Green Bean Growing Experiment

Alright, so for the little guy’s first birthday, we had a ball-themed party. For this party, my wife found these hydro polymer water balls to use as decorations. We found these fascinating, very fun to play with, and incredible to watch grow. They start out extremely small, and within 12 hours, they expand to between 1/4”-3/8”. They are actually the same type of material used in baby diapers to absorb liquid, and can hold something like 100x their weight in water.

So, I have been doing a ton of research on Pinterest for my garden. I did pumpkins last year, and though I had a decent crop, there was a lot of learning-as-I-went, and many things I wish I would have known before hand.

During my research, I found that these “water pearls” can actually be used to support plant life. They will actually release water gradually, which allows for less watering, and less wasted water. That being said, I was intrigued.

A lady in our office has a bamboo plant that was given to her for her birthday a few years ago, and she was interested in trying to use these to transplant it into. I told her she was in luck, because I had some at home (the 8oz bag will absorb roughly 6 gallons of water, needless to say, we have most of the bag left.) I took some in to work, we grew the pearls, and then transplanted the bamboo plant. So far, it’s doing well, but it’s only been a couple of days.

Pencils are being used as support until the roots spread out a little better. They were very compacted in the previous container.

There is a lot more water than I would add for other types of plants that would be more likely to get root rot. 

That got me thinking, though. I know that most vegetables and such need soil, but I was curious if I could grow a plant using just the beads. Doing some research on these, I found that the normal hydro polymer gels used are not spherical, but are used frequently as a soil additive to retain moisture and reduce wasted water with crops. I also read that if you dissolved plant food in the water used to grow them, that they would absorb the food and release it gradually as well.

Naturally, I had to try it. I started this on 3/25/2015.

I had some general plant/vegetable food that I bought for the pumpkins last year, so I dissolved it, and added the beads. I’ve stirred it a few times to keep the food from settling, and waited for them to absorb enough water to transfer them into a larger container. Here’s what they looked for after about five minutes in the water:

They've already doubled in size!!!

So, after I got that started, I began working on the seed I want to plant. My garden this year is going to be the “Three Sisters” of vegetable gardening (corn, beans, and squash - or in my case: Peaches & Cream corn, green beans, and pumpkins*). 

Seeing as it’s the end of March, it is not quite time to begin planting any of these outside, but I already have my seeds. Of course now I’m itching to plant something (I’ve already bought and planted some carrot seeds in a five gallon bucket I got from work, and in an recycled two-liter bottle - more on those in another post.)

As I’m trying to decide what to try to plant with the pearls, I remembered the science experiments that you do in elementary school where you take a couple of beans and wrap them in a moist paper towel, and watch it sprout. Boom, there’s my plant. I know, they’re a pole bean, and the vine will be ridiculous for indoors, I get it. However, I have a plan for that, be patient.

I moistened a paper towel, opened the seed pack, and pulled out a couple of beans. I wrapped them in the paper towel, and put them in a ziplock bag with some air in it, to help germinate the seeds.  

After an hour or so, it was time to upgrade the container for the pearls to grow, they were starting to max the cup out.

I put it in a larger bowl, and added some more water, stirred and let them do their thing. That's all I can do for now, until the beans begin to sprout.

3/27/2015

Since I'm waiting on the beans to sprout, I decided to start on the plan I mentioned above for the vine. I've read that green bean vines can get upwards of 10' long. Not so fantastic for an indoor plant, but I can keep it trimmed back. I'm not as concerned on getting to harvest this plant, I want to see if I can maintain it with the hydro-pearls. That being said, I still want to try to get something out of this one!

Enter my "plan."

I had purchased some flowers for my wife a few years ago that came in a small square vase. I wanted to use this vase because I could create a trellis out of wooden skewers. We have a bunch of them, and don't use them too often, so I figured it would be perfect. I set to work on them this afternoon.

The square vase and beginning of my trellis.

Thinking back to my geometry days (I won't say how long ago) I knew that triangles are the strongest geometric shape, therefore, I wanted to create something that would border the vase and be strong enough for the vine to climb. I commandeered my wife's hot glue gun and went to work.

The process took awhile (it didn't help that I was watching "The Dark Knight Rises" on my phone), and I had to use more hot glue than I intended, but here's a couple looks at the end result:

The 2L bottle there has some carrot seeds in it. More on that in another post!

It's crude and not very tall, nor is it the greatest of construction jobs - but it's sturdy. Also, I left it extended at the top to allow for expansion. I hope to do fairly tight spirals around it to save from having to go too high, but we'll see.

Now if the beans would just sprout already!!!

3/28/2015

The beans sprouted last night, and then this morning I moved them into the vase!

I only put one in the vase with the trellis. I put the other in a mason jar, with a moist paper towel to allow it to continue growing. Partially as a control for the experiment, partially as a back up in case something happens to the other.

Then, I wrapped a dish towel around the vase. I did this for two reasons:

1. The vase is clear, so I wanted to prevent the bean from sprouting and growing toward the side of the vase once it starts searching for light.
2. Beans need warmth. The soil is not supposed to get under around 50 degrees (F).

3/30/15

Starting to see some sprouts!!!!

 4/1/15

This morning they were looking good, but when I got home from work, they had added quite a bit of growth.

I added some water to the bottom of the vase. The pearls had started to lose some size, and I wanted to try to keep as much of the bean covered as possible until the roots had gained some traction. I probably don't need to leave it in there now, but I also don't want to disturb it by trying to dump it out. This is moving along quite swimmingly!

More to come in a future post, this one is getting quite long. I'll link them all together once I'm finished!

**UPDATES** Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

*I know I’m supposed to rotate crops, but I have a small raised bed, and I’m basically replacing all the soil anyway. I may fail, but oh well.