In case you do not know, this is my new favorite garden plant.
Last year I even did a Garden Plant Spotlight on it and the First Ever Steemit Seed Giveaway. Some steemians like @cryptoiskey and @jed78 wound up with some, as well as others like @robrigo and @matt-a. I would recommend growing this incredible food to anyone and everyone!
Recently, we had some of our crop mature to the point that it was time to harvest them to start saving our seeds for next year. Mostly, Monster Truck and I took the lead on this project. Here is my #howto video on harvesting seeds from the Chinese Red Noodle Bean.
STEEMIT SEED SAVERS - CHINESE RED NOODLE BEAN
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN THEY ARE READY?
In the photo above you can see two of the bean pods. The beans are enjoyed for food before the pod forms the actual beans, so they are harvested when they are still slender and between 12 and 18 inches in length. The Noodle Bean on the right is ready to eat.
Once the bean passes its prime for eating purposes, it can be left to further develop on the vine. It will grow even longer and become filled with the actual beans. Once these dry, they are ready to save. As you can see in the photo above, the dry outer shell can now be opened to expose the beans within. If the shell will crack when you grasp it firmly, it is ready to harvest.
HOW TO HARVEST AND SAVE THE SEEDS
For those of you who have not watched the video, you can just crumble the beans to let the seeds fall out and the dried outer shell break into small pieces. By either blowing away the dried pieces of the shell or just picking out the dry beans, you can collect and gather the next generation of seeds.
Seeds have three main things that will destroy them and rending them useless for planting.
- Heat
- Sunlight
- Moisture.
If your seeds are exposed to too much of any of these they may become sterile and unable to sprout. I like to keep mine in a dry paper bag for a few days to make sure that the moisture is fully out of them. I then like to store them in a cool, dry, dark place, often in a jar.
If anyone in the United States is really interested in trying to grow some of your own, I can ship some to you for free upon request. I offer this for a few reasons. First, I encourage those already growing their own food. Also, I encourage those who do not already do so to give it a try. Additionally, I think that it helps build our community and blesses others.
Send a message to me on steemit.chat or discord if you are interested with a valid U.S. shipping address. Unfortunately too many laws and restrictions currently prevent me from shipping them elsewhere in the world.
You can also purchase them from Baker Creek Hierloom Seed Company, which I had the pleasure of visiting last year with a few of the @little-peppers. You can check out my post about that trip by clicking here.
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-harvested-noodle-bean-seeds
Until next time…
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