In my gardening adventures I've found succession planting to be the toughest skill to develop, only in the last few years have I managed a 12 month supply of lettuce and for most of the year arugula and spinach for our salads. Now that I'm retired from selling produce life is a lot easier. I find that a single planting of pole beans will produce all summer for me in more than adequate quantity and with the right variety the quality stays excellent. I no longer worry about succession in courgettes because by the end of the summer when the early plantings are failing we're sick of looking at them and relieved we don't have to worry about picking them every day,..How about planting beans between the courgette plants so they use the vertical space above the courgettes that's going to waste?
I generally agree that the easy option for a lot of plants is often the best, getting a big crop that we can enjoy while it is available, and preserving what we can, and then moving on. Especially with courgettes and beans, both of which I get tired of picking later in the season! With lettuce and other crops it is different, and I have still not put in the effort to get year round supplies, hopefully this year. I grew beans in between courgettes a few years ago and it is possible, but I also tried doing a variety trial of both plants at the same time, and the two explorations conflicted a bit, so I should try again.
Thank you so much for all this trials. That helps a lot with planning garden and being more sufficient in fruit and vegetables. Do you have any fruit/ nut trees? I will be happy to see a video about that. Thanks for introducing a bean variety Fasold to me. It's so prolific and tasty. Greetings from North East England.
We have lots of fruit trees around the ecovillage common land, especially apples, and a few hazelnuts, but they aren't part of the gardens. Fasold is a great variety, very similar to the Emertie I grew in this trial.
Amazing climate. Amazing garden! The best I can pull off here in Colorado is three good successive crop rotations per season. Three and a half if you count the green onions and sprouting broccoli I plant in early fall for a spring harvest. They don't call Ireland the emerald isle for nothing!
I believe the lack of male or female flowers you mentioned was due to cold, wet weather, I had it too. When it warmed up they were more balanced, but it wasn't a great year weather wise. I don't know if it's of any help, but I grew the dwarf beans for an early crop, then the climbers took over. Those things of yours seem to have very dense foliage which blocks the light out, I wonder if that was the variety or you sowed them really close together? I grew Cobra and spaced them about 6" apart, they didn't block the light out from the plants behind. Personally I think it's a better to grow climbers up the wall of the PT, that way you're maximising the space you have. I fastened some horse fencing to the structure for this.
I suspect you are right about the cold causing the male/female flower imbalance. I do plant them close together, more to get a larger early crop, but the longer they stay in the ground the bushier they get.
Another great video Bruce, cheers! I don't know how much effort it is for you to add yields in both kg and lbs to your graphs and the like, but as a Galway transplant from the US, I really appreciate the effort! It's interesting to see all of your results from the poly tunnel and I'll have to make sure my future gardens have the right conditions for one! As someone currently limited by living in a rental with a small garden, do we have more videos of the "exposed" gardens to look forward to as well?
Thanks. i figure there are quite a few people who appreciate both units of measure, so definitely worth the time to put them in. I do seem to be stuck on a lot of polytunnel based videos these days! That was where a lot of my focus was this past year I guess.
Great info as always, one question why you pull the roots of beans ? as I know the roots of beans contain a lot of nitrogen that would be beneficial for zucchini?
I only pulled out part of the root structure so a lot left in the ground. From what I understand, most of the nitrogen ends up in the bean plant fairly quickly. There will still be some left behind, but I suspect that the amount of nitrogen it makes available will be small compared the the general fertility I add to the beds in this garden, and all of the liquid feeding. If I was short of other sources of fertility, I would probably be more careful about the nitrogen fixing nodules, but I figure they are just as useful in the compost bin for next year's crop.
Thanks Bruce. This is totally epic exchange cropping, gonna have to give it a try. French beans & courgettes are the two crops i think of the most to get early cropping to work in the polytunnel, great to see it in action with such huge yields so early.
My late summer Zucchini and Squash (Courgettes) also went in late. I noticed smaller and less of them, when I finally picked them. Unfortunately, I got distracted and "life" got in the way, so my own fault. "Maybe next year I will be better???" I wish I had a dollar for every time I said that. I am now in the pickling/reserving/cooking phase. The nights this week are below 0C 32F.
I am planning to do my lettuce, spinach, arugula seeds in my basement grow lights this coming weekend. They will come in for cutting, about the time the outside cold temps kill off any remaining greens growing.
Have a similar set up to you and have late beans as an experiment (sowed 1/8 in polytunnel) and left a few Courgette plants going. I'm on the coast in south west of England and frost dates Jan-early March. The beans are still producing but slow but the Courgettes are still producing 2-3 per week which is great. Had late blight in the tunnels this year which destroyed potatoes and tomatoes. Presently no space anywhere with 5k onions, garlic, Lettice, cauliflower and Kayle!
Another insightful video, thank you for sharing your experience in such detail. I would like to ask 2 questions ( which might have the answer in one of the former videos when you raised the polytunnels. How tall are your polytunnels, and which are the characteristics of the plastic? (I suppose that you have sometimes a strong wind and that you had that into consideration).
Thanks. The polytunnels are about 2.6m (8.5 feet) tall, and covered with a purpose made polytunnel plastic. I think the plastic sheet is a laminate of several sheets with different properties, and is quite strong, designed to last 6 years, but I can get many more years out of it. The site is fairly exposed to the wind, and we had gusts of up to 100km/h last night, and there was no problem.
One of my allotment plot neighbours had a very good thing going with potatoes and runner beans. He planted early potatoes and set the bean poles. Then planted climbing beans right next to them. I was a little puzzled how was he going to pick the beans. He had used a very narrow plant to protect the soil as he planted the beans, he only needed it once. By the time he needed a path beside the beans to pick them, the potatoes had long since been dug up.
The flowers of that type of bean contain both male and female parts of the flower, and apparently self pollinate when flowers open, so they don't need visiting by the bees or other pollinators. This also means that cross pollination between varieties rarely happens with this type of bean plant, which makes it a lot easier to save seeds from multiple varieties that are growing close together.
In my gardening adventures I've found succession planting to be the toughest skill to develop, only in the last few years have I managed a 12 month supply of lettuce and for most of the year arugula and spinach for our salads. Now that I'm retired from selling produce life is a lot easier. I find that a single planting of pole beans will produce all summer for me in more than adequate quantity and with the right variety the quality stays excellent. I no longer worry about succession in courgettes because by the end of the summer when the early plantings are failing we're sick of looking at them and relieved we don't have to worry about picking them every day,..How about planting beans between the courgette plants so they use the vertical space above the courgettes that's going to waste?
😅😅
I generally agree that the easy option for a lot of plants is often the best, getting a big crop that we can enjoy while it is available, and preserving what we can, and then moving on. Especially with courgettes and beans, both of which I get tired of picking later in the season! With lettuce and other crops it is different, and I have still not put in the effort to get year round supplies, hopefully this year.
I grew beans in between courgettes a few years ago and it is possible, but I also tried doing a variety trial of both plants at the same time, and the two explorations conflicted a bit, so I should try again.
I grow in containers for the time being. Tqsm for the good idea.
Thank you so much for all this trials. That helps a lot with planning garden and being more sufficient in fruit and vegetables. Do you have any fruit/ nut trees? I will be happy to see a video about that. Thanks for introducing a bean variety Fasold to me. It's so prolific and tasty. Greetings from North East England.
We have lots of fruit trees around the ecovillage common land, especially apples, and a few hazelnuts, but they aren't part of the gardens.
Fasold is a great variety, very similar to the Emertie I grew in this trial.
Your the best my friend..my inspiration... always look forward to your videos..
Thank you!
Amazing climate. Amazing garden! The best I can pull off here in Colorado is three good successive crop rotations per season. Three and a half if you count the green onions and sprouting broccoli I plant in early fall for a spring harvest. They don't call Ireland the emerald isle for nothing!
It is great to be able to have such a long growing season here, but it would be nice if we had more heat!
Thanks for making another great video!
1 courgette grown in a dalek compost bin supplied me with more than enough courgettes this year, they produced right up to the first frost.👍🤠
Great harvest! Congratulations! What and how often are you feeding the beans and zucchini? Thanks.
I have a general fertility mix I add to the soil before each crop, and was also liquid feeding through the driplines.
In northern Italy we sow french beans directly in open field in mid-April and then between July and August, in order to harvest until October.
8:53: that milk spray never worked for me, every time I tried the cats licked it off in minutes 🐈😂
Haha, an issue I would not have thought of!
Nice, I like this concept. I'm curious to see where you'll take it next!
Great! another video!
I believe the lack of male or female flowers you mentioned was due to cold, wet weather, I had it too. When it warmed up they were more balanced, but it wasn't a great year weather wise.
I don't know if it's of any help, but I grew the dwarf beans for an early crop, then the climbers took over. Those things of yours seem to have very dense foliage which blocks the light out, I wonder if that was the variety or you sowed them really close together? I grew Cobra and spaced them about 6" apart, they didn't block the light out from the plants behind. Personally I think it's a better to grow climbers up the wall of the PT, that way you're maximising the space you have. I fastened some horse fencing to the structure for this.
I suspect you are right about the cold causing the male/female flower imbalance.
I do plant them close together, more to get a larger early crop, but the longer they stay in the ground the bushier they get.
Another great video Bruce, cheers! I don't know how much effort it is for you to add yields in both kg and lbs to your graphs and the like, but as a Galway transplant from the US, I really appreciate the effort!
It's interesting to see all of your results from the poly tunnel and I'll have to make sure my future gardens have the right conditions for one! As someone currently limited by living in a rental with a small garden, do we have more videos of the "exposed" gardens to look forward to as well?
Thanks. i figure there are quite a few people who appreciate both units of measure, so definitely worth the time to put them in.
I do seem to be stuck on a lot of polytunnel based videos these days! That was where a lot of my focus was this past year I guess.
Great info as always, one question why you pull the roots of beans ? as I know the roots of beans contain a lot of nitrogen that would be beneficial for zucchini?
I only pulled out part of the root structure so a lot left in the ground. From what I understand, most of the nitrogen ends up in the bean plant fairly quickly. There will still be some left behind, but I suspect that the amount of nitrogen it makes available will be small compared the the general fertility I add to the beds in this garden, and all of the liquid feeding. If I was short of other sources of fertility, I would probably be more careful about the nitrogen fixing nodules, but I figure they are just as useful in the compost bin for next year's crop.
💚
Thanks Bruce. This is totally epic exchange cropping, gonna have to give it a try. French beans & courgettes are the two crops i think of the most to get early cropping to work in the polytunnel, great to see it in action with such huge yields so early.
Yeah, I really like getting those two crops early!
Hey Bruce
hey there!
Insightful, as always. Thanks
👌😊
My late summer Zucchini and Squash (Courgettes) also went in late. I noticed smaller and less of them, when I finally picked them. Unfortunately, I got distracted and "life" got in the way, so my own fault.
"Maybe next year I will be better???"
I wish I had a dollar for every time I said that.
I am now in the pickling/reserving/cooking phase. The nights this week are below 0C 32F.
I am planning to do my lettuce, spinach, arugula seeds in my basement grow lights this coming weekend. They will come in for cutting, about the time the outside cold temps kill off any remaining greens growing.
Life is always getting in the way! And that eternal optimism about next year is what keeps us going!
LOL! true, ever the eternal optimist...@@REDGardens I guess I am not THAT bad for a cranky old man.
Have a similar set up to you and have late beans as an experiment (sowed 1/8 in polytunnel) and left a few Courgette plants going. I'm on the coast in south west of England and frost dates Jan-early March. The beans are still producing but slow but the Courgettes are still producing 2-3 per week which is great. Had late blight in the tunnels this year which destroyed potatoes and tomatoes. Presently no space anywhere with 5k onions, garlic, Lettice, cauliflower and Kayle!
Nice! Great the courgettes are still producing.
Thank you for sharing this experiment
Another insightful video, thank you for sharing your experience in such detail. I would like to ask 2 questions ( which might have the answer in one of the former videos when you raised the polytunnels. How tall are your polytunnels, and which are the characteristics of the plastic? (I suppose that you have sometimes a strong wind and that you had that into consideration).
Thanks. The polytunnels are about 2.6m (8.5 feet) tall, and covered with a purpose made polytunnel plastic. I think the plastic sheet is a laminate of several sheets with different properties, and is quite strong, designed to last 6 years, but I can get many more years out of it. The site is fairly exposed to the wind, and we had gusts of up to 100km/h last night, and there was no problem.
I'd rather have more French beans anyway.
One of my allotment plot neighbours had a very good thing going with potatoes and runner beans. He planted early potatoes and set the bean poles. Then planted climbing beans right next to them. I was a little puzzled how was he going to pick the beans.
He had used a very narrow plant to protect the soil as he planted the beans, he only needed it once. By the time he needed a path beside the beans to pick them, the potatoes had long since been dug up.
That sounds like a useful form of relay intercropping.
Always an interesting watch.
I saw the bird.
👏👏👏👏👏👏
You should call you channel “The one-armed gardener”
Haha. I have some many clips of me trying to do something whole holding a camera!
The way he talks makes me fall asleep , I don't even garden
Cool, sweet dreams! 🤣
he is calm
👋☕️❤️🙏❤️
🙂
Say what? I'm no good with emojis
@@bonniepoole1095 hi, here with my coffee, prayers/blessings to all❤️
Thanks! I'm mildly autistist and I can't interpret emojis!!@@lindafriesen3559
Bruce you said the bean flowers don’t need fertilization. What do you mean, they don’t need bees or actual pollinators?
The flowers of that type of bean contain both male and female parts of the flower, and apparently self pollinate when flowers open, so they don't need visiting by the bees or other pollinators. This also means that cross pollination between varieties rarely happens with this type of bean plant, which makes it a lot easier to save seeds from multiple varieties that are growing close together.