Don't give beans any extra nitrogen. They get all they need from the air. Too much and the leaves will yellow and the plant will suffer. I must respectfully disagree. Beans are not able to get any nitrogen from the air that they are able to use. A specific bacteria is required in the soil and it needs to be present in sufficient numbers for beans (any legume) to fix N from the air. In many cases folks can grow beans and do nothing, but in many other cases, supplemental fertilization including nitrogen will be required. The presence/abundance of this bacteria is not guaranteed. When plants start to yellow from the bottom up it's usually an indication that nutrients traveling from the roots upward is impaired. Could be over watering, under watering, odd weather or a genuine lack of adequate nutrient supply. If it were me, and it has been, I would add a rapidly available source of nutrients. My first choice in spite of being mostly organic in the garden would be Miracle Grow for 2 reasons. The first is that it is immediately available and if it's a nutrient problem it should start to correct in about a week. The second is MG has more than just nitrogen. For those wishing to stay completely organic blood meal would be a good choice. It's primarily going to provide nitrogen, but it will do it very quickly compared to other organic choices. I see no harm in trying nutrient supplementation if one's plants are deteriorating. What is there to lose by trying? Over the years I have found that legumes do OK for me without supplementation beyond compost, but they do better when I add some soybean meal every few weeks. Soybean meal primarily provides nitrogen. It takes a few weeks for it do anything though so isn't a quick fix.

My Dragon Tongue beans, which I'm growing for the first time this year, actually do have a slight buttery taste when cooked! I hadn't noticed that with other wax beans. For the most part, I'd say wax beans are somewhat milder in flavor, but, like the Dragon Tongues, can have subtle nuances in flavor which can be completely buried by strong spices or herbs. For beans cooked with Indian spices like cumin, coriander, hot pepper, etc., I find that green beans are better. Away from strong spices and herbs, though, green and wax can be used interchangeably. I like to have both.

Hi zeedman, hope everything is going well with you. Thanks again for the two kinds of "MN" cowpeas, they did wonderfully even with the bad growing season we had here. My project is making slow progress. I have more raw data to go through than I have time available. Much bigger project than I anticipated (as is usual for me). I thought it would be safer to have all my hard work on an offline computer so I acquired a second one that is dedicated just to the project. I linked a database to a spreadsheet. I settled on using the database for general information and I give every variety its own number. That number is referenced on the spreadsheet for further details and information. The spreadsheet offers a quick side-by-side comparison of varieties by using category checkmarks. Works pretty good. The thing is, the more time I spend and the more knowledge I acquire, the more obsessed I become. Beans sure are fascinating. A big problem is categorizing because of all the different terminologies and because many beans have multiple uses. The yellow/wax was one small issue, but there are more such as Romano beans versus flat beans, Lima (and Fava?) versus broad beans, French beans and filet beans, horticulturals and shellies, etc. Are cornfield beans distinctly different from typical pole beans or just regional terms for the same thing? Why are runner beans varieties of Phaseolus coccineus but 1/2 runner beans are varieties of Phaseolus vulgaris? That kind of confusing stuff. I am having to constantly go back into my "finished" data and correct errors or update information. Two steps forward, one step back. Second big problem is that I wanted a photo of each variety with beans set on as well as a photo of the dry seed beans. Not going to happen in my lifetime. ;-) Was such a distraction and time-killer that I dropped the whole idea for now. All in all I would say I am generally making progress, considering I only have time to work on it in the winter. I am a lot farther along now than when I last posted on this thread, but have a long way to go. I branched out into greasies, cutshorts, fall beans, teparies, tropical and subtropical beans, asian beans, foreign varieties available commercially, extinct varieties, etc. I also am working on cowpeas and soybeans just because I am so interested in them. When I get frustrated with the snap and dry beans I work on these categories instead. The biggest eye opener by far is how much duplicity is out there. I am convinced a great many varieties are actually the same ones with different names. I have come across seed companies and even growers and market sellers that arbitrarily change the names for selling purposes. Heck, I am even guilty. I got some bean seeds in a trade and the woman, an immigrant from eastern Europe, didn't know what they were so I named them after the nearest towns they came from in her homeland. What am I to do, call them "Unknown 1" and "Unknown 2" forever? I don't think what I did is quite as bad as changing a name to make a variety sound "cute" or make them more marketable, but the end result is confusion just the same. Finally, I hate to sound greedy, but I think this project may be worthy of publishing if I can get it finished, rather than free-sourcing it on the web. Several people I have shown it to have suggested looking into that possibility. Wasn't my original intention but because it is so complex I now feel I should try to get some kind of return on my investment of time and energy, if possible. This is nowhere on the priority lists, though, and if it ultimately doesn't happen it is no big deal to me. My personal collection is growing. With this year's orders and trades I am at well over 100 varieties of bush and pole snap and dry beans, asian beans, cowpeas, and soybeans. We have an informal little local club of hobby growers that are all interested in these so we coordinate and plant different varieties and swap seeds with each other. Pretty fun. Take care, -Tom I know it is improper to ask - wrong forum, wrong thread - but if anyone has any white wax beans would you be willing to part with a few seeds? I really want to acquire some. Thanks much.

George I am very sorry to hear about this. I know that this is a valuable family heirloom. I grew them in the summer of 2009. At that time I did not keep as complete records as I do now but I don't think I started them in pots. That gave them a late start. An early hard frost on October 11 gave them an early finish. The result was that none of the pods softened and the seeds were small and immature. I did save back a dozen of your original 2008 seeds though. Thirteen actually. So, I can mail them all to you. Or I can mail most them but keep back a couple to attempt a grow out. I have your mailing address from the 2012 yearbook. I think you sent some to Annette but she appears to be seriously ill and does not answer my emails. You sent some to NY VA B and also VA BA R and both of them offered them this year in the SSE Yearbook. Dick