Bluehilda bean variety (photo) - cultivation, care and my reviews
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BLUEHILD BRUSH BEANS - GROWING, PLANTING AND CARE
Beans are one of my favorite garden plants. In young pods of vegetable beans with immature soft seeds, there are more vitamins and other nutrients than in grains.
I also have a favorite variety, more precisely, a favorite - Bluehilda.
Random luck available to anyone.
PERSONAL EXPERIMENTS WITH BEANS
Each year, I plant a number of bush bean varieties that have been tested and approved by me, as well as new ones. Many summer residents are engaged in such amateur variety testing.
I like beans not only as a delicious nutritious vegetable, but also as an unpretentious plant that forms a lush, densely leafy bush, standing firmly on its “legs” and strewn first with elegant flowers, and later with bean fruits. In everyday life, they are called pods, and green beans, which is wrong from a botanical point of view, but that’s how we settled down.
Once I received a present from a bean breeder, in the form of a set of seeds of different, hitherto unknown to me varieties, some of which I sowed. Unexpectedly for me, one variety of beans turned out to be curly.
BLUCHILDA - FIND YOUR BEANS
Liana plants struck me with their size and power: strong stems, large leaves, and most importantly - long, up to 25 cm, slightly flattened fruits (beans) of an unusual deep purple color. Since it didn’t happen to ask the donor about the variety, and I didn’t have time to look for information on the Internet, I took this bean for decorative. It was hard to believe that the fruits of such an "inedible" color can be eaten. I did not provide her with special care that year, however, I had to arrange some support that was feasible for women's hands. Contrary to some alertness to unusual beans, the fruit harvest pleased. He turned out to be rich, the beans ripened, and some of them were harvested and left for future use.
Later it turned out that this bean is edible, and what a delicacy it is - asparagus. Under what names and in different transliterations you will not find this primordially German variety in information sources - Blau HiIde, Blauhilde, but in the Russian version she is most often referred to as Bluhilda.
Since then, Bluehilda has settled in my garden and even won back the priority of bush beans. I’ll try to tell you what my own agricultural technique for growing this wonderful vegetable comes down to, which in many respects evolved on a whim.
Reference by topic: Vigna asparagus beans - planting and care: my tips and secrets
PLANT LIKE A POTATO
Since the beans are thermophilic and ripen for a long time, for a run in development, I began to grow them through seedlings. In the conditions of the Moscow region, with direct sowing in open ground, especially if the soil has not warmed up enough, the seeds either germinate for a long time or completely rot. I plant the beans hatched in the heat in plastic pots.
But you don’t have to keep beans in seedlings for a long time, as befits a liana, its stem quickly stretches out, and without support, thin, tender sprouts can intertwine, and then it can be difficult to separate them without damage. You can, of course, use thin bamboo stalks as a support, but it's still better not to overexpose the grown seedlings in pots.
I plant seedlings in the ground when the danger of frost has completely passed. Although, looking ahead, I can say that adult fruit-bearing bean plants are not afraid of autumn cold and produce crops almost to frost.
In beans, like other legumes, the root system penetrates deep into the soil, so the digging of the ridge for it should also be deep. Moreover, I plant my beans with a clod of earth in a comb, like potatoes, only less often. I make holes in one row at a distance of 30-40 cm from each other. I pour 1 teaspoon of nitrophoska into each, mix with the ground and add compost on top. I make a funnel around the stem so that when watering, water does not drain from the ridge.
SUPPORTS FOR BEAN VRASPOR
Immediately after planting the seedlings, I install high supports, given that the beans grow up to 3 m and more. To do this, I adapted metal rods (they usually hang a chain-link mesh on these), which I install at the ends of the row. In order for the supports to firmly hold the vertical position, I dig them into the ground and fasten them additionally by surprise, for example, to fence posts or tree trunks.
As an upper horizontal trellis between the rods, I pull a thick wire (the twine cannot withstand such biomass). I put a rail in the middle of the row so that the wire does not sag. You can extend another horizontal line so that in strong winds the plants do not “sail” too much.
Bluechild beans are not exotic at all.
Its seeds can be bought in stores, although not cheap, or ordered online. And then the seeds can be grown by yourself.
Immediately after planting, I tie the seedlings with twine, at the bottom it’s not tight to the base of the stem, at the top - to the wire, and wrap the shoot around the twine. As the stem grows, it will curl itself, and when it reaches the top, it can crawl along a horizontal support.
I pinch long shoots, this contributes to better branching and fruit set. When side shoots appear, I also tie them to the top support. With such a free planting and garter of beans, there is enough light, and this is a guarantee of a large and high-quality crop. When the vines are in the same row, they are easy to care for: weed, water, loosen the soil on both sides, fertilize, hill up, remove the pods. It is convenient, of course, to grow beans on a grid.
Reference by topic: Growing asparagus beans in the Moscow region - planting and care, varieties
BLUEHILD BEANS RESPONSIBLE AND GENEROUS
Bluechild can be called a super-producer, she is a very fertile culture and not particularly picky. Like all creepers, she is a water drinker, and also responds well to top dressing. At the beginning of the season, I apply a complete mineral fertilizer, during the flowering and fruiting period - phosphorus-potassium.
Fruits (in everyday life, pods or shoulder blades) begin to ripen in the second half of summer and then - in an ever-increasing volume, until the onset of cold weather. I jokingly say that a dozen plants can feed half of Moscow, 25-centimeter beans leave no one indifferent, especially when you see them for the first time. These beans seemed to grow somewhere in the tropics.
Harvesting should be done frequently, every other day or two, before the bean shells harden and bulge where the seeds are ripening. If you are already well stocked with a crop, overgrown fruits can be left to fully ripen and receive seeds for sowing next year or used as a grain bean.
I did not have to observe any diseases of this bean, and from pests it happened that slugs gnawed the lower leaves or fruits hanging down to the ground.
A trellis braided with curly beans can serve as a stage for other crops that are more tender and sensitive in the wind. And if you plant it along the fence (not solid), you get a decorative hedge.
After harvesting the plants, the soil remains loose, and bean shoots can be laid in the bottom layer of warm beds, which will ensure good air exchange in the soil for future plantings.
BLUCHILDE - NOT WITHOUT A SURPRISE
The fleshy purple fruits of Bluehilda look brutal, but this impression is deceptive - they are tender, as they have neither a parchment layer nor a fiber. When boiled, the beans miraculously turn from purple to green, and the water turns emerald green. The mystery remains: where did the purple color disappear to? This is how Bluehilda surprises the gardener once again.
There are no number of ways to use asparagus beans in cooking. The simplest thing is to boil the shoulder blades, cut them into slices and fry, it is already tasty and satisfying, even tastier - fry in breadcrumbs. And then - all kinds of combinations of beans with other vegetables: in stews, with chicken and meat in the first and second courses, with eggs in omelettes and salads, etc. To harvest for the future, for example, to freeze, you can fresh beans whole or blanched in slices.
I “hooked” many of my friends and acquaintances on Bluehilda, and now a considerable supply of yummy is stored in their freezers every year. It’s only a pity that in my dacha SNT I haven’t seen this bean from anyone yet. But I think such a meeting awaits its members, and I will contribute to this.
THIS BEANS HAVE A LOT OF ADVANTAGES
In addition to the listed beans, curly beans have many more wonderful properties.
- It grows vertically, occupies a small area.
- Does not require pollination.
- Loosens the soil and enriches it with nitrogen thanks to nodule bacteria on the roots.
- Protects from the wind, forms a screen or hedge
- Extremely productive.
- Nutritious (23-28 kcal/100g), contains easily digestible proteins, dietary fiber, vitamins, mineral salts, etc.
See also: Cultivation of asparagus beans (photo) - my advice and feedback
BLUEHILD BEANS - VIDEO
© Author: I. TITOVA, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences
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I have been growing decorative curly beans with red flowers for a long time, and last year a white-flowered one appeared on my site. These bushes quickly braid a chain-link fence, bloom beautifully, and even the most exquisite roses can envy their aroma. Before sowing in the garden, I soak the seeds for two hours in a solution of HB-101 (1 drop per 0,5 l of water). Then I moisten a cotton cloth in honey water (0,5 tsp of honey per 1 tbsp of melted water), wrap the seeds in it and put it on a shelf above the kitchen hood for germination, where it is warmest. A day later, when the beans are hatched, I sow them in well-loosened soil, seasoned with double superphosphate (a matchbox per 1 sq.m of beds) and well-rotted humus (0,5 buckets per 1 sq.m).
Last year, we managed to collect an unprecedented crop of ornamental beans. Beans are slightly smaller than those of vegetable varieties, but bright and beautiful. I wonder if they can be eaten?
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Ornamental bean flowers are not only red, but also white, pink or two-tone. These varieties are no different from red-flowered beans in their biological properties, so they can be grown as annuals throughout the middle lane. Ornamental bean seeds are edible and can be used as food, just like regular vegetable beans.
Svetlana KRIVENKOVA, agronomist
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Indeed, beans are an extremely useful culture. It contains B vitamins and amino acids necessary for the human body. So isn't it time to get her on your site?
There are very few articles about beans, but in vain - the plant is useful! She can easily compete with meat in terms of protein. I have been growing this crop for over 20 years, so I have my own seeds. Previously, there were both climbing varieties and bush varieties, but gradually left only the latter: they are easier to care for.
Around the middle of May, I pour the beans into a glass jar and fill it with water for a day. Then I rinse and transfer to a damp cloth.
Make sure that the seeds do not dry out and do not rot.
The sprouts began to hatch - it's time to plant. The distance between rows is 40-50 cm, and between the beans - 15-20 cm, planting depth is about 3 cm.
I water the seedlings, field, loosen, feed with ash, superphosphate and fermented grass. Grown bushes can already stand up for themselves and do not require constant care.
The beans ripen at the end of August. I pull out the yellowed pods along with the bush and take them to dry. Peeled beans store wonderfully in a glass jar, cloth bag or box.