Hello, fellow gardeners!

I'm a self-proclaimed green bean fanatic. As a kid, I'd spend hours at my grandma's garden, munching on fresh beans like the cartoon characters in The Adventures of a Cat, Vasya, and the Hunting Fiasco.

We're the worms, we're the worms,
We love eating apples,

We sit inside these apples,
And just keep eating, eating, eating

That's basically me - sitting in my own green bean patch, enjoying the fruits of my labor.

When we moved from our apartment to a house with a garden, I knew green beans had to be a staple. I've got a whole patch dedicated to them, with different varieties and plenty of space to grow.

Today, I want to share with you my discovery of the year - the amazing Dionysus Sweet Bunch green bean.

Dionysus Sweet Bunch Green Beans

Dionysus Sweet Bunch Review

Type: Sugar Snap Green Bean Seeds for PlantingPrice: 5 грн for 20gWhere to Buy: Specialized offline or online agro-stores, like here

I ordered these seeds along with some others from Agro-market. But, the staff got it wrong, and I ended up with a big bag of cabbage instead of green beans. I had to replant the garden with cabbage and go searching for the green beans at the market, where I finally found a great variety that I'm obsessed with.

PACKAGING:

This green bean is packaged just like all the other seeds - in a tight paper bag with a beautiful photo of the harvest.

The back of the package has all the info you need - the bean variety, planting and harvesting times, and even a warning not to eat the seeds or use them for animal feed.

CHARACTERISTICS:

Here's what the manufacturer has to say about their product:

Sweet Cluster - an early ripening high-yielding variety, the vegetative period from emergence to technical ripeness is 55-60 days. The plants are strong, 45-50 cm tall. The pods are dark green, 10-11 cm long with large peas, containing 7-8 large peas, with excellent taste qualities. The variety is resistant to most diseases. Seeds are sown in open soil. It's used for consumption in fresh form, canning, and freezing.

Based on this description, I expected the peas to be:

✔️high-yielding;
✔️early ripening;
✔️disease-resistant;
✔️suitable for canning;
✔️and, of course, delicious ☺️

Were my expectations met? I'll tell you all about it in order.

🌿SOWING:

As soon as the last spring frosts had passed (which happened to us in northern Ukraine in late March this year), I started sowing the pea seeds. On the day of sowing, the seeds looked like this:

There were around 100 peas in a 20-gram pack. Among the seeds, there was no "waste", all peas were beautiful, large, uniform, and undamaged by pests. There were no seeds that were unsuitable for sowing.

The peas weren't treated with anything, and in principle, they could have been soaked to speed up germination. But I didn't do that, I planted them straight from the pack onto the bed. That was on March 28.

I usually plant peas in a row so that it's easy to tie them up and harvest them later.

I leave a 10 cm gap between seeds in a row. The planting depth is around 5 cm.

From one pack, I got 3 rows of 3 meters. I placed the rows in the shape of a P to enclose the beds with peppers and protect them from drafts.

My tip:
As for this particular pea variety, I've noted that it can be sown less densely. As you'll see later, the plants turned out to be quite large and dense.

🌿 EARLY GROWTH:

Spring was cold, and my peas finally emerged from the ground on April 15. That's exactly 2 weeks after sowing.

I want to note that the seeds germinated very uniformly and all of them. There were no gaps or bald spots in the row between the plants. Usually, I plant peas quite densely, just in case some seeds won't "wake up". But the seeds of "Sweet Cluster" are not that kind. There were no slacker peas among them)

Fast-forwarding a bit, I'll say that the peas didn't get any diseases, so the producer's phrase "disease-resistant" wasn't just empty words.

🌿CARE:

I've got to say, our spring and early summer were pretty rainy, so I didn't even water my peas. I didn't add any fertilizers either, except for some wood ash when I first planted them.

The only care they got was occasional weeding, setting up supports, and regular harvesting.

🌿SUPPORTS:

I never let my pea stalks just lie on the ground. It's not exactly the prettiest thing, and it takes up a lot of space, not to mention it's harder to work with and harvest.

So, when they got to about 7-10 cm (as you can see in the photo above), I set up some supports. I use sturdy sticks at the beginning and end of the row, and one or two in the middle. Then I tie three rows of twine around them to hold the plants up. This year, I used polypropylene twine. It's not too expensive, and it's strong and doesn't stretch under the weight of the plants.

🌿FLOWERING:

These photos are from June 13th:

Flowering peasSo, it's been about 60 days since they sprouted. The manufacturer said we should have technical maturity by now, but nope, they're still in the active flowering phase.

🌿EARLY HARVEST AND FIRST FRUITS:

It took another week for the flowers to turn into mature pods. The first ripe peas appeared on June 20th. That's 3 months from planting to the first harvest (and 66 days from sprouting to harvest, just a bit longer than the manufacturer promised, but not a big deal, especially considering the cold spring).

These photos are from June 25th. That's when I canned my first liter of peas.

And here's a photo from June 26th. Check out my amazing pea forest!

The plants grew to be huge - about 1.2 meters tall. The manufacturer said they'd reach 45-50 cm, but I'm not complaining. There are tons of pods on each plant, and they're hanging like little bunches.

I'm really happy that the peas have turned out to be extremely productive. Over the entire season, which isn't even over yet, we've already harvested around 4 of these 10-liter buckets:

The pods are fully in line with the specified characteristics of the variety. There are 5 to 9 peas in a pod, usually 7-8.

🌿TASTE QUALITIES:

I can say that "Sweet Cluster" fully lives up to its name. The peas are extremely tasty, tender, and sweet. At the same time, the peas are quite dense and hold their shape well when cooked. So, now this is my go-to pea variety for canning. The peas in the jar don't fall apart and don't turn into mush. As a result, the brine remains transparent, and the jar with peas looks nice and presentable.

My family loves Olivier salad, and what's Olivier without peas? But, I think you'll agree that it's not always easy to find tasty peas in the store. Plus, there are so many additives available. That's why we've been canning peas ourselves for several years now. As promised, I'll share a simple, tried-and-tested recipe with you.

🌿PEA CANNING RECIPE:

1 liter of water1 tablespoon of sugar1 tablespoon of salt (no rim, taste and add salt and sugar to taste. The broth should be slightly more intense than you like)1/3 of a tea spoon of lemon acid. There's this much acid: After boiling, cook for 20 minutes.
Place in sterilized jars (peas should be up to the jar's neck or slightly below), seal, turn over, and let it sit for a day. Store in a cellar or a cool place.

The finished peas are slightly salty, but the salt acts as a preservative, so I wouldn't recommend using less. It's better to add less salt to the salad or other dish where you plan to use the peas.

From one 10-liter bucket of pods, you get 5 jars of 0.5-liter canned peas. Check out this beauty:

Pea Canning Recipe🌿RECAP:

I'm really happy with the peas from "Sweet Cluster" TM DIONYSUS. I didn't find any downsides.

It's all positives:

➡️The seeds aren't expensive;
➡️they grow, bloom, and ripen together;
➡️this variety is super productive;
➡️it's perfect for canning;
➡️and it tastes amazing both fresh and canned;
➡️it doesn't spoil too quickly;
➡️all the peas mature, and the pods are smooth

I've got to say, considering all the pros and no cons, I'll definitely be buying this pea variety again next season. And I'm confident in recommending 'Sweet Cluster' peas to you too☺️

Check out my review of Agro-market online store and my shopping experience here

Want to know about other plants on my plot? Head here

Thanks for reading! ❤️❤️❤️