Nick Kulik

In years past I’ve tried to let them dry out for dry beans but the season in Nova Scotia is just a bit too short for them to get fully mature, I’ve even tried shelling them and then drying them by fan like you said and they just get moldy unfortunately. As for the toughness, I have experienced this, but my dad found a very strange tool in the thrift store and gave it to me me because he knows I like old hand tools and I figured out it is a French green bean slicer! It cuts thin diagonal slices of bean which when fried negates the toughness! If you see something like this buy it!

Hello!
I’d like to share a picture of my close to 1 foot long Scarlett Runner green bean! I usually eat these as green beans so I don’t let them get big but I came back from a 4 day visit to my partners’ parents and found my Scarlett Runners have grown HUGE! Sharing this in case people don’t know about these beauties! I grow them because they’re resistant to Anthracnose which I’ve had issues with in the past. Now I know they can be a truly massive producer. Do with this info what you wish!

Thank you Hugo! It is encouraging to hear you have some long lived mycelium. The information I encounter that says winecaps only fruit for 4-5 years has all been written by sources that not so coincidentally also sell the mushroom spawn, so it seemed like bias information with no real supporting evidence given. My understanding would be that the mycelium just needs something to “eat” and it’ll keep going. Would love to hear if anyone else has some more supporting evidence for or against this!

Hello!
I’ve been growing winecaps for two years now and I am thrilled with their performance. I was under the impression if the winecap beds are kept topped up with fresh wood chips then they will continue to produce. However, I have encountered information that no matter how much you feed them they will stop producing after 4-5 years. I would like to hear about your experience with growing winecaps for over 5 years without introducing newly purchased spawn. Do you have a 6 year old winecap inoculation? Any tips on keeping it going and not purchasing more spawn?

I have definitely considered berms and ditches but my concern is that such things are permeable as they are made with soil and an amount of the run off will permeate into the soil where I grow my food. I do not want this to happen. I do not trust the water running off peoples driveways and I do not want it to enter my gardens in any appreciable amount. The grade is quite shallow and I observed in a torrential rain today that the water runs quite slowly if that helps. I have also looked into filtration by means of willows, sedges and rushes which seems to be promising but I can’t find how effective they really are concerning filtering polyaromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals coming from cars on said parking lot I am receiving runoff from.

Hello,
My property is halfway up a rather large hill in my town. I am concerned that the runoff from my neighbours driveways and property’s up the hill from me will impact my garden. Is there any good way to filter/divert the water that runs onto my property or decrease the amount of it that ends up in my garden?

Interesting, these are in newly built raised beds filled half with arborist wood chips and logs so they drain well (a little too well really) so I didn’t suspect slugs and snails. I very well might have another picture for you tomorrow haha. Thank you for your reply!

I have some sort of bug eating the stems of my kale, beans and squashes. At first I thought it was squash vine borer but it wasn’t making holes and the dead squashes had no maggots in them. Then my kale and beans started receiving the same damage, getting the portion of the main stem that’s underground chewed off. I have also ruled out cutworm as the damage is below the soil line and it looks like a tiny beaver chewed through it whereas cutworm lops the whole thing off clean a centimetre or so above the soil line. Has anyone had this? I am perplexed

Well thank you very much to all of you! How very informative and useful. I will now continue to happily use my biochar.

I think this is pretty good evidence that what I’m saying happens and is a risk.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412018311000

“ The total ILCR for adults was above 10−6, which suggests a risk to human health from direct exposure to PAHs in vegetables grown in biochar-amended soil. These results demonstrate that biochar application may lead to contamination of plants with PAHs, which represents a risk to human health”