Hey, guys! I just wanted to pop in to say that I bought a packet of Joseph Lofthouse’s dry bush beans from Experimental Farm Network and I planted them out a few weeks ago. I put them in dry soil, poured a bunch of water on top, and put about an inch of wood chips on top. Then I ignored them (and it doesn’t rain out here in summer, so that was all the water they got). I checked on them yesterday, nine days after sowing.
Out of 33 seeds in the packet, I now have about 20 plants popping out of the soil. All look healthy and strong. None of them have chewed-up cotyledons, and when beans emerge for me, they usually emerge with bedraggled cotyledons that have tons of holes in them. (And that’s when I put no mulch on top. If I put any mulch on top at all, usually almost all the bean seedlings get eaten completely by roly polies.)
So! It’s too early to say how well they’ll do for me throughout the whole season . . . but so far, they look very promising!
Thank you, Joseph, for doing such good work in breeding such strong plant populations! 