Just an update, all 20 of the seeds I put to pre germinate have dobe so, 100% germination . They are in pots now and a few are showing green. They will be going out before long.

Thanks Fusion, they are the closest I have come to repacing my previous seeds that I had let run out, I so appreciated the link. They are super beans and |I feel sure you will like them.

I am kinda glad I brought it up on the earlier post now..I had just about given up searching.

XX Jeannine

The past few days of cooler than normal temps have resulted in tiny beans on the Gigandes. The earliest white flowers are now dropping and beans are showing up. The plants look like they could use a bit more nitrogen so I'm going to see about side dressing them tomorrow.

Today is 5/17/2012

DarJones

I side dressed and tilled very shallow to reduce weeds and to improve soil moisture retention. The plants are growing aggressively with runners up to 8 feet tall. The main runners are starting to form side runners which is thickening up the leaf density quite a bit. I saw one mason bee working the flowers. There are quite a few small beans visible now. Today is 5/20/2012

DarJones

Spacing in row?
 

In rereading this thread, I noticed DarJone's 18" spacing of beans.:shock: Since mine are placed at 6-8", I'm wondering whether I should thin them.:o The Gigandes have been placed in the same row with about 10 other types of pole beans. Does close spacing promote leaf disease? reduce yield? make it hard to find beans? Just looking for feedback from more experienced bean growers. Thanks for your input.

kath

I checked the beans and saw a few beans pods up to 4 inches long with 3 bulges for beans. From what I can see, it looks like they will be mature in about 6 weeks. Today is 5/27/2012

DarJones

I checked the Gigandes beans today and found lots of large beans on the vines. One or two beans per pod are common but there were a few with up to 5 beans. The vines are healthy and still blooming heavily.

There were a few hills that either did not germinate or else died early. I planted several of these with Philippine Purple yardlong beans. They have germinated and are now about 6 inches tall.

Today is 6/7/2012

DarJones

My own Gigandes only came up a few days ago. Emergence is still continuing, but it appears that somewhere between 60-75% will germinate. 12 plants so far.

Kath I just saw your post, mine are abouit 7/8 inches apart which is what I always do for runner beans.

Mine are now climbing nicely and don't appear to have noticed it is cold and wet here.

XX Jeannine

[QUOTE=Jeannine Anne;281322]Kath I just saw your post, mine are abouit 7/8 inches apart which is what I always do for runner beans.

Mine are now climbing nicely and don't appear to have noticed it is cold and wet here.

XX Jeannine[/QUOTE]

Thanks, Jeannine- glad to hear yours are ignoring the cold, wet weather. Mine have generous spacing this year since I thinned quite a bit and we'll see how they do. They are climbing well and are taller than any of the other pole beans- about 5' now.

kath

I shelled one of the Gigandes beans today. There were 2 well developed green mature beans inside. They are not yet mature enough to harvest as seed. So far, the crop appears to be low to medium which is typical of runner beans in my climate. Bean quality appears to be very high which is probably a result of our excess rainfall over the last 2 months. I expect them to start drying down in the next 2 weeks and to be ready for harvest in about 4 weeks.

I tilled very shallow to reduce weed growth which was about to get ahead of me. The beans don't cast enough of a shadow to affect weeds that try to grow in between the rows.

Today is 2012/06/21

DarJones

I picked the first dry pods from the Gigandes beans today. The seed were still just a bit soft but with the intense heat and lack of rain, the pods were completely dry.

Looking above at my planting date of 4/4/2012, the beans took exactly 88 days from planting to first mature dry pods.

Today is 6/30/2012

DarJones