@Decoy1 my other comment about similar beans is that in my own experiences i've been getting plenty of crosses that look very much like other beans i've seen in circulation.
without having a full genetic sequence of all of them i'd not really know if they're identical or not or what the parentage. most of the varieties i've grow the past 10yrs i have records of the sources. most of them i've grown enough that if they were going to have crosses in the seeds before i got them i'd have seen it years previously so i'm sure that most of the crosses i've had since are from the bees or even some mutations.
i guess i'll just write some things here as i'm thinking of them as notes from this season (ramble zone ahead
)...
my experience this year so far is that Dappled Gray gave a rather huge bean that looks like a cross with a pinto. so i've got perhaps two branches now going of those. since this is the first year i've grown those that out-cross didn't happen here, but i don't know where Russ got the seeds or if he grew them out or ... since i like the pattern of the DG originals i won't be planting the odd cross/selection again - one thing for sure is that they're impressive and productive as a dry bean. and the good news is that they were a productive large bean compared to the many other larger beans here. i'll keep growing some of them each season and watch for crosses with beans i normally grow...
my more usual problem with large beans in our heat/soils is that they just don't finish very well. either they're empty seeds/pods or the seed coat isn't closed up all the way or ... i had that problem this year with Old Black Coco and Early Warwick and even the Pinto beans (of all the beans i've grown my own versions of Pinto beans have always been pretty reliable but i didn't plant any this season thinking i wanted to keep the network Pinto bean line apart from my own). i have some seeds from all of them, but they're not the best seeds i've grown by far.
in a neighboring garden (the garden that flooded - i posted pictures) i had such excellent production from some plants that normally struggle that i'm now pretty sure it has a lot to do with the soil quality. some beautiful healthy seeds from those plants. even some old cranberry type beans i'd not grown for years (Etna) did really well in there.
alas i did not plant any of the other three mentioned above in that garden - it was the last garden inside the fence that i planted and i'd not even planned on putting beans in there but the strawberry plants i transplanted last fall didn't survive the winter so i had the space - next year i'll put some beans in there again.
and then from the other extreme i think the Fort Portal Jade beans i planted got so overgrown by the surrounding plants that they didn't have much of a chance no matter which garden i put them in. soil could have been too rich for them or too much rain or ... i did get some seeds from them to try again next year. perhaps they'll adapt to my conditions and i'll plant them with more of their own space next time. they said semi-runner, but they didn't run much for me.
and the Yellow Longs touted as pole beans, barely made it above 1ft tall, they were overgrown by everything around them but they did finish early enough i have some seeds from them. as they're a white/light yellow bean and not easy to shell out i doubt i'll grow them again for my own production uses, but i'll save a few seeds and pass along the rest back to Russ.
my many experimental plantings, some did great and continued the line or verified my thoughts of them (early, semi-runner, etc.) so that was fun, but some others i don't think i've seen any as i've shelled so far. i know for a fact that some beans didn't even sprout so i don't expect to see any of those...
for my album until I can replace with one of my own. What can I say, life gets in the way and haven't always followed through with this plan so although I have a lot of pictures, I don't have a complete record of all stages on most of them.
