- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

I'm Chris Cooper.

The classic green bean is around five to six inches long, and, well, green.

But there are some other options you can grow.

Today we'll look at some of them.

Also, we're planting in a five gallon bucket.

That's just ahead on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female announcer) Production funding for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South is provided by: the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot, I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Dr. Natalie Bumgarner.

Natalie is the Residential Consumer Horticultural Specialist for UT Extension, and Walter Battle will be joining me later.

Alright doc.

I know you like talking about green beans, don't you?

- I do, I do.

[Chris laughs] I feel that tomatoes get maybe even too much attention.

- They get a lot of love.

- Right?

Yeah.

- They get a lot of love-- - Yeah.

- That's for sure.

- So, I came from a very serious green bean family.

- Oh?

- In fact, it's really funny.

We'd eat any tomatoes, but we were picky about our green beans.

- So y'all liked it that much?

- Yes.

- How 'bout that?

Okay.

[Chris laughs] - Yeah, mhm.

- So yeah, tell us a little bit about the different options of green beans that are out there for us.

- Right, yeah.

So actually bringing up tomatoes-- - Okay.

- It's interesting, because there are some similarities in growth habits, right?

- Okay.

- So, we actually would have the option of a bush bean, which, think of as a determinate, right?

And then we have pole beans, which are an indeterminate, right?

- Okay.

- Continue to produce leaves and flowers over a much longer plant, and, funny enough, we literally have something that's in the middle, too.

We got a half-runner, or we could almost think of it sort of as a semi-determinate, so we have a variety in growth habit as one of the first things to consider.

- Okay.

I never thought about it like that.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

I learned something new.

Golly, how 'bout that?

- So, you know, that is of course, it depends on your setting.

Do you have enough room for, say a traditional teepee?

- Oh, okay.

- Or cattle panels, mesh netting, it can be very good for pole beans.

So for those, we're gonna need some kind of a vertical structure.

- Okay, so they have to go up.

Okay - Yeah.

And actually, it is easier if you have some kind of a structure for your half-runners.

- Okay.

- So, I'm gonna throw in a little comment about half-runners, because they are-- - Okay, let's hear it.

- They're sort of like a geographically nuanced favorite, right?

So I am from the western side of West Virginia, and kind of the middle part of Appalachia is half-runner territory.

[Chris laughs] And so it is the only thing that my grandmother would eat, it's the only bean that we ever grew.

- Okay.

[chuckles] - And I say that because I feel like, you know, you may be from kind of outside of half-runner territory.

- I am, yeah.

- Yeah.

- Originally from Mississippi, yeah.

[laughs] - Good.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Pole beans, yeah.

- Yes, and so then as you get a little bit further south, then you get into a more pole bean-- - Yeah, pole beans - Territory, so.

And then of course, you know, your more traditional true bush beans are kind of growing-- - Oh yeah.

- You know, growing everywhere - Can you tell a little bit more about those half-runners, though?

'Cause I don't think many people know about those.

- Yeah, so, they are, you know, kind of a semi-vine - Okay.

- Type, and, I mean, early on, like, you used to be able to find them a lot, kind of in small scale, you know, u-pick or a market garden.

So I mean, they are harvested more mature lots of times than what you would, say, you know, a filet-type of bean, but most of the time they are eaten and we don't dry them like we would, you know, a pole bean, you know-- - Ah, okay.

- For leather britches.

- I got you, okay.

- So-- - Okay.

- For us they were a traditional canning bean.

But, a high quality half-runner, you'll be able to get a fairly mature bean in the pod and still retain a fairly tender bean.

So this is, you know, this is the crucial quality factor.

And some of the, we now have heirloom options and a lot of seed collecting, and so for half-runners, the big thing is a non-tough half-runner, because-- - Ah, how 'bout that?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- How 'bout that.

So that's why Grandma liked 'em like that, huh?

- Yeah.

- Okay, gotcha.

- Yeah.

- Gotcha.

All right, so we can talk about some of those-- - Yeah, so for our, so for...

These are actually some selections that we've done in our Home Garden Variety Trials.

- Nice.

- And lots of times what we try to do is make sure that we have a more traditional bush option.

And when we think about the bush beans, a lot of times what we see now are ones that can be bred as a processing bean.

- Okay.

- Right, so those are gonna be straight, often dark green, you know, a snap crunch.

- Okay.

- And, you know, not very much bean.

Not very mature, you know, when they're harvested, yeah.

- Okay, not very mature, okay.

Got it.

- Mostly pod.

And so lots of times, but very space efficient, we start to get into good disease resistance options, a lot of times some of our more common rusts or our mosaic virus will have in a lot of those newer, you know, bush beans.

- Oh, nice.

Okay, okay.

- So, you know, so we always try to have some, you know, kind of standard bush beans.

Some of our favorites over the years, Jade, Crockett.

And then we kind of get into, last year we grew Contender.

It was very, you know, performed very well, Provider.

So all of those, you know, are standards and have done well in our trials.

Then you go into kind of the filet category.

- Okay.

- Which is a thinner bean, harvested very immature.

And I always smile when I talk about filet beans-- - I can tell you like this, yeah.

[laughs] - Because there are some folks who, I mean, I enjoy a filet bean.

- Okay.

[laughs] - But it is not everybody's taste, because we're eating mostly pod, right?

So kind of an old fashioned bean eater will say, what is wrong with this bean?

There is no bean in my bean.

- In the pod.

Yeah.

[laughs] - And so, yeah, so filet beans, but there are some good cultivars that can be pretty compact.

Mascotte's an All-American Selections winner that has a nice compact plant.

Maxibel has been one that's performed well in our trials.

It's a longer bean, so the-- - Okay.

- You know, they do tend to be small, so it takes a a lot-- - It's a lot, oh yeah [laughs] - So I like the larger ones.

- Okay.

But there's lots of fun in terms of, you know, you have wax beans, which are yellow.

- Okay.

- And then one of our favorites from two years ago are actually a cultivar called Amethyst, and so they're a gorgeous purple.

- Amethyst.

- Raw.

- Raw?

- If you cook them, they turn green.

So.

But they're a, you know, productive bush bean.

And so that combination of color, you know, can be really, really great addition to summer salads, and-- - How 'bout that?

- And things like that.

Yeah.

They look very similar to your green beans, but-- - You like that, don't you?

Okay.

- Yeah.

- All right.

- Yeah.

- All right.

- And then we move into the pole-- - Hey, come on to the pole beans, come-- - Category, yes.

- Come down South.

Okay.

- Yes, and I will say that, much like when I talk about heirloom tomatoes, I try to never be too definitive about pole beans, right, because this is serious territory and we don't joke around.

- Pole bean country.

- Yeah.

With things like that.

So some of our favorites from the trials, Kentucky Wonder has done very well.

And what we have really enjoyed doing over the last few years is, even some heirloom and kind of some, you know, unique cultural elements.

- Okay.

- So one of our favorite heirlooms, I actually have a few with me.

These are Rattlesnake.

- Yeah.

- And they are, you can see kind of a, a little bit of a speckled bean, but they have a mottled purple and green pod also.

They are gorgeous.

I know that people may not believe that beans are highly photogenic, but they are beautiful.

- They're beautiful.

We actually grew some in the Family Plot garden, so we know about that.

- Okay.

Awesome.

So we love, we love the Rattlesnake.

Kentucky Wonder, of course, traditional green.

Some of our other favorites have actually been, last year we grew Turkey Craw.

[Chris chuckles] Which, and you gotta enjoy kind of the Appalachian history of this, right.

So, where do you think then that it came from?

Turkey's craw, right?

- Oh my gosh.

- And so it is a beautiful speckled bean, and the fun thing about some of those heirlooms is that you can eat them fresh.

- Okay.

- As a snap-type bean, or they can be great for leather britches, for drying.

So yeah.

It's been lots of fun in bean territory.

- Lots of fun.

- Yeah.

- All right.

But if you get the resistant varieties, you don't have many issues with green beans, right?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

So-- - Diseases or pests, right?

- Right, you're moving into management.

- Yeah, risk management.

- Yeah.

So, selection is my favorite topic, as you can tell.

- Okay, okay.

I can tell.

- Management is, is fairly straightforward for most beans, so well-drained soils, you know, can keep us away from some of those challenges with resistance.

Yeah, the rusts, the mosaic viruses, we can largely largely avoid.

I think that I see more insect pests with beans than disease, would you agree in your?

- You know what, I do agree with that.

I do agree with that.

Okay.

- And so our favorite is, our favorite.

Our favorite pest that we dislike, right, is of course the Mexican bean beetle.

- Yeah.

- And so it is the, the pest in a family of really helpful beetles, right?

- Yeah, yeah.

- So same family as our beneficial lady beetles, but it is a leaf feeder.

- Yeah.

- And so, you know, early, you know, scouting.

You can even trap crop.

Even if you don't like filet beans, you can always use them as a trap crop, and then you just pull them up and throw them away, and they, you know, provide a service of protecting your pole beans and your half-runners, right?

- I got it.

- Yeah.

So even in the pole bean South, filet beans will, will have a very valuable purpose.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- All right, folks.

Green beans, right?

[laughs] - Yeah.

By Dr. Natalie Bumgarner.

She likes talking about 'em.

Appreciate that.

That was good.

- Yeah.

- They're beautiful, right?

[Chris laughs] - Yeah.

Gorgeous.

[upbeat country music] - It's getting to be late spring, and we're starting to see temperatures with highs in the 80s.

We're already starting to see some signs of this spinach bolting.

So this particular leaf right here is kind of what we expect the spinach leaf to look like.

But if you notice, it's starting to get more elongated and arrow-shaped, and if we look right here, this spinach is actually starting to form its flower stalk right here.

Just because the spinach is starting to bolt doesn't mean that it tastes bitter yet.

But the way that I do it, is I come out here in the garden as I go to start picking the spinach, I look at a plant and I think, well, that's looking like it's starting to bolt.

So I'll just take a little bit of the leaf and taste it, and see if it has the bitter taste of a spinach plant that is bolting.

That one doesn't, so I could go ahead and harvest this plant and it would taste just fine.

I have a plant here that a few days ago had the flower stalk growing on it and I cut it off, so let's see if it's good.

That is starting to get a little bit bitter, so I probably won't pick this one plant, but I can pick the rest of the plants and bring them inside and use them.

Now, in a matter of a couple of days, I expect that I won't be able to harvest any more off of this spinach crop, 'cause it will all have been bolted, but that lets me get a little bit more before it goes.

[upbeat country music] - Hi, Walter.

I see we have a bucket on the table.

What are we gonna do today?

- Well, you know, there are a lot of people who simply do not have the space to garden.

- Okay, sure.

- And, you know, me being a person that like to kinda watch my money a little bit, I was walking through a garden center one day and I saw where you could have these, you know, tomatoes already in a pot, and they would get like $17 for those things.

- Wow.

- You know?

So I said, well, wait a minute.

If somebody like me who got a bunch of old buckets sitting around the house or whatever, I could just plant my own.

So basically, you know what I did, I got my bucket.

- Okay.

- Now you wanna make sure, I'd really like to see you get a new bucket, though.

- Okay.

- Because you know, if you're using something that used to be, you know, have like petroleum products in it-- - That's a good point.

- Or some kind of chemical or somethin', that might have some kind of residue in there that, you know, may work against you.

- Okay.

- So, but basically what, you know, what I did, I go and I get my drill, and I drilled some holes, and these right here are one incher holes, but you can use half inch holes, just whatever, as far, as long as water can drain out of it.

- Okay, so that's why you put the holes in the bottom.

- Yes.

Yes.

And I always follow that little step up, Chris, by putting me some landscape fabric just, you know-- - How about that.

- Off in that, you know, just to cover that up a little bit so that, you know, we won't have a problem.

And then I even add a few rocks in there.

And lemme see, I won't make too much noise here, but.

[Chris laughs] I put some of that in there just to hold that down and make sure everything is fine, you see what I'm sayin'?

- And they'll probably help with drainage as well.

- Oh, absolutely.

It's gonna help with the drainage.

And then, I begin to mix my soil.

- Ahh.

That looks good.

- Yes.

What I did, I purchased some already made organic soil, but I did add a little calcium to it.

- Okay.

- I did put some lime in this - Okay.

- And all I simply do is just, you know, just pour some of that in there.

Let me get it started before I dump it.

But I add something else to this organic.

I also add a little bit of cow manure.

- Ahh.

- You know, and when you live near a cattle farm like I do-- [Chris laughs] - It's readily available, I'm sure.

- It's readily available.

So I mix that in there too.

And then, of course, I'm gonna finish the rest of this.

- Okay.

- Well you don't, you don't ever, ever just fill it all the way to the top.

- Okay.

- You get it right there.

And like I said, I added calcium to this.

I put about a cup of calcium-- - Okay.

- In here.

And then of course, I'm gonna, let me get just a tad more, to get my-- - So are you doing that, five gallon?

That's a pretty good size for a container?

- Yeah, five gallon's a pretty good size because tomato plants, and look here, I wanna talk a little bit about that.

- Okay.

Sure, sure.

- Tomato plants, they're gonna put down quite a bit long, a good long root.

- Okay.

- Off in there.

- All right.

- Now when you first get that, notice that these have good white-- - Yes.

- You know, roots there.

And another thing that I do when I, when I plant tomatoes, I do, I like to do what we call sucker them.

So I cut off these little bottom ones right here, and let's see.

And also, these plants here that I got, you can use them.

These were over on a rack.

Now, normally we say don't buy those-- - On the discount rack?

- Yes, but I noticed that they were actually, it's just where they hadn't been watered.

- Okay.

- So, you know, I saved some money-- - So you can save 'em.

All right.

- And then, so I, I tear those little roots apart to kinda-- - You tease the roots a little bit.

- Yeah, just tease 'em a little bit.

And there we go.

And we can set that off in there.

Let me get that more in the middle.

And then from there-- - You just add more.

- I just add more around.

And lemme tell you, you gonna have some good tomatoes here.

This variety here is Early Girl.

- It's a-- - Oh yeah.

- It's a real nice variety to use, and...

Yes, there you go.

That's, this here will do wonders.

And I even get all up around there a little more.

- Okay.

Now, this would apply for more than just tomatoes, right?

- Oh, absolutely.

- I mean, there's other vegetables you can put in there as well.

- Yes.

As a matter of fact, you can put, like, one tomato plant in a bucket, but you can put two pepper plants.

- Okay.

- And one, you can also put maybe like one cucumber plant, a squash plant, you could put one of those in there.

- Okay.

- I'm talking about in its own bucket.

- Sure.

- And hey, they'll grow fine.

Now one of the things about growing 'em in the bucket, also, you can start 'em out early.

You know, you can get, so you can get out there earlier.

Another thing is you don't have to worry about weed control, 'cause you pretty much controlling that.

Now I'm gonna tell you, if a pigweed or something comes in this, you put it in there.

- Right.

[both laugh] - It didn't come in there naturally.

And another thing that, you know, you can move it around if you need to, you know, you can have a little flexibility with that.

And it's just all kind of benefits to, you know, to growing in a bucket.

And trust me, it does not cost you $17.

- Right, right.

- Which is always a good thing.

- Right.

That's a good thing.

- But once again, I do wanna emphasize, do not use an old petroleum bucket or something like that that, you know, if you see something like, you know, you know, lubrication fluid or something on the bucket, don't use that.

- Okay.

- You know, but really just get you a new bucket.

- And let's talk, again, about the different soils you can use.

Now you, you actually put in manure.

Why did you put it in the manure?

- Well, you know, 'cause I wanted to raise these kinda organically.

- Okay, okay.

- And that's gonna be a good source, you know, for my fertilization, and nitrogen, and all that that you get with the manure and all that.

So that's why I use that.

- Okay.

- And again, once again, you know, we do have people like to know where their food come from, how it's grown, what better way than growing in a bucket?

- That's right.

- And as a matter of fact, I highly recommend people who live in apartment complexes that have just those little ledges, hey, this is an ideal way to garden.

I mean, it just works perfect.

- Right, and I was once in an apartment, so yeah, that does work.

I did that as well.

- Yes, yes.

And also, I didn't bring any with me, but I would also put some mulch on top of this, because when you water it, that will help this stay, you know, moist and stuff, as well as hold that moisture in there.

'Cause you know, here in the Mid-South, whew!

Once that, you know, June, July heat hit-- - Yeah, it'll dry out pretty quick.

So let's talk about watering.

How much would you water?

- Oh, well basically, I would keep this, I would try to give it like maybe an inch a week.

- Inch a week.

- Is what I would look at, inch and a half, but basically just feel the soil.

If it feels moist, you know, nice and moist-- - Okay.

- You're fine.

Now, we do not want to just saturate it with water.

- Sure.

- Because then we're gonna mess around and get all that old phytophthora root rot and all this stuff developed in there, and you're kind of defeatin' your purpose.

- Right.

Right.

- So, you know, you just don't want just, just saturate it, but you know, of course it, with those holes in there, it shouldn't saturate, but otherwise just keep it nice and moist.

About once a week, maybe twice a week, go out there and just add a little water to it just like you would water any other plant.

- Sure, sure.

- Mhm.

- And you made a point about moving it as well, 'cause I had to do that when I lived in an apartment, to-- - Yes, yes.

- Make sure you got enough sun.

- Yes.

- So that's the good thing about putting 'em in, you know, containers or five gallon buckets.

- Exactly.

- Move it to follow the sun.

- Yeah, you can move it around.

And also you can get you one of those little cages that, and they'll work also, and that's what I would, you know, would do with this one.

I won't do anything but just put that little cage in there right now and it'll just grow right up into that little cage and you'll be fine.

- Okay.

- But like I said, you know, this is just a, to me, it's really a neat way to even get kids to grow.

- Oh yeah.

I agree.

I agree.

- You know, you know, a lot of times we see now the kids do not know where food come from or whatever, and this would just really be a nice way to teach some kids how to, you know, garden, where food come from, and how they can grow things.

- Something they can do at home, I agree.

- Oh, oh yes.

Yes.

And if you're looking for a good science project, there it is right there, mhm.

- Well, good stuff, Walter.

We appreciate that demo.

- Oh, okay.

Well, happy to bring it here.

- Now we'll see how that does.

- Oh, okay, yes, yes.

- We gonna test you out.

- Okay, well we'll be slicing tomatoes before long.

- All right.

- Yeah.

- Thank you much.

[gentle country music] - So we're in the square foot garden, and we are actually getting ready to put in some cantaloupe, or for y'all in the South, muskmelon.

And this is actually going in the location where we just pulled out some turnip greens and some mustard greens, so we're right at that turnover between our cool and our warm-season crops.

And so this is raw seed, and in the square foot we are actually gonna have two plants per square foot, and I'm gonna put two seeds in every one of my planting holes.

I'm gonna put those, oh, just a inch or so below the ground.

We don't wanna bury them too deep, but we wanna make sure we get them down in there enough that they don't dry out.

So I'm putting two seeds in there to make sure that we get at least one good viable plant per location, then we'll come back in here and we will thin as necessary.

There's actually gonna be room for these to vine.

I know you're thinking about the space here, and so they're on the edge.

They'll be able to vine and produce fruit back here in our aisle way.

[upbeat country music] - All right, doc, here's our Q&A segment.

You ready?

- Let's go.

- All right.

These are great questions.

All right, here's our first viewer email, okay.

This is an interesting question.

"Can or should an iris need to be deadheaded to produce more blooming?"

And this is Chuck from Clarksdale, Mississippi.

So what do you think?

I mean, can or should iris be deadheaded?

- Well, so, this soon gets us into the interesting, but nuanced territory of re-blooming irises, right?

- Yes.

Yeah.

So that's exactly what I was thinking.

Okay.

All right, all right.

So, so what do you think though?

- Yeah.

So, I think that you might be able to provide a little bit of benefit if in fact that was a re-blooming iris, but-- - See, we don't know that, right.

It's-- - Yeah.

But most of the time for re-bloomers, you know, some fertilizer is recommended, you know, so it may, it may not be enough entirely to-- - Okay.

- To push.

I, this always makes me think of like our local iris societies.

- Yeah.

- Are really great resources for what reliably re-blooms in different areas.

- Right.

- And so, you know, a little bit of cultivar information there might help us.

I tend to think of iris deadheading as more of an aesthetic factor.

- I think the same thing, we're on the same page with this, right.

Again, we don't know what kind of iris we're talking about, but I do know this, right?

A lot of folks will actually cut back the stalks, right, to produce it, prevent it from going to seed.

Now, there's some people that like the seeds, you know, hybridize and all those kind of things, but most people that I know actually cut the stalks, you know?

'Cause they don't want it to go to seed.

- Well, yeah, I mean, it's cleaner, and also it's just a little bit more energy that the plant can expend in other areas.

- That's right.

All right.

So Chuck, hope that helps you out.

But yeah, if you, if there is an iris society down there in Mississippi, Clarksdale.

Yeah.

That's a good question for them.

- Yeah.

- Right?

It's a good question.

Hope that helps you out.

Here's our next viewer email.

"I sure could use your advice.

"My 10-year-old red fringe Japanese maple "is developing about eight new stems in the lower area "that are producing green oak shaped leaves.

"Why is this happening, and do I need to trim them off?

Will they eventually overtake the red fringe leaves?"

This is Theresa from Greenville, South Carolina.

- This is like our special plant propagation-- - Oh, this is, this is plant propagation.

'Cause we, we know this, right?

The majority of your maples are grafted.

- Are grafted.

Yeah.

- So what do you think?

- Yeah, so I think that you would want to make sure that your root stock, which is what those, you know, shoots are coming from, would not be outgrowing your desirable scion.

- Right.

So if that be the case, then yeah, I'll just keep trimmin' those back.

- Unless the multicolored is interesting for you.

- Which I would think is interesting.

- Yeah.

- You know, I would, but you know, you know, but she asked about trimming 'em back.

- Yeah.

- You know, I would just, yeah, keep trimming them off, and eventually you don't have to worry about 'em anymore, but I would keep it.

- Yes.

- I think it looks interesting to have the different leaf shapes and colors there.

So yeah, we appreciate that question, yeah.

- Yeah.

It's a good one.

- It's a good one.

All right, thank you much.

Appreciate that.

Here's our next viewer email.

I think you'd like this one too.

"I purchased more flower seeds than I needed this year.

"What is the best way to store flower seeds for next year?

Thanks."

And this is Carolyn.

Don't you have a lot of seeds, right?

You can carry 'em from year to year, don't you?

- Sometimes I just carry them around for fun.

- Sometimes you just do, right?

[laughs] - Cool and dry.

- Cool and dry, right.

And I always like to tell folks, where you store them, how you store them, label them.

Yeah.

Make sure they're labeled.

Like you have there.

Make sure they're labeled, and I think you'll be fine.

So, is there anything else you think they need to know besides cool and dry?

- Well, I mean, when we say dry, I think that if you, like, this is not a good example, 'cause these are paper.

- Okay.

- But there are many seeds that come in a metallic or a foil-lined package.

- Okay.

- And so I would say if you have those, don't open them, right?

Leave them sealed, because that will have much lower humidity and it'll make it easier to store.

Sometimes we get questions about refrigerator or freezer, those kinds of questions, and so for short term, cool in a refrigerator would be, you know, fine.

- So that's fine for the short term.

- Yeah, I mean, for people who really want to store seeds for a very long period of time.

- Okay.

- And we just wanna make sure that when we're putting them in a cool or a very cold place, that they're not too moist, because that could cause more damage.

- Got it.

Got it.

Great points.

So yeah, thank you for that question Ms. Carolyn, hope that answers it for you.

From somebody who saves a lot of seeds from year to year.

All right?

All right, doc, that was fun.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Thank you much.

[laughs] - Great chat.

- All right.

Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is familyplot@wkno.org, and the mailing address is Family Plot 7151 Cherry Farms Road, Cordova, Tennessee 38016.

Or you can go online to familyplotgarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for watching.

If you have a problem in your garden bed, head on over to familyplotgarden.com.

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Be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

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