Runty, stunted bean plant:
Compared to massively huge with no signs of slowing down tomato plant:
And! It’s hard to tell in these photos, but the bean plant is already starting to flower. Am I right in guessing it’s not going to get much bigger now? These two plants got identical growing conditions. In fact, I assumed quite the opposite would happen here — I’d have a huge bean plant and maybe a few tomatoes — because it’s rather shady here.
So, what the hell happened?
It has been hot + humid + wet right? Tomato plants love that! And the tomato plant isn’t very big as tomato plants go.
Beans sprout actual pickable beans later than tomatoes for the most part. So I think you are on track for some sort of harvest.
Wet, yes. Hot or humid, no. I don’t think the angle of the photo gives a good indication of scale because the bean plant is in the foreground. The tomato plant is close to 3 feet tall, while the bean plant is 7 inches high.
Times like this, I wish I knew something about plants.
So: those are some good photos. You write very well. That fire escape is cool. Those brick buildings are also cool. Good luck with your plantsOKAYLATERBYE.
How much sun is this area getting?
How long ago did you plant the beans?
What’s the weather been like?
Yr plant looks healthy, it’ll get bigger, flowering is OK; if you move it around to catch the sun and give it a little shot of compost or fertilizer, it’ll get going, I think.
XN: According to the sign on my fire escape (presumably installed when it was built) I could be fined UP TO TEN DOLLARS for placing any encumbrance on the fire escape. Tenants of the building in the background have, among other things, a card table and an entire muffler on their fire escapes, so yeah, I’m okay with risking the UP TO TEN DOLLARS fine.
LBK: Not full sun (which is why I expected runty tomato and okay beans), but several hours full sun and then bright indirect light the rest of the day. I bought both plants as seedlings a little over a month ago. Weather: 60-ish, rain, not too humid. I gave them both fertilizer about a week ago; maybe I should add more.
Well, I’m a tad stumped, because beans usually grow quickly, but I will say my own tomatoes are huge and my beans are just getting going. I think what we’re both looking for here is heat. Honest-to-god summertime swelter. Yr tomato will respond to the heat, too, and may become enormous.
Glad you’re doing this project! It’s fun to watch stuff grow, however slowly.
Admittedly, I went about this the entirely wrong way — buying plants that were not really suited to the space I had for them and then looking them up afterward and thinking, well, shit.
I’m still waiting on a copy of Fresh Food from Small Spaces from the interlibrary loan… not that this is much help now, but I’m already thinking about next year.
Gardening at any level is like being a Cubs fan – it’s always, ALWAYS about Next Year.
Ping me if you want good, old-fashioned cheerleading, as I’m all about what yr doing.
I wish it was possible to be rainy without being humid here!
Just a couple of states south of you it has it has been 90+ humid for a day then rainy, humid and cool for days and then hot(ish) for a day then rainy and cool (for late spring, anyway) again. The tomato plants are like 4 feet tall and we planted them late. Our hot pepper plants are still teeny tiny though. I am hoping for some just plain sunny days for a stretch.
You should remember the old adage: “Mid-calf by June’s half.” Your beans are just fine.
(I could be pulling crap out of thin air here.)
Really? On the one hand, that seems too twee to be right… but then again, you are from Iowa, so I should presume you know more about these things than I do…
The midwest is full of sage advice like that. Corn should be “knee high” by the 4th of July, and divorcees “split the blanket”. I had to learn a new language upon my arrival to the East Coast.
Of note, and possibly of some assistance: beans love nitrogen rich soil. Nitrogen is not fertilizer. Good luck!
Okay, Dan, I’m making you my bean consultant. [This is, sadly, an unpaid position.] Any idea if adding nitrogen now that the plant is flowering will make much difference? Or I guess I could just add it and hope for the best?