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Snake Beans

Ted Calver

Ted Calver

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Yorktown, Virginia
Just out of curiosity, and because the wife said not to plant so many pole beans, I ordered some Chinese Python Snake Beans from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds this year. There weren't very many seeds in the package and I ended up planting just 4 spots. Didn't give it much further thought and when some plants came up I thought the seeds had gotten mixed up because the vines looked like gourd or melon vines. The vines have been growing like crazy on the bean house and didn't seem inclined to set fruit.
I've been neglecting the garden for other projects and haven't looked closely out there in a while, so got quite a shock today to find the snake beans living up to their name.
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Haven't eaten any yet, but I bet they taste like chicken :rofl:
 
Those look cool! (y) :cool:

Our regular beans took a beating from the bugs this year, but the cow pea derivatives including long beans have been doing pretty well, one of the winners was some Thai Soldier Beans, just a small patch of them has delivered a nice supply of tasty long beans (which are used just like green beans but are .. longer.. :D)

www.rareseeds.com

Thai Soldier Long Bean

70 days. Vigorous bush habit for those who want to grow long beans but prefer not to trellis. Foot-long pods are firm and very flavorful. Pods are strikingly different in appearance, having tiger stripes in dark red-brown. A superior variety from Thailand, where long beans are a staple crop...
www.rareseeds.com www.rareseeds.com
 
Ryan Mooney said:
Those look cool! (y) :cool:

Our regular beans took a beating from the bugs this year, but the cow pea derivatives including long beans have been doing pretty well, one of the winners was some Thai Soldier Beans, just a small patch of them has delivered a nice supply of tasty long beans (which are used just like green beans but are .. longer.. :D)
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Will have to give those a try next year. We use Red Noodle and a couple of other kinds of yard long beans as a seasonal privacy screen for the outdoor shower and as green bean substitutes. Love them pickled or boiled, then allowed to cool and wrapped in prosciutto and drizzled with good olive oil.
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Ted Calver said:
We use Red Noodle and a couple of other kinds of yard long beans as a seasonal privacy screen for the outdoor shower and as green bean substitutes
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Yours are a bit ahead of ours. I definitely should have put up a taller trellis support for them, the claim was "Vigorous bush habit for those who want to grow long beans but prefer not to trellis" but.. some are already 4' long and growing. So "bush" might be a bit of a misnomer, vigorous on the other hand is not.

The Red Noodle beans also look like winners at 80 days we could even grow them here. I have found it was better to wait until the soil was fully warmed for most of the cow pea and long beans otherwise they seemed to stunt some here so kind of have to lean towards the shorter season varieties a smidge.
 
Jonathan Shively said:
I was being serious. Do you notice less birds and bird poop around that garden. We have started placing plastic snakes in various areas and it eliminates bird congregations and no bird poop on tractor, sidewalk, garden furniture, etc..
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Jon, interesting point. I'm not sure if the snake beans are having much effect on bird activity. I'll have to sit out there and see if there's any change in feeding habits. We have six feeders scattered around the yard with thick woods backing right up to the property. Most of the birds shelter in the woods and zoom out and back for seeds/suet. Wrens and thrushes work the ground, goldfinches love the sunflowers, bluebirds like meal worms, chickadees, titmice, cardinals and others come for a seed mix. There is constant activity out there....unless there's a hawk in the area, then things get deathly quiet.
 
Mike Stafford said:
I know some folks who would take one look at those beans and they would never, ever go back in that garden. Heck, they might never come back to your state.
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Seems like yet another advantage to me. I reckon I may have to add them to the repertoire.

The bird theory is definitely interesting, I noticed that after I'd solved the ground squirrel issue the quail have rebounded quite a lot. While they aren't as annoying they did take out some flour corn and have been dust bathing in some of the beds which doesn't help plus they do eat some of the starts on occasion.. plus the runner beans in the lower field have suspiciously had a lot of flowers but no beans (and yet dozens of quail). OTOH they quail are looking pretty nice and plump....

Maybe also hanging some flashing "eye's" along with the snakes would help.. hmmm.
 
Re: bird activity. I sat out there for half an hour in the heat of the day today and noticed very little activity at the feeder near the bean house. Most of the birds were feeding at the stations farthest from the bean house, so the snake beans might be having an effect?

Did some Googling for recipes and found a bunch under 'Snake Gourd Recipes'. This is apparently a staple in Indian cuisine. Found out and confirmed that the leaves smell like peanut butter!
 
Jay Caughron said:
grow some Stripped Armenian cucumbers
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Love those things, and cannot for the life of me figure out why they've been a bust at the current garden space two years in a row. At our last place they grew like gangbusters and were some of the best "for salad" cucumber type veggies. I suspect they may not like growing in rock hard clay.....

We have had good luck with the "Lemon cucumbers" and the "brown russian" neither of which gets bitter very easily even when stressed badly.
 
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