Raybo, Thanks for the help, I am using the 3:2:1 for my large SWCs, pardon the dumb question, but are all your containers "self watering" with a basket and wicking action, or do you experiment with watering from the top via emitters/by hand? The reason I ask is last year I had prolific but mealy tomatoes due to probably inconsistent moisture levels during every day/night cycle, the large containers would dry out overnight, then when watered in the morning the wicking would saturate the mix (I used HP Pro Mix with no bark fines, big mistake). In other words I think my problem was the mix lacking drainage and structure, and watering via a reservoir in a large container was not the problem, does that make sense? This year I found fir bark fines (sifted to 1/4 inch size) so I am going with your 3:2:1, curious to see if the wicking action is affected by fir bark in the mix, it shouldn't since the reservoir pond basket contains 100% peat/perlite and I have good contact between reservoir and landscape fabric

"(New) Wood's Mountain Crazy runner beans were productive..." Runner? The ones I grew were bush. This was a bad garden year for me. Because of heavy June rainfall, the rural garden (where I do most of my trials & preservation grow outs) didn't get planted until July... so all of the crops originally planned for there were not planted. My home plots dried out faster, so I got a few things planted there on time. Looking on the bright side, although I only used about 20% of my rural plot, I was able to cultivate it all summer to kill off most of the perennials, and the pest & disease pressure will be reduced next year. - "Canon City", a pole shelly similar to "Bird Egg #3", but slightly smaller & earlier. My seed was getting pretty old (2005) but germination was still over 70%; glad it did well this year. Long flat pods as snaps, turning to mostly scarlet when the shellies were fully ripe. Harvested over 2 pounds of dry seed & several quarts of shellies. - "Grandma Roberts Purple Pole", from a trade with Fusion in 2006... figured I better plant it before the seed died. Germination was over 50%. Good thing I finally got to try it, it is a great bean - thanks, Dar. :-) Straight, round purple pods with great flavor as snaps. I only ate a small sample, since it was a seed crop... but I didn't observe any strings in the young pods. These were also the last beans still producing; after I had picked the dry pods, the plants re-sprouted, and were just beginning to bear again when the frost came. This was a small planting in pots, to isolate them from my other beans. I harvested enough dry seed for a larger planting next year, when I plan to use them as my main snap. - "Madeira" (pole). 2006 seed, had over 75% germination. This was the most vigorous pole bean grown this year, and was the first to produce dry seed. The seed is red-spotted like many large shellies, but has a pink background when dry. Although the shellies are large, I didn't like the flavor when I last grew them, and rated this as a soup bean. However, the DW loved them as shellies this year, so I guess it is a question of taste (I still didn't like them). The seed yield was very heavy; but much of the seed was deformed, which reduced the yield. One or two seeds in nearly every pod had a broken seed coat, and a 'stretched' appearance, almost like pulled taffy... very odd. The remaining seeds in those pods were normal. Even after heavy culling, there was still over 2 pounds of dry seed. - "Tisa", a brown-seeded pole wax bean from Serbia. This was the youngest seed planted this year (2007) but had the worst germination, under 50%. Long, slightly flattened yellow pods, borne late. These were best picked as snaps before fully yellow, at which time they were still tasty, but developed strings. Very slow to develop seed, so I was glad the frost came late. Only ate one meal, and let the rest go for seed; harvested 1.5 pounds of dry seed. - "Tenderette" (bush, Livingston Seed). I don't usually grow bush beans for snaps, but since I couldn't cultivate my rural plot until July, this was Plan B for snaps. Picked them up at a local garden store. Round pods that were similar to "Emerite" in quality, but shorter. Firm, sweet, and stringless even when the pods began to bulge. Plan B was successful, I was able to freeze enough green beans to last the winter... but don't like bending over while picking a 100-foot row. There was also a fairly high level of crossing in the seed; some plants with runners, some that were flat-podded, and some with short, round, fibrous pods. While I thought the variety had a lot of good qualities, there was a lot more instability than I would expect from commercial seed. - Runner bean, "Tarahumara Tekomari". The source told me it originally came from Native Seeds / SEARCH. This appears to be a land race, with flowers that are either white or red, and seeds that are either white or "gray" (fine black spots over a white background). Red flowers / gray seeds made up the majority, and all the seed sent to me was gray. There was also considerable variation in seed size & shape. Although it flowered quickly, the summer heat was unbroken by a cool spell, and no pods set in the heat. Only during a 1-day drop in August, and the cooler days of September, did pods set. Because of this, the seed yield was disappointing, just over a pound from about 30' of row. There was also one plant which flowered late, and produced purple seeds; since the source did not experience this, I am assuming it was a cross, and will attempt to eliminate purple seeds from the strain. The one bright spot: because the killing freeze was 3 weeks late, I harvested a huge late crop of snaps & shellies. The immature shellies were delicious, as were the snaps. - Lima, "Hopi Pole". 2008 seed, 100% germination. A mid-sized lima with multi-colored seeds; red, maroon, black (very dark red) brown, orange, and many combinations. This has always been a very late lima for me, pushing against the frost for dry seed, and dying with many pods unripened... but it did spectacularly well this year. It bloomed much earlier than my previous two attempts, and nearly all seed ripened. Harvested about 3.5 pounds of dry seed, and froze 6 quarts of shellies. I gave away a lot of "Hopi Pole" at the Berea, Kentucky get together, it was the most requested seed... so hopefully it will be more widespread in the future. - Yardlong bean, "Taiwan Black" (reference to the seed color). 2005 seed, germination erratic, but eventually 98%! Very long, slim, light green pods, with a mild flavor. Originally from Baker Creek, but they have since dropped it - as has everyone in SSE who had listed it - so its status is precarious. I had nearly dropped it myself, before finding that it was no longer commercially available & adding it back into the rotation. Fortunately, the seed crop went well, harvested over a pound of seed. - Yardlong, "Chinese Long Green". A red-seeded heirloom sent to me in trade. Very long, dark green pods with firm texture & good flavor. Like "Hopi Pole" lima, this had been a very long DTM cultivar for me previously - but not this year. It produced a heavy crop early, and kept going for most of the summer. The only setback was some leaf yellowing & stunting early, which was likely caused by herbicide spray from the neighboring property. Also grew two peas for seed, "Shiraz" (purple snow pea, swap from Aftermidnight) and "Opal Creek Golden Snap" (from Peace Seeds), as well as 6 soybeans for seed. The soybeans really benefited from the late freeze, all ripened. There was no vole damage to dry seed this year, as there has been in recent years. A ground hog had one meal of soybeans & "Shiraz" peas early in the season, but I trapped it on its next visit. At least its last meal was a good one, before it became a meal for my resident falcons. Since I was on 12 hour days for much of the summer, my time was very limited, and I didn't track dates & take measurements to the extent I did in previous years. I did, however, continue my multi-year observations of seed longevity... which have thus far shown that beans can have a shelf life far beyond what is stated in many references, with only modest precautions. As I have mentioned on other threads, my job has been cutting further into my free time every year - especially during the summer. There are signs that may change soon, under new management. I hope so, as I am way behind in my grow outs... and there are so many beans yet to try. ;-)

Thank you so much Margo and Shirley for the cards :) I didn't sign up for this swap as I was too busy and didn't really pay attention to what was goin on around this time period and rarely even got on the computer...but it was a nice surprise to receive the cards :))thanks so much Shirley for the card with the magnet...the magnet went straight to my fridge!! ..thanks Margo for the card with the winnie pooh stickers (I'm a kid at heart and love Disney) and the echinacea paradoxa seeds! ...ladies you made my day when i got these in the mail and knew ya'll were thinking about me even tho I haven't been too active and talkative here...thanks so much for your friendship I so love this group!, Dianne

Good morning everyone! Almost done my cookies - one more batch to go. I do clean as I go - otherwise I'd be working on the floor! Going to start putting away my baking stuff in a couple of minutes once the last recipe is 'in the bowl' and clear off my dining table. Need the space to pile bags of stuff to go down to the in-laws for xmas and to clear out the living room floor so I can start vacuuming today. I want to have my housework done today so when we return from xmas I come back to a clean house and can relax. We are joining all of you getting inundated with snow - it's our turn big time today with a forecast of well over a foot - with blowing snow more like 2 feet already in some spots. Deja vu from this time last year, eh? Some young lad put a flyer in our mailbox for snowshoveling - by hand - I already called him since we want our house clear when we return from traveling too. I'm going to call him today in a bit to ask him to come by when the snow stops, once the plough goes by. I will do some shoveling myself. My neighbors offer to blow us out for free but I don't feel at all right about that - they won't take any money so I have declined. It sounds like a young couple on the phone doing the shoveling and they live around the corner from us - I am quite happy to hire someone needing a few dollars. We have no where to put a snow blower otherwise we'd have one right now. My back is still recovering from the manual labour and I know I have to drop some weight because it spasms when I carry a few extra pounds - doesn't take much these days. Okay, I'm stopping my whining now. I saw the weather in the bad areas on the news last night in the US. My heart goes out to everyone concerned. Not funny at all. Hard to enjoy xmas when you have no heat, running low on supplies and all you can see is more snow falling. Once I get on with my housework I'm going to work on a few craft projects so I don't keep looking out the window. Have some computer work to do too for my website/business I'm trying to prepare for the new year so that's fun too. Hugs to everyone, I will probably check in later! Peggy