# Beans and drought



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

This is only my second year growing beans so I'm not real accustomed to how drought while they are germinating and right after affects them. I might be worried about nothing but thought I would ask anyway. Here I'm told the general rule of thumb is beans need out by the 4th of July to ensure they mature before frost......last year I planted some on the 10th and they still made it but that's kind of pushing it if we happened to have an early fall.

I no tilled these beans the 1st-5th of July into ground that had minimal moisture but there was plenty of forecasted rain I the next couple days so I wasn't concerned......we never got any rain until last night. I'm not sure quite what to make of the stand of beans I have......some came up within 4 days but look weak because of no water.....the first leaves are only about the size of my fingernail instead of being the size of a silver dollar. Will they grow out of this now that they have some moisture? About two days ago some more beans started cracking the ground and are now up but the cotyledons are kind of yellow. Not sure why it took these so much longer to come up than the others since they had no moisture before sprouting either. I also still have places where nothing has come up yet.....not sure if they started to germinate and then dried up before emerging or didnt have enough moisture to germinate at all and now they will since we got rain. Any thoughts?


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## bbos2 (Mar 20, 2015)

I like to get crops out of the ground with no rain. Plant them in moisture. Sounds like they need a rain to get a better stand. If you can get them out of the ground that's half the battle. Depending on how much rain u got last night that might be enough to get them out. It might take couple days to see them push through. Beans can take dry weather better then corn. They will sit and wait on rain. Beans NEED rain when they flower, that's the most crucial time. So in your case late August early septmber. That's what will make the crop.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

bbos2 said:


> I like to get crops out of the ground with no rain. Plant them in moisture. Sounds like they need a rain to get a better stand. If you can get them out of the ground that's half the battle. Depending on how much rain u got last night that might be enough to get them out. It might take couple days to see them push through. Beans can take dry weather better then corn. They will sit and wait on rain. Beans NEED rain when they flower, that's the most crucial time. So in your case late August early septmber. That's what will make the crop.


 Yeah, ideally I would have wanted to plant them into moisture but the fact that I was at the end of the planting window and there was so much rain in the forecast I was afraid by the time it dried back out enough for me to plant it would be too late.....we missed over a week of 60-100% chances everyday. We got about 8/10ths in the past 24 hours and it's raining again now so hopefully the ones that are already up will make it and the rest come up.


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## bbos2 (Mar 20, 2015)

I think u made the right decision planting when you did. Sometimes ya just gotta getem in the ground. you'll be good gettin all the beans out now with that kind of rain. Now just hope for another nice rain when they flower and you'll haver made!

Btw I'd love to have your dry weather. We've been getting hammered through here. Iys a mess. We've only had a handful of days to do any field work since middle of April. This area has never had this bad of conditions


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

bbos2 said:


> I think u made the right decision planting when you did. Sometimes ya just gotta getem in the ground. you'll be good gettin all the beans out now with that kind of rain. Now just hope for another nice rain when they flower and you'll haver made!
> Btw I'd love to have your dry weather. We've been getting hammered through here. Iys a mess. We've only had a handful of days to do any field work since middle of April. This area has never had this bad of conditions


 So you wouldn't be concerned about the unusually small leaves and dwarfed look of the ones that have germinated?

The weather that you all guys from Kentucky and Virginia north is what we had in 2013.....rained everyday for almost a month at a time. May, June, and July each had about 10-12 inches per month.


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

FC you won't find many good stands of Beans in NC this year. I've heard of people replanting Beans as far north as Elon and as far east as Jacksonville. Ours are planted with Brown Top Millet and the Millet is way out growing the beans. Late FIL always planted his Fall hay crop this way, he always said if one didn't do well the other usually made up for the other.

The largest farmer in our county, he farms about 2000 acres, is already cutting corn that's only 4' high for silage. Haven't seen his corn but we were told it was pretty bad.


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## bbos2 (Mar 20, 2015)

FarmerCline said:


> So you wouldn't be concerned about the unusually small leaves and dwarfed look of the ones that have germinated?
> The weather that you all guys from Kentucky and Virginia north is what we had in 2013.....rained everyday for almost a month at a time. May, June, and July each had about 10-12 inches per month.


Let us know what they look like in a week. Maybe take a picture now and a week from now. I think you'll be surprised at what they'll do.
As greatful said it may be hard to find a nice field of beans. But they stand a better chance then corn. My FIL always said
"A dry year will scare you to death and a wet one will starve you to death."


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

We've been in several different counties over the last week or so and have only seen what I consider one good field of corn. I heard one of the NC Ag Research Centers is wanting to buy about 800tons of silage from local farmers for their Dairy unit because their crop didn't fair well and it will help out the local folks even thought their crop may look like crap. I'm surprised the powers that be in Raleigh approved it.

It's a nice facility, FC and my wife and I have been to the one located below for a couple hay days there, the last one was so cold and wet they couldn't demonstrate.

http://www.ncagr.gov/research/prs.htm


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## Bishop (Apr 6, 2015)

I've planted beans (soybeans) as late as June 25th into dry ground, got rain a couple days later, and they finished and yielded ok. They were a 3000 heat unit variety. Down your way I'd assume if all the beans were out of the ground by mid-july you should be fine.

If you no-tilled into hay ground that you took 1st cut off (which probably took most of your moisture) you'll need some rain over the next couple weeks to keep them going until they can root down for moisture. Beans are really good at rooting deep for moisture in a drought. Just remember short beans don't mean low yield, just a pain in the ass to combine.

As was said you'll need good rain from flower to pod fill to have a good crop and you should be fine.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

Grateful11 said:


> FC you won't find many good stands of Beans in NC this year. I've heard of people replanting Beans as far north as Elon and as far east as Jacksonville. Ours are planted with Brown Top Millet and the Millet is way out growing the beans. Late FIL always planted his Fall hay crop this way, he always said if one didn't do well the other usually made up for the other.
> 
> The largest farmer in our county, he farms about 2000 acres, is already cutting corn that's only 4' high for silage. Haven't seen his corn but we were told it was pretty bad.


 The beans I planted in early-mid June I have a good stand and they look pretty good but those were planted when we were getting rain up this way and y'all weren't. The last few weeks of drought didn't help them but they perked back up with the rain.


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