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Beans General.
Italians are great bean eaters. For
fresh beans they prefer “French fillet” beans like Boby Bianco, Brittle
Beurre or La Victoire. These are
round, slender firm textured and good tasting.
They are picked when no thicker than a pencil and cooked simply.
Italians also like flat beans like Marconi, Supermarconi or Venezia for a
yellow. Don’t let any green been get too large or eating quality will suffer.
All Italians have a special affection for fresh borlotti shell beans.
Cook borlotti beans simply. Shell them, boil in water until tender,
cool and dress with some good olive oil and fresh herbs or cook in soups or with
pasta. Culture. Grow beans in a well drained soil with a pH above 6.0. Do not plant until after the last frost date for your area and then only after the soil temperature has warmed up to 60 degrees. Been seeds will rot in cold damp soil. For bush beans, plant seeds one inch deep. If using raised beds, place a seed every two inches and space your rows 12-14 inches apart. Keep well watered until beans germinate, about 5-8 days. A two by four foot section per variety grown should provide plenty of beans for the 2-3 week harvest of most bush beans. Make succession plantings every 2-3 weeks
until 60 or so days before your expected first frost.
Pick often to encourage new pod set.
Control weeds by hoeing between rows when weeds first emerge and perhaps
once more two weeks later. Once the
beans get high enough to shade in between the rows, you should have no further
weed problems. Pole beans
provide a longer harvest period and use less space, however, they take longer to
mature. You can either grow your
pole beans on a string (run a wire, top and bottom, between two posts 6-8 feet
apart, tie a string every six inches or so to the top & bottom wire, and
plant 2-3 beans around each string. Train
plants to grow up the string. You
can also use a string or home made trellis or make a tripod out of three or four
6-7 foot saplings. You should be
able to harvest pole beans the entire season.
It is critical that you keep harvesting pole beans;
if you let them mature, they will stop producing new pods.
Grow shell beans as above. Pests/Diseases.
The Mexican bean beetle is the primary pest.
For the home gardener, they can usually be controlled by prevention.
Check the underside of the leaves weekly.
If you see an orange/yellow egg mass, destroy it.
Those are beetle larvae. If
you miss them and they become a problem, you can hand pick and destroy them.
Rotenone and/or pyrethrum are very effective in controlling Mexican bean
beetles. Peas General.
Italians prefer shelling peas; in
fact, Franchi Sementi does not even
cary a “sugar snap pea”. They
like their peas small, sweet and simply cooked.
Picollo provenzale is a typical “country style” Italian pea. The peas are quite small and very sweet.
Progress # 9 is a larger ‘bush’ pea while telephono is a climbing pea
with large pods, yet small peas. Culture.
Peas are a cool weather crop and should be grown in the spring,
although a fall crop is often successful. For
bush peas, if using beds, plant a pea every 1-1 ½ inches;
put them about ¾ inch deep. Plant
as early as the soil can be worked in the spring (6-7 weeks before the last
frost date). If using a four foot
wide bed, a 3 x 4 foot section will give plenty of peas. Make succession plantings for continuous harvest.
As soon as your first planting has germinated, plant the next one.
Make plantings until more or less the last frost date. For fall crops, try a planting @ 60 days before the average
first frost date. For late summer
plantings, set the seeds a bit deeper (1 ½ inches) than for spring and keep the
bed moist until seedlings emerge. Bush
peas will normally grow without support if you plant in beds or a wide row,
although you can always put a few branches in the bed for additional support.
For climbing peas, grow on a trellis-see growing tips for trellis
suggestions. Harvest/cooking. Peas will produce for 10-14 days. Harvest when pods are plump but not bulging for best flavor. Pick frequently to induce new pod set. Bush peas produce fewer peas per plant, but are earlier. Store in the refrigerator as soon as you pick them and cook within a few days for the best flavor. Fresh peas are a joy to eat. You can eat them uncooked in a salad; cook them briefly in water and finish with some pancetta; have them with pasta or risotto, etc. A fritatta with fresh peas is a memorable experience.
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