Wild field - bigger experiment

After an encouraging experiment with circles on the field. We decided to plant more tepary bean and  as it is in nature, forget and neglect them ... and see what happen...


We did an incursion - dig a soil and got rid of weeds, then we planted four kinds of bean:
1) Tohono O'odham White
2) Brown Speckled
3) Big Fields Brown
4) Kickapoo White

 

After few weeks

Teparies race part 5

Today after 28 days (4 weeks) tepary bean looks like that:

Santa Rosa Brown

Brown Speckled & Cumpas

Brown Speckled

Tohono O'odham White & Paiute Mixed

Paiute Mixed

Tohono O'odham White

Kickapoo White

The power of light - acceleration of teparies growht

Today Steve installed super powerful and strong light bulbs.
- 800W
- 5.000 hours of working

We will try to accelerate vegetation process of the bean. Our goal is to expose bean on light for  sixteen hours per day. After that they need eight hours of rest in the darkness. We will turn on the light at 5 p.m. and leave it running till 11p.m. - 6 hours of artificial light every day.

The best distance between plants and bulb is about 6"

For now we expose four trays with tepary bean and start to observe any changes and faster growth.

Three sisters - companion plants for bean

In general all bean enrich the soil with nitrogen fixed form the air, improving the conditions for whatever crop you plant after the beans are finished.

 Plants that help beans:

Summer Savory: Summer savory helps repel bean beetles and improves the flavor and overall growth of bean plants.

Summer savory

Summer savory

Plants helped by beans:

 Since beans fix nitrogen in the soil, they are great "helper" plants in the garden. They are particularly good to plant with the following vegetables:

• Carrots
• Beets
• Broccoli
• Brussels Sprouts
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Corn
• Cucumbers
• Eggplant
• Kale
• Peas
• Potatoes
• Radishes
• Strawberries
• Swiss Chard

Plants to Avoid Planting with Beans:

Avoid planting beans near all members of the allium family (onions, leeks, garlic, scallions), because members of that family inhibit growth in beans.

 

TEPARY BEAN:

Three sisters 

Tepary bean

Maize

Squash

 

 Tree sisters are the three main agricultural crops of some Native American groups in North America:  

1) squash

2) maize  

3) tepary bean 

 

 The three crops benefit from each other. The maize provides a structure for the bean to climb, eliminating the need for poles. The beans provide the nitrogen to the soil sunlight, which helps prevent weeds. The squash leaves act as a "living mulch", creating a microclimate moisture in the soil, and the prickly hairs of the vine deter pests. Maize lacks the amino acids lysine and tryptoham, which the body needs to make proteins and niacin, but beans contain both and therefore together they provide a balanced diet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sisters_%28agriculture%29 

 

2nd set of the tepary bean

Today we also planted more tepary seeds. Again we made 8 trays with the same proportions of the soil, compost, perlite and fertilizer (see "How to plant Tepary Bean") and put the same kinds of bean like the first time. I pay attention to put each seed eye down, because at the first set of teparies some seeds get confused and had a problem to find the right direction to grow. Some of them start to grow upside down, what slow down or never make a germination process.

New trays of tepary bean

All 16 trays of teparies...

Teparies race part 4

After exactly 3 weeks teary bean is getting bigger and bigger... and it seems that first they develop a height and than start working on leaves...

Paiute mixed

Kickapoo White

Brown speckled & Cumpas

I noticed  that the slowest germination and vegetation have got San Ignacio and San Pablo Balleza...

San Ignacio and San Pablo Balleza

Teparies race - part 3

Four day later since the last control many seeds are little plants. Some of the teparies  have already got four leaves. Today is exactly 14 days from putting Tepary seeds to the soil.

Paiute Mixed & Tohono O'odham White

Paiute Mixed

Sacaton Brown

Sacaton Brown

Brown Speckled & Cumpas

Brown Speckled

Brown Speckled

Shape of the leaves attract attention, because they are quite different than common bean.