What to plant in JULY - SO Cal

Well...now I don't feel so bad.  I have a ton of flowers on my long bean, but no beans!  I really wanted at least a couple so I could get more seeds.  The seeds I started with are from some I saved from my (deceased 2 years this month) sister-in-law's plant two years ago.  I forgot about them; found them in the bottom of a "toss it in there" dish on my kitchen window sill.  I soaked them overnight, planted them & THEY GREW!  

I don't know if the flowers aren't producing due to the age of the seeds, the abuse, the heat, or what.  Again....lots of flowers; no beans.  

I'm going to keep tending them until there is nothing left!  I really wanted those yard long beans to remember my s-i-l by (not that I really need anything...but you understand) 

Sorry to hear that.  Hopefully, if the weather mellows a bit and you keep taking care of them, they produce some nice beans for you yet.

I'm having trouble with long beans, too. Less than 50% sprout, then less than another 50% grow more than a few inches. I've replanted 3 times and still only harvested 5 beans altogether.

Mellen, Yep, we understand why you want some seeds to keep the beans going in memory.

Suz, When you say sprout, did you pre-germinate them - or are you counting those that showed green at the soil surface after planting dry seeds?  I humidified my long bean seeds for 2-3 days before planting. (They didn't look much different on day 1.) I didn't soak them, soaking is too much, too fast. I wrapped them in a wet paper towel, with no freestanding water in the loosely lidded container (added a little more water if it started to get dry) and only planted the ones that hatched. The squares look full, so I got at least 50%, and probably more than 80% plants vs seeds planted. 

I did this with regular beans, too - but some of those I ended up needing to redo with a pre-rinse in hydrogen peroxide first due to mold issues. And some of the beans just turned to mush instead of hydrating, notably in the same variety of pole bean that I replanted direct three or four times last year... Not planting those helps get closer to fuller squares on round one of sowing.

At this point my asparagus beans are just 3-4wks old, and definitely developmentally behind some of the other pole beans I planted at the same time. I didn't measure, but I think they're under 6" tall. Some of the adjacent beans might be close to 18" since they've started sending out that first winding whip of growth. I know we're not growing under the same conditions, but I think long-beans do, overall, grow slower than bean-beans (at least initially... this is my first year growing them, so we'll see what they do over time.)

(I also used inoculum that said it would be compatible with cowpeas -- same species as long beans --because it was inexpensive at a local pet store -- but I've read it shouldn't make a big difference, especially if growing in something with compost like MM.)

Wow, Beetles, thanks for the detailed info.  I soaked them overnight, then planted them all. Obviously that wasn't the right thing to do.   I'm out of asparagus bean seeds now, but I planted "long bean" seeds (black seeds -- asparagus bean seeds were brown). Anyway, they all sprouted in just a few days. I'm going to plant them in the sfg today. Maybe asparagus beans are just fussier than regular long beans. We'll see how this batch does.