*Ark of Taste Heirloom* (P. vulgaris) During the 1999 World Trade Organization Meeting’s “Battle in Seattle,” while protests and chaos reigned in the streets, inside the proceedings, Italian Agricultural Minister Paolo de Castro stood up and waved a bag of beans in the faces of the assembled neoliberal bureaucrats. The meaning? To express a need to protect genetic heritage and regionalized biodiversity against the onslaught of global free trade and cultural hegemony. The Beans? “Fagioli Zolfini” from the Valdarno, a hilly region of eastern Tuscany. At one point nearly extinct, its production was resurrected by an “Associazione del fagiolo Zolfino del Pratomagno,” and the bean was boarded on Slow Food Italy’s Ark of Taste in 2000. The small, thin-skinned, light yellow beans (zolfo means “sulpher” in Italian) cook up with a wonderful creamy texture and really only need a bit of sage, rosemary, salt, pepper, and good olive oil. In the Pratomango, there is a tradition, Fagioli al fiasco, where the beans are placed in an old-fashioned Chianti-type wine flask (fiasco) and cooked overnight in a wood-fired stone oven with the remaining embers and heat from the day’s bread baking. *sigh* Our culinary lives should be so romantic… Bush type with a very slightrunning habit. 95 days. UO
Direct seed after the last frost date when the soil has warmed.
Note: Beans prefer well-drained, warm soil.
PLANTING DEPTH:
1"
SPACING:
3-5" between plants with 12-24" between rows*
*Pole beans require 5+' between rows.
EMERGENCE:
5-10 days @ soil temp 65-90F
LIGHT:
Full sun to part shade
FERTILITY:
Light to Moderate. Beans can produce their own usable nitrogen from atmospheric nitrogen through a symbiotic relationship with bacteria that colonize specialized nodules in their roots. Too much soil fertility can cause excessive vegetative growth at the expense of pod set and maturity. Beans prefer well-drained warm soil with a pH between 6.0-7.0.
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
Beans prefer warm soils and may rot at lower temperatures. This is particularly true for white-seeded varieties. You love beans. Patience.
It can be quite beneficial to mix bean seeds with commercially available bacterial "inoculants" to encourage the beneficial symbiotic relationship in the growing plant's root nodules, especially if growing on ground that hasn't been planted with beans before. This can increase yields and improve plant health.
Avoid picking/weeding beans when the plants are wet. This will help prevent the spread of disease.
Provide a trellis for pole beans.
White-seeded varieties are more susceptible to rot when seeded in cool, wet, early-season conditions.
Sow Snap Beans every few weeks for continued harvests.
Harvest dry beans when the pods are brown and dry.
