Derbyshire and Lancashire Gliding Club

Field Crops - for Glider Pilots

 

BEANS Return to Home Page

 

Beans are sown in the autumn (usually November) or in the spring in March.
Normally there is a very small area of spring sown crop but if there is a  wet autumn there will be a much larger acreage sown in the spring.
This crop can be sown onto rough stubble and then simply ploughed and left for the seedlings to grow through the ploughed land. This will leave the field soft and rough.

 

Beans are a crop that grows very tall so the harvesting machinery does not need to work close to the ground, this means that the seedbed can be left loose and coarse with stones that happen to be on the surface being left there.
When you arrive in a field of beans you will probably find the surface loose enough to tip a sailplane onto its nose during the ground roll, you would be unlucky to sustain more than minor scratches but a firmer surface is to be preferred if possible.
Peas on the other hand have a generally shorter growth habit and often collapse onto the ground under their own weight at harvest so the seed bed is prepared to an almost billiard table smoothness and will be much firmer than beans.

 

Bean crop will appear to be darker and much more open than cereals with soil visible through the crop until well into the season when the crop will be too tall for landing.

 

 

Early August

1000-1500ft

Surface

Crop around 80cm tall and will continue to grow rapidly. Beans will be changing colour from lush green to almost black as they ripen over the next 2/3 weeks.

Mid July

1000-1500ft

Surface

Crop around 80cm tall and will continue to grow rapidly. Beans are in the top half of the set aside field

Late June

1000-1500ft

Surface

Crop around 60cm tall and will continue to grow rapidly.

Mid June

1000-1500ft

Surface

Will grow rapidly over the next few weeks and start to show small white flowers that smell wonderful.

Early June

1000-1500ft

Surface

Will grow rapidly over the next few weeks and start to show small white flowers that smell wonderful.

Early May

1000-1500ft

Surface

Crop emerged and around 15cm tall. Will grow rapidly over the next few weeks.

Mid April

1000-1500ft

Surface

Beans appear as randomly distributed plants in a coarse seedbed

 

Links to other Field Crop Pages

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       Beans          Potatoes   Winter Wheat
       Grass         Spring Barley   
Oilseed Rape     Sugar Beet     
        Peas        Winter Barley "No Go" Fields