Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 20, 1990 TAG: 9005220441
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: D-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN ARBOGAST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The bush snap bean - referred to as a green bean - is the most popular garden bean because of its early maturity and because trellising is not required. Varieties include standard green, yellow wax, and purple-podded types.
Though wax beans are yellow and waxy in appearance, their flavor is only subtly different from that of regular green snap beans. Purple pod beans are different in appearance while growing, but the pods turn green when cooked. Flat-podded green snap beans are somewhat different in flavor and texture than the round-podded ones and thus may be preferred by many gardeners. They are available in both bush and pole types.
The soil should be warm when bush beans are planted, since cold soils can cause poor germination and possibly rotting. Because bush snap beans tend to produce heavily for a relatively short time, you should plant several crops two to three weeks apart until early August for a continuous harvest until fall frost.
Half-runner beans have a growth habit between that of bush and pole beans, producing beans usually used as snap beans. Although they have runners up to 3 feet long, half runners are generally grown like bush beans. Half-runner beans usually are heavy yielders. It is possible to get even more production if the plants are on a trellis.
A third type of garden bean is the pole bean. These come in many varieties and generally produce over a longer period than bush type bean plants. Pole beans are considered more space-efficient even though they are more work. They require trellising and grow vigorously upward, producing more in the same amount of ground space compared to bush types.
New gardeners growing pole beans know they are natural climbers, but be aware that they will not interweave themselves through horizontal wires. A tepee tripod support can be made with three wooden poles or large branches that are lashed together at the top. Trellises should be 6 to 8 feet tall and sturdy enough to withstand strong winds and rain.
Those with the garden in the front yard or in a very visible location may want to try scarlet runners, a type of pole bean that is quite ornamental as well as productive and delicious. The vines grow rapidly, producing beautiful red flowers and beans, which may be harvested as snap beans when young and as immature shell beans later.
Lima beans are considered a hot-weather crop. They are susceptible to adverse weather during the growing season. A cold, wet spell can cause lima flowers to drop, as can excessively hot and dry periods, thus reducing yields. Baby limas or butter beans are less susceptible to blossom drop.
Other beans that home gardeners may grow include southern peas, soybeans and dry beans.
Some good snap bean varieties to try now or in the weeks ahead are:
\ Derby - an All America Selection winner for '90, white-seeded, resistant to common bean mosaic virus, high in quality, produces second crop after the first harvest
\ Roma II - resistant to mosaic and mildew diseases
\ Dwarf Horticultural - October shell bean, resistant to mosaic
\ Gator Green - resistant to NY 15 and common mosaic viruses
\ Slenderette - a good bush bean for canning, resistant to mosaic
\ Kentucky Wonder - a bush bean with pole bean flavor, resistant to mosaic and mildew diseases.
Q: I am trying my hand at a large vegetable garden, approximately two acres. Is there a spray I can use in between the rows to try to keep ahead of the weeds? P.A.G., Salem
A: If the grasses and leafy weeds are established in your garden, chemicals are not the answer. The only weed control recommendations I have are a hoe and tiller, mulching and sanitation. To prevent weed growth from weed seeds in clean garden areas, use a pre-emergent weed control product such as Dacthal.
Q: I have three questions:
1. Would it be practical to move daffodils to a partly shady area?
2. We have perennials in an area that is mostly sunny all day. What is the best thing to do to make the plants grow vigorously?
3. The Highway Department used to have a shrub it planted along the sides of the rights-of-way called something like "automollie." Do you know anything it? W.D.P., Buchanan
A: Here are your three answers:
1. Your daffodils should do fairly well along your border in part shade, if the shade is from deciduous plants and thus not dense. Move your bulbs after the foliage matures and has turned brown.
2. Perennials such as gaillardia, chrysanthemum, peonies and iris, need full sun to grow best and others like primrose, variegated hostas and columbine require moderate shade. If the soil is hard, rocky or poorly drained where perennials are growing, they may never be really vigorous. To encourage the best growth, water deeply once a week during dry periods, mulch with a 2-inch layer of organic mulch and fertilize in the early spring following soil test results and recommendations or use 10-10-10 garden fertilizer at the rate of one pound (two cups) scattered over 100 square feet of perennial bed and watered in.
3. The shrub you referred to may be Autumn Olive, a large (15 feet tall and wide or more), spreading, often spiny branched shrub. It is not for the home landscape, though, since it can become a noxious weed with time, as birds will spread the seeds everywhere.
Q: I am having trouble with voles. Also, when we dug our potatoes last fall, we had holes in them made by a 1-inch brown worm. What can we use to stop the moles and the potato worms? J.H., Independence
A: Voles are mouse types that live on plant parts, unlike moles, which feed primarily on insects. We have two damaging species of voles in Virginia: The meadow vole lives in grassy habitats and makes trails in thick grass; the pine vole spends nearly all its life from 1 inch to 2 feet underground in an extensive trail and burrow system.
Voles infesting ornamental plantings and flower gardens may be trapped using standard house mouse traps baited with small slices of apple that include part of the skin.
Contact your extension office on the third floor of the Carter building, adjacent to the County Courthouse in Hillsville, telephone 728-7611, for details on trapping voles.
Since the worms damaging your potatoes were brown, the culprits probably were wireworms. Wireworms are shiny, hard, jointed and sort of a tan color. The other worm that bores in potato tubers is the pinkish white or green potato tuberworm, which causes the flesh surrounding the tunnels to rot.
Virginia Tech advises the insecticide diazinon against wireworms.
GARDENERS CHECKLIST (Jobs to be done in mid-May)
Pinch the tips of annual flower plants when the young shoots are 4 to 6 inches tall to promote bush growth. Some annuals, such as dwarf marigolds, may not need pinching, but others - notably zinnias and petunias - require it.
Lawn owners who are following the Virginia Tech fertilization recommendations for bluegrass and fescue can get ready now to fertilize the lawn lightly.
by CNB