On this week’s episode, Greg and Travis talk about growing butterbeans, bush beans and pole beans in a vegetable garden. Travis mentions that he prefers to grow bush beans on a double row system with drip tape in the middle. This enables him to grow twice the amount of beans in the same amount of space that one row of beans would normally occupy. He references a YouTube video where he demonstrates this procedure. Beans do not like hot temperatures. They will throw their blooms off and not make so always plant beans early in the garden. For food preservation, the guys like canning them with potatoes and green beans most of the time. They talk about the different varieties of beans they've tried growing in the past including Blue Lake, Momentum, Kentucky Wonder and Provider. These different bean varieties are easy to harvest and have high production. Of these varieties, Blue Lake seems to be the most popular variety for bush beans. Greg mentions that he prefers growing pole beans due to the ease of harvesting. For pole beans, he prefers the Kentucky Wonder variety. We also offer a great speckled Rattlesnake pole bean variety. The guys also talk about growing climbing varieties of butterbeans. They suggest planting them in the springtime and getting two or three harvestings out of them. Then, it will begin to get hot so spray them with fungicide and insecticide and they will come back and you can pick till frost. Greg is currently growing an heirloom variety that makes a darker bean, and they've both had great success with the Christmas Lima variety in past years. A staple bush butterbean that is grown in the South is a Fordhook variety. The seeds are huge so it is one of the only things that can be hard to plant with our garden seeder. Greg also recommends planting this variety thick for better germination in the garden.
Show and Tell Segment
On the show and tell segment this week, the guys talk about the figs that they've been harvesting. The most popular variety is the Brown Turkey fig and that's what most people have planted in their backyard. However, there are some improved varieties that have been developed through research at Louisiana State University. Greg recently planted some of these varieties and is excited to see how they do. The tool of the week works perfectly to help guide the gardener on when and what type of varieties to plant in the garden during the growing seasons.
Viewer Questions Segment
On the question and answer segment, the guys answer questions about growing onions and how to remove/reuse drip tape. They mention that onions require heavy amounts of water and fertilizer. It is important that both of those are provided frequently during the early life of the onion plant as this will result in a larger bulb later. They recommend 20-20-20 or a granular fertilizer once a week in the garden. For removing drip tape, they suggest that it can be easily pulled up for almost every crop in the garden -- the exception being corn. For corn, they recommend cutting the stalks with a machete and succession planting a crop that provides a heavy ground cover like sweet potatoes, winter squash or pumpkins. This will allow you to reuse the drip tape without removing it. Greg just did this the other day with his sweet corn. He pulled his ambrosia sweet corn and went on top of the same drip tape with his Seminole pumpkins.
