They say a watched pot never boils.
How about a watched bean? Does it dry down?
About 10 days ago, just before that series of frosts, I pulled in some tender pole beans plants.
Before I started the job I had felt quite a bit of trepidation.
It’s a lot of work to bring in bean plants when you’re trying to beat the frost.
You need to cut the twine that trellises the beans first. Then pull out the stakes to leave a row of tangled bean plants. Then pull out the roots and roll the plants into big balls and toss them onto a wagon. Then unload these balls into the greenhouse and spread them on tarps as much as you can.
But it wasn’t the amount of work that was causing trepidation.
I was worried because the pods on the plants were not as mature as I’d like them to be. Most of the pods were at a great shelly bean stage – a good 2 to 3 weeks away from being dry beans.
Now, I know that beans and many seeds can keep maturing on the plant even after the plant has been pulled out of the ground. But I was worried because these beans might have a little too far to go to dry down into good viable seed.
Still I went on out to pull those plants and bring them in because I was pretty confident the frost was really coming this time. And if the frost killed these plants in the field, it would also destroy the beans.
The chances for good seed were much better in the greenhouse than in the field.
But still that didn’t mean that these beans would make it.
Now, I keep going into the greenhouse to peek at the beans. To see if they are maturing. To see if good seed is on the way.
To see if a watched bean dries down.
