Winged bean flower and buds. I like that they're in a cluster!
Alright, this has been long in coming, but our winged bean vines finally started budding. Six seeds were planted in late February, and the vines grew and branched and grew some more. Long bean plants that were started at the same time grew and matured, bearing beans in just over a month. They have since completed their growing cycle, and still the winged bean vines continued branching and growing without producing any buds …until now.
Yes, the buds started appearing a few days ago, but were either knocked off by the rain or aborted because I suspect they were not pollinated – or they were having a test-run. I’m still waiting to see the first bean growing…
What irks me is that the flowers are quite high up. There are a few more clusters of what are probably buds, but they’re more than 2 metres up and I am not that tall… Looks like I’m going to have to keep a ladder handy from now on!
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Wow! The flowers are beautiful! I only started growing winged beans this year and have not gotten to that stage yet. Good to see, I’m looking forward to mine!
Jen
Yay for more fruits/veggies of your labor forming!
Thank you, Sky & Jen
Growing our own veggies is so fulfilling! I first saw this bean just a couple of years ago in the market, and anticipating seeing it on the vine is pretty exciting! I can’t wait!
I grew mine early March but there aren’t any buds yet
Hi Steffi, sorry your comment got mixed in with the spam
I think winged bean vines just take a long time to mature. Even though mine are flowering, they don’t appear to be growing beans yet. It should be a matter of time because I hear others who grow these beans say that they are very prolific. Hope that both of us will soon have lots of winged beans growing in our gardens!
I wld appreciate if someone can tell me how to get rid of the white fungus that sticks to the leaves of the winged bean. If possible, thru a organic way and not relying on fungicide.
Hi Coreen,
I’m not sure but it sounds like you may be talking about powdery mildew. That’s usually a result of dense leaf growth that can’t dry fast, creating a damp environment for this mold to grow. I usually prune the most affected leaves – dispose of them, don’t keep them in your garden or the mold will spread – so that air can circulate more freely and the leaves can dry out faster. This also allows sunlight to penetrate and lets the lower leaves photosynthesize, so it’s healthy for the plant, too. I’m a little lazy to get something to treat the mildew, so that’s my usual treatment for this.
Hope that helps