Another Robert Lobitz bean that I grew last year and again this year to see if there would be any change in seed production. The beans seed production was a little more but not a lot. Last year bean harvest was 3.65 ounces (103.47 gm) This years harvest was 5.25 ounces (148.83 gm).
Another Robert Lobitz named bean. Each years grow out has seen large plants with good productivity. 10 plants produced 16.65 ounces (472 gm). Since I acquired the bean in 2015 I haven't seen this one produce a seed that looks like the original. However this year looks like I got closer or it maybe actually the original decided to pop up with all the gene shuffling that has been going on each year. First photo is the bean I acquired in 2015 and second photo is what looks similar from this years grow out. The remainder of the photos are the off types the bean produced in 2022. I like the color and pattern in the fifth photo. It will be interesting to see if the bean in the second photo will continue to produce more like it.
Early Stearns Original -Bush Dry - 2015.......................Early Stearns Maybe Close Enough - 2022
Early Stearns Off Type #1 & 2.....................................Early Stearns Off Type #3
I acquired this bean in 2012 bean trade with a young lady in the UK name Andrea Jones. She has a website called The Linear Legume. This year was the fifth time I've grown the bean with good results except for this year. 10 plants produced a meager 2.6 ounces of beans (73.70 gm) I struggled to pick out enough photo quality beans for this years grow out photo.
A Robert Lobitz original named bean. Introduced through his listing in the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook about 22 years ago. This year was a regrow and they produced much better in different soil. 10 plants in 2021 produced 2.3 ounces (65.2 gm) This year in 2022 this bean produced from 10 plants 18.35 ounces (520.21 gm)
Very productive large seeded lima. Believed to be an outcross at one time with Christmas lima. This year seed production from 6 plants was 19.85 ounces (562.73 gm)
Productive purple bean from a grower in Valpiano, Italy in 2019. Not such a good year for this bean this year. I have gotten almost 32 ounces (907 gm) of beans from 8 plants in a better year.
Very productive variety. This was my fourth grow out of the bean since acquiring it from a grower in Austria in 2013. Other similar beans in other European countries might be the same bean such as Cranberry Flieder and Cranberry Lilac. Seed produced from 8 plants this year was 20 ounces (566.99 gm)
This bean came out of one of the 52 outcrossed seed packets sent to me by Will Bonsall (Scattered Seed Project) of Industry, Maine. The beans seed mother is one called Andrew Kent. The bean has been stable right from the very first grow out. Total seed produced from 8 plants was 3.55 ounces (100.64 gm).
I have never seen what Andrew Kent looks like. I googled the bean and still can't come up with an image of the bean. When a bean cross goes back looking like the mother I call these throwbacks. I also wonder if the genetics is exactly the same as Andrew Kent. Maybe I should send you a few beans and you can grow a couple side by side and compare them.
Here is the original seed that Will Bonsall sent me. He wrote on the packet and called them rouges from Andrew Kent. He also wrote horticultural pattern reversed mostly maroon. I would think Will had enough experience that he would have recognized a reverse of Andrew Kent and a real off type. What do you get with Andrew Kent reverse seeds.
There are a bunch of the Will Bonsall outcrosses that I've been growing that I have not yet put on the network pages I should work them in sometime.
Andrew Kent Off Type From Will bonsall. The seed was from 2013
when he sent it to me in 2015 and was never in cold storage.
Here is another bean from the Will Bonsall off types that has appeared to be stable after it first surfaced with the 2015 grow out. Then grown out again in 2017 by myself producing two off types. I named the bean in 2017. It's been grown out again in '19,'20, and '22 by myself and network growers in '19, '20 and '21 without showing any off types. First photo are the beans Will Bonsall sent me from which Galloway came from. I had three plants of this bean this year and it didn't do well but it usually produces very well. Total seed 3.8 ounces (107.72 gm)
Where Galloway Came From 2007 Seed in 2015....Galloway - Pole Dry - 2022
