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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • 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 09:06:08 -0400


On Aug 12, 2009, at 8:30 AM, Bill Shoemaker wrote:

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.

My experience is that the first picking is light, the second the heaviest, the third usually almost as heavy as the first, the fourth often not worthwhile.

My experience is also that this depends both on bean variety and weather. The weather is an uncontrollable factor (though I am trying to control the bean beetles, my other major problem, at least if the deer are busy eating something else.) Variety I have some control over. Some beans do seem to have been bred for one heavy harvest, rather than for repeated ones. Provider is a great bean for flavor, and for germination and production in cool weather, but in hot weather tends to become overripe too fast for my picking schedule (once a week for each section) and often doesn't produce quite as well. My favorite hot weather (well, hot weather for here) bean is Slenderette, but I've been having trouble getting seed for it. Golden Rocky, Dragon Tongue, Jumbo Italian, La France filet (Burpee), have all done well for me, and Royal Burgundy does adequately.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale



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