2016 Little Easy Bean Network - Gardeners Keeping Heirloom Beans From Extinction

[Blue-Jay]

@journey11,

Go to this website http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/A3374.PDF and go down to page 17. The photo on that page on the lower left looks a lot like your one Aunt Jean plant.

I think I would follow that vine around where it grows and carefully clip it out and dispose of all it's material. Stems and leaves.

 

[journey11]

@journey11,

Go to this website http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/A3374.PDF and go down to page 17. The photo on that page on the lower left looks a lot like your your one Aunt Jean plant.

I think I would follow that vine around where it grows and carefully clip it out and dispose of all it's material. Stems and leaves.

Ugh, it sure does. That is unnerving. I went out and pulled it, carefully getting it all as well as a second Aunt Jean's plant right beside it that also looks infected. The other two Aunt Jean's had a couple pods developing already, looking ok at this point, but I will watch closely.

I've saved a copy of that pdf file. Lots of good info there.

@Tricia77 , you are correct! Sorry for the confusion. I didn't write my observations down yesterday morning, but went from memory and from the photos. That pink bloom belongs to Rote Kepflerbohne. I had gotten the photos out of order! Double-checked the rest and they were correct.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Planted Ga Ga Hut pole bean on May 24th and did the first harvest of pods on August 23nd. That is 70 days from seed to seed. I've never had any bean pole or bush mature that fast. Ga Ga Hut is the Seneca people's version of the pinto bean. I've done are larger pod harvest on August 6 and today I'll be doing a third picking. The first photo was done on a red styro picnic plate.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Beautiful. I notice one of those beans to the right and down just a bit has a brown spot on the end. What causes that and is it a detriment to saving it as seed?

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi @Ridgerunner,

That bean with the orange spot on the seed is probably due to moisture working on the pod and bacterial action that started decomposing that one seed coat. That is the very early stage of seed begining to decompose. Prolonged moisture promotes decomposing of pods and seed from bacteria. At this point it's just has a stained appearance. It probably is only affecting the appearnce of the seed coat and has not progressed into the seed itself. I don't plant seeds where that happens. I save and plant clear looking seed. I try going through all my seed crops of each bean and weeding all that sort of thing out. I don't like giving seed that is stained like that to people to grow. It's part of my quality control you might say. The pod that seed came from was probably one of the pods that grew on the lower part of the plant near the ground. It probably didn't dry as fast as the pods higher up in the plant would do. If the spoilage is not severe, very slight, mostly staining. I put beans like that in a pot and make soup or baked beans out of them. As far as being a problem in planting something like that. Very slight staining might not be a problem. If the decompostion gets further into the seed it could harm the embryo or just make it very difficult for the cotyledons to separate after germination. I think seed decomposed to various amounts will give rise to many of the plants that struggle to grow normally. They tend not to develop well.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Here was a seed sample sent to me by a member of Seed Savers Exchange. I separated the seed in various stage decomposition from the seeds that were good (first photo). The person did send me some good seed, but In the second photo of seed in various stages of breaking down from bacteria you can see how ugly the decomposing can get. From slight staining to serious rot. Now the seed in the second photo would not go into my soup pot.

Your goal of course is to save seeds that look like the first photo.

I don't know why some of these seed saver people don't weed that stuff out. Unless they just don't want to take the time to do it. They are paying the postage to send that extra weight. I'm certainly not going to try growing seeds that look like that.

Photo Of Good Quality Seed

Seed Of Same Variety In Sample In Various Stages Of Decompostiion

 

[Ridgerunner]

Thanks. I try to eliminate those from what I send you back, as you said quality control. I'll also try to not plant any of those myself, but I'm having some problems getting good quality seeds from a few certain bush beans I'm growing. I may have to try a few of those stained ones just to try to get some good seeds next year. I'll wait until the harvest is over, I still have a lot of seeds to come. When you get a seed that looks nothing like what you planted or any other that you are harvesting, you just want to make that one work, at least I do. If that orange area is soft I trash those though. No hesitation. Soft can't be good.

In the past I've pretty much trashed all those brown ones, but I may consider keeping some for cooking as long as the seed is still firm and it looks like it's just a minor stain. Then I may not. I think I'm going to have a lot of dried beans this year.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'll try to show a few of my beans. This is certainly not the full story, I'll just show a few of what I consider my best. I have some vines that still have not produced pods so I don't know what I'll get in the future. I have no confidence I'll get these beans again when I plant these so I'm hesitant to name them, but I'll give a few working names, at least what I'm considering right now. I don't know which I'll try growing out next year, I need to see the final harvest to make that decision.

I found one pod a couple of days back with these beans. That vine has more pods, they are just not dry yet. But I like this one, it is right at the top of my list for next year. I'm giving it a working name of Karachaganak. That means "Dragon" in Kazahk. It is a 39.

These are some 38's. I have a whole lot of 38 vines that have not produced any dried beans yet. To me these are two distinctive beans, a solid dark red and more of a patterned light red. The photo doesn't show that difference as clearly as it is in life. No working names for these yet, I want to see what the other 38's produce.

I call this Miss T. You can see some of that orange Russ was talking about on a couple. These are from the 32's, the only pole plant out of all the 32's. I only have one plant of this and it is loaded. I'll definitely be growing it again. I tried cooking one as a green bean. it is a string bean, not stringless, but tasted very good.

These are some of my 27's. I have several others that are solid with no pattern but different shades but this shot is confusing enough. In sunlight I think I see three different beans here but I know there can be some variance in beans of the same variety. I plan to plant this one again next year, planting the beans separately so I can keep track of what the parent bean was. My working name for this one is Raspberry Ripple.

Here are a couple more of my 39's. I like both of these but haven't assigned working names yet.

This one is yet another 39, off of a bush plant. I'll give it the working name Jaz though that is not set in stone. I may call another one Jaz before I'm finished.

Then a problem one, partly to show I'm not perfect. This is a 32 that I'm having trouble getting good seeds off of. You can see the orange. It's a bush and those beans seem to discolor even if I harvest them pretty early. I'll probably plant this one again just to try to get some good seeds. I think the bean is pretty and it looks like it can produce a lot of beans. I just can't get quality beans off of it. Maybe next year.

if you wish you can go to the first post in this thread and see Russ's photos of the numbered beans I planted. There is not a lot of similarity. That's why I'm not at all confident these beans have stabilized at all. I think I have some more surprises coming my way when I replant these.

 

[journey11]

@Ridgerunner - Wow, what a wild variety you've gotten off of those 39's! I love that first one...dragon definitely suits it.

I have the same trouble with bush beans. If the tip so much as touches the ground, the moisture will wreak havoc on the seed, sometimes going slimey and fuzzy with mold in our wet summers. I may try putting a few rocks or pavers beneath some to elevate them and see if that helps. Or if the majority of the pods are done and beginning to yellow, pull the whole thing and hang upside down in my basement. I pulled a late maturing pole bean last year, poles and all and stored that way and I got the nicest, shiniest seed I've ever gotten.

 

[aftermidnight]

So far all the seed I've collected from #45 has been black or blackish purple, and most have turned out to be wax beans, only the heights they've grown are different, pole, half runner and bush. I've seen some pretty neat color patterns in the ones you guys are growing
That odd ball one with tiny pods is still flowering and setting pods like mad, also the vine is branching at different heights. I have my fingers crossed at least some of these pods produce seed, you can see the tiny bulges in the pods but when I opened one out of curiosity no seed had started to form. I was going to call it Tiny Tim but changed my mind, it's now called 'Itsy Bitsy'.


Annette