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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Beans (was: Re: Harvest cart - Crawler or Drangen)

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  • From: "Lova Andriamanjay" <lova.andriamanjay AT gmail.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Beans (was: Re: Harvest cart - Crawler or Drangen)
  • Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:40:22 -0400

We pick beans 2-3 times a week. And noticed a few things.

First of all, it takes pretty much the same time to pick 100' full of beans or 100' with almost no pods. So we do all we can to maximize the productivity of each plant. We try to keep the weeds in check and spray Manganese 2-3 times per crop (we always get deficiencies if we don't spray). We harvest our beans for 2-3 weeks per planting before they slow producing. We try not to harvest them more than twice per week in cooler weather and three times in the heat of summer to improve the yield per picking. Finally,we grow mainly Maxibel (long slender green bean) and Rocdor (yellow wax bean) which have been the best tasting and the most productive varieties for us.

When harvesting we mainly kneel next to the row and try to keep our back straight. I personally do not feel I gain much by pulling the whole plant and picking the beans standing.

An important considération in my opinion is pricing. We sell our beans 4$/pound at our market. We usually bring about 40-50 pounds (which take 1-2 man-hour to pick) and pretty much always sell out. Sûre some people are selling cheaper but our beans are thé best looking and tasting. People always come back once they have tried them. Don't undersell yourselves if you are putting a lot of work in this crop!




Le 23 août 2011 11:21, Roots Farm <karen AT rootsfarm.info> a écrit :

Greencrop was delicious & productive flat green podded bush bean in MA (even in less than optimum conditions) and also does well in tropical Dominica. I prefer pole beans though -- much easier to harvest and much less susceptible to those rusts and molds from soil contact/splash and, to me, pole beans have best selection of tastes.  I especially like the runner types for taste (and beautiful hummingbird attracting flowers); also the long podded flat ones like Champagne and Kwintus.  Purple pole beans are also lovely.  And for those of you with long growing seasons, winged beans are WONDERFUL (but require serious trellis) and long beans (Asparagus bean) very popular with Asian and Caribbean populations.

Best wishes to all,

Karen

Roots Farm Organic Produce
Fruits, Roots, Vegetables & Herbs
Cochrane, DOMINICA
767-449-3038 (before 7 P.M.)

On Aug 23, 2011, at 9:35 AM, Etienne Goyer wrote:

On 11-08-23 08:41 AM, SA wrote:
I use mostly pole beans, but rely on bush for early production.  I like to
plant extra successions and pull the plants out of the ground as I
harvest.  I do an initial go-through stooped when they just start to bean
out, but take the entire plant on the next go round so I can stand.

That's an idea: grow the first round of early bush bean (ie, Provider)
under fleece for added earliness, and then plant pole beans on plastic
for a main season crop when the condition are good.  I like your idea of
harvesting by pulling the plant.  I think this might work better with
varieties that mature all at once, though.

Which bush bean do you plant early in the season?  I tried Provider
here, it works, but I think it does not have the best eating quality.
Would love to find another early, cool soil bush bean that delivers.
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