2021 Little Easy Bean Network - Bean Lovers Come Discover Something New !

[flowerbug]

Perhaps these are from your 2018 grow out! The packet is marked 2018.

It was your recommendation of Molasses Face that got me started acquiring various Yellow Eyes with a broad ring of color. The color is so warm and appealing! Those will probably wait for next year though, as I've not yet figured out 'who is going where' in the garden(s).

Yellow Eye is a great eating bean.

Purple Dove is your own creation, isn't it? How is it doing? I don't recognize Huey and Red Ryder.

no, Purple Dove is a Robert Lobitz bean, i'm just a big fan of it and will give it away to anyone who wants some. i grew several thousand plants of Purple Dove last season and the season before so they are doing great. my first seed swap i hadn't grown enough to give away samples but the next year i was able to give away every sample of Purple Dove that i took with me. i've already made up a bunch of samples for the upcoming seed swap and i sure hope they don't cancel it.

Huey is a bean that i cross bred here, the likely parents are a Tan Goats Eye bean that was selected from a blend called Peregion and Red Ryder. Red Ryder was a bean from Vermont Bean Company that i bought in 2011 along with Peregion and a bunch of others including Appaloosa and Painted Pony. the other beans i tried from them didn't do as well as those four so i've not been growing them but i have probably about a hundred cross breeds of various colors and patterns that have come about from these beans along with others i've grown. Peregion has a lot of variations within the blend too and many of them i've not worked with further because they are black beans or black patterns or darker striped beans and i was only interested in the lighter colored tan striped beans. the Tan Goats Eye beans are very firm and will not fall apart so i like to use them when making chili. Huey is an early bean like Red Ryder and is not as firm as the Tan Goats Eye bean so it cooks up about at the same time as Red Ryder. Purple Dove cooks up a bit faster as it is a smaller bean.

since my crosses are coming about from bees wandering around i don't ever have a sure knowlege of the exact parentage of most of them but i can usually have an idea from the colors or pattern on the beans plus because of how early they are. i primarily grow bush beans and some semi-runners so i don't get too many that go crazy tall or sprawling but i have had a few of those. Lemon Slice and Yed are both beans that also showed up and were stable enough to get named. plus i now have some others too so it is always fun and keeps me busy with projects trying to figure out which are stable enough to keep growing.


i have pictures of all of these on my bean page:

Beans | Anthive

I really like beans...

www.anthive.com

 

[meadow]

Wow! Thank you so much for the descriptions and also for including the link to your bean page. That was a fun read, and I enjoyed seeing the pictures too! I can relate to the pleasure of shelling the beans.

 

[heirloomgal]

Did you come to any conclusions about brown beans?

That they grow really well, they are very productive, they produce very little to no culls, and that they are impossible to tell apart. lol

This is one I grew this summer -

Tennessee Greenpod. The nice thing about this one is that it can be eaten as a green bean too, even though it has a similar look to many of the dried brown beans used for soups and baked beans. I think it's main use is actually as a green bean, so that it has Swedish Brown looking seeds is just a bonus.

There is another brown bean out there, I haven't grown it, but I was tempted to get it for this summer - Nez Perce. The most tempting qualities being that it is apparently incredibly productive and also early. But alas, so many beans so limited space and my docket is close to full for this summer already. But it looks like a good candidate to add to a brown bean sampling.

 

[meadow]

W

That they grow really well, they are very productive, they produce very little to no culls, and that they are impossible to tell apart. lol

This is one I grew this summer -
View attachment 46591
Tennessee Greenpod. The nice thing about this one is that it can be eaten as a green bean too, even though it has a similar look to many of the dried brown beans used for soups and baked beans. I think it's main use is actually as a green bean, so that it has Swedish Brown looking seeds is just a bonus.

There is another brown bean out there, I haven't grown it, but I was tempted to get it for this summer - Nez Perce. The most tempting qualities being that it is apparently incredibly productive and also early. But alas, so many beans so limited space and my docket is close to full for this summer already. But it looks like a good candidate to add to a brown bean sampling.

What a lovely bean! It looks so pretty against the fabric too... nice choice.

I hadn't come across Nez Perce. Just did a quick google search and it looks rather similar to the "Yellow Bush Heirloom Bean" at Siskiyou Seeds. Yellow Bush is also early (65 days) and is said to have been adopted by native tribes in Montana (just a hop, skip and a jump from the Nez Perce in Idaho) after being brought there by Swedish immigrants. hmmmm. Guess I'll have to add Nez Perce to the trials! 🙃

 

[jbosmith]

@saritabee

If you have had bean failures due to rabbits then you have a pretty severe rabbit problem. You need to fence them out of your garden. Chicken wire will not stop them. They will find a way in. Try going to Menards and purchase the vinyl lattice pieces that are 2 feet wide by 8 feet long. More expensive but once you purchased them you will have them for countless seasons in the future. You can create a rabbit proof barrier around gardens with this material. I support the lattice pieces with steaks cut to 3 feet long with a well tapered point on one end to make it easier to drive them into the soil. Steaks made out of 1 x 2 inch furing strips 96 inches long. I use one steak at each end and one in the middle. If I need to cut the lattice to size for reason. I use a jigsaw which works very handily.

A cheapo 2' welded wire fence combined with a single string of electric about 5-6" off the ground will nearly eliminate rabbits from the garden.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Bluejay77 I have taken your advice and bought a bunch of 1x2 furring strips from Home depot this weekend for growing the network pole beans. I vaguely remember the post from months ago, but i cant seem to find it and i apologize for asking again. Did you screw in 2 screws per pole 2/3 the way up the poles? I cannot remember, also do you plant 4 beans around each strip? Thanks in advance!

My latest arrangement with screws in the poles is to put about three 3 inch screws up one side of the poles. I drill little starter holes in the wood. My fear is that once the pole plants become fully mature with a load of green pods and if I get a severe wind storm moving through. I'm afraid the plants could slither back down the poles and wind up pretty much in a pile on the ground. This way the vines will catch on the screws. Be careful handling the poles with screws in them. I use flat head screws and they are not forgiving of flesh. Be careful working close to the poles.

Yep 4 seeds around each pole. I wonder though if two seeds would give each plant less competition with each other and might they produce as well as 4 seeds planted around each pole. I'm gong to experiment with this idea this coming summer.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hey ! @meadow,

So nice to see you have arrived successfully here. It will be a fun time with more bean people here.

 

[Boilergardener]

My latest arrangement with screws in the poles is to put about three 3 inch screws up one side of the poles. I drill little starter holes in the wood. My fear is that once the pole plants become fully mature with a load of green pods and if I get a severe wind storm moving through. I'm afraid the plants could slither back down the poles and wind up pretty much in a pile on the ground. This way the vines will catch on the screws. Be careful handling the poles with screws in them. I use flat head screws and they are not forgiving of flesh. Be careful working close to the poles.

Awesome, excellent planning idea with the screws. Thank you for the advice!

 

[Artorius]

Another ones from 2021.

Red Rooster - bush, much better crop than in 2020.


Uganda Yellow - bush


Black Good Mother Stallard - half runner


Daržinėlės - pole bean from Lithuania

 

[flowerbug]

Another ones from 2021.
...

Uganda Yellow - bush
View attachment 46609

lovely!