[Community_garden] Harvesting black beans and killing junk tree stumps

[Don Boekelheide]

Hey all,

Can't add to that good bean advice - Dorene, that's a whole lot of sound bean info in just a few words. Thanks!

On Ailanthus and other aggressive invasives, which I have all over the hill above the garden at the Center, I suggest Sara Stein's "cut and paint" approach. Essentially, you cut the stem (assuming it is small enough) and paint the cut right away with glyphosate (aka Round-Up or another similar product). You avoid spraying everything with herbicide, and limit the impact mostly to the invasive you want to remove. You can use a paintbrush, sponge, or one of those squeeze-bottle jobbies with a sponge top.

I recommend taking a look the late Sara Stein's book _Planting Noah's Garden_ for a good description of how to whack and paint. Michael Pollan, the splendid writer who addresses gardening among other things (_Second Nature_, _The Botany of Desire_) once famously called Stein a "plant fascist" for her love of natives (and because she dissed him for planting a Norway maple), but how dull our lives would be if the Gods didn't quarrel now and then.

Here is another good resource:

http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/aial1.htm

I wish there was a simple "organic" cultural control for this invasive once established, but I've looked and tried and haven't found one. Simply whack it, and it grows back three times thicker. Herbicide is effective in controlling the plant, if applied correctly, BUT it is only one step, like getting a shot of penicillin for pneumonia. The real organic work starts immediately after, by working in your particular ecological context to help establish a stable, sustainable ecosystem or managed garden, so the invasives can't rush right back into a biological vacuum. Way down at the end of the NPS doc is maybe the most important section:

>>SUGGESTED ALTERNATIVE PLANTS
Many lovely native trees and shrubs make excellent substitutes for Ailanthus and are readily available. Some examples for the eastern United States include deciduous shrubs such as staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina), smooth sumac (Rhus glabra), box elder (Acer nigrum), fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus), ash (Fraxinus spp.), and black walnut (Juglans nigra). Because U.S. native plants can become invasive outside their natural, historical ranges, be sure to use plant species native to the ecological region you live in. Check with your local native plant society for recommendations of species and sources of native plants.<<

Or, you could use it, I guess. This is the same tree of _A Tree Grows in Brooklyn_, so it is tough and will grow anywhere. It evidently is even being considered as an energy source, better than ethanol from corn since it sure grows fast, and it sure isn't edible. In fact, Ailanthus will give some folks a rash, and the crushed leaves really stink! You can tell it from native sumacs because smooshed Ailanthus leaf smells like rotten peanut butter. Phew!

Anyway, check this out, too:

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Ailanthus_altissima.html

Don Boekelheide
Charlotte, NC
www.urbanministrycenter.org
http://urbanministrygarden.wordpress.com

(Hey, Dorene, we got our labyrinth done, from painted rubble! I'll try to post some pics on the blog this week).

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Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:09:46 +0000
From: Judith Gardner <jgardner61 at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Community_garden] Harvesting black beans and killing junk
    tree    stumps
To: <community_garden at list.communitygarden.org>
Message-ID: <BAY136-W4772C9B7F2EFA02650EAD5CB7D0 at phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


Hello All,

I have grown black beans for the first time (Cherokee Trail of Tears variety from Seed Savers).  They are starting to produce and i am torn between letting them dry on the vine and picking them and drying them elsewhere in order to keep the vines producing.  Most of the information i have been able to locate on the web is about growing them commercially where it is impractical to pick them as they develop.  Thus, my questions about black beans are two:  Should i just let them dry on the vine or, if i pick them as they mature, how will i know when it is time?

Both of my neighbors have junk trees (tree of heaven, etc.) growing in their yards that they would be happy to have me cut down.  I have cut them down in the past, but they just grow back bigger and better/worse the next year.  Is there an organic way to kill the stumps?  (I sell produce from my garden under our Grown in Detroit brand and do not want to use dangerous chemicals.)  If there is no acceptable organic method, what is the least harmful other method?

Thanks for all the pleasure and info i have received from this list serve over the years.

Judy from Detroit


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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:48:59 -0400
From: "Alliums" <garlicgrower at green-logic.com>
Subject: Re: [Community_garden] ] Harvesting black beans and killing
    junk    treestumps
To: <community_garden at list.communitygarden.org>
Message-ID: <F15B87B84F5C474FBDC7BB9548EC3138 at GreenLogic>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii


Hi, Judy!

If you are saving pole beans from seed, you want to pick all the pods from
below knee level and maybe as far as your waist -- those pods will be
splashed from the dirt so could pick up viruses, etc.  You might as well eat
them as green beans.

Keep the higher beans on the plant and let them dry on the vine -- you want
to keep those as seed.  Once they are dry, you keep the best for seed and
eat the rest.

If any beans form below your "cut-off", just eat them green.

Other folks may have better suggestions for Tree of Heaven.

Dorene

Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator
St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden and Labyrinth

A mission of 
St. John's United Church of Christ, 315 Gay Street, Phoenixville, PA  19460

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