plantings have been awesome for one week
> (the 2nd week of
> having beans) and then hardly worth picking through. I'm
> thinking
> right now of our current planting of Provider. Two
> successive
> pickings of beans by the handful proceeded and followed
> by a couple
> of beans a plant. Wondering how it works for others on
> this list.
> Thanks -Allan in WV
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>
William H Shoemaker, UI-NRES
Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops
St Charles Horticulture Research Center
535 Randall Road St Charles, IL 60174
630-584-7254; FAX-584-4610




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