Soil testing for pinto beans on La Gonave

We will be expanding our agro-business side of things by testing the soil on La Gonave for the raising of Pinto Beans.  Pinto Beans are an excellent source of protein, and packs many vitamins in them.  I grew up on them as a child living in the south.

It is used also as re-fried beans with Mexican cuisine.  I basically ate them as they were after being soaked and cooked in a crock-pot.  The best thing about pinto beans are you can get full quick, and they are very healthy.  Also the beans can grow in many different types of soil and with little to no fertilizer.

In Kentucky where I grew up the soil was a red clay type of soil.  Pinto beans grew fine there in that type of soil.  In New Mexico with it's dry sand, I was again able to raise Pinto beans with very little water, and relied on the annual monsoon rains.

So this brings me to La Gonave.  I think that this could be a fast easy crop that can possibly handle the soil conditions there.  We will have two test.  One would be planting in the existing soil.  The other would be a soil treated with crushed egg shells.  The egg shells are full of carbon which every vegetable likes.  The pinto beans make their own nitrogen, so this is one reason why fertilizer isn't really needed.

Given that the sun of New Mexico can be extremely hot and even reach summer temperatures of over 100, I think that these beans would do well in La Gonave.  If I am correct, then we will start a larger scale production of Pinto Beans, which would then be available for the local population.

Stay tuned.

Go Gonave!