2023 Little Easy Bean Network - Beans Beyond The Colors Of A Rainbow

[heirloomgal]

@Bluejay77 When would you like me to start packing up beans for you? I'm a little nervous to get them into plastic too early, but that's nothing new, I always worry a little bit about that. There was such a big span of time from the first dry pods to the last dry pods, and then I only just dried up the last network bean indoors a couple weeks ago. I know some would be fine, but there are a couple that I wonder how truly dry they are. I honestly have no idea how much time it takes to get beans safe for sealing up, is there a rough estimate? We do have a de-humidifier going 24/7 at this time of year, which probably helps a little. I thought I read somewhere in the bean threads that you like to start receiving the beans in November and I'd like to get them to you at your preferred time.

 

[heirloomgal]

eta: When I went and retrieved my box from the basement, the one you sent the beans in which contains the envelopes, labels and shipping forms, I remembered something! You had included a bean in the shipment, I think it's a mix up as I don't think I ever requested this network bean, and I put that bean aside in the box...then totally forgot it was there. The name on the packet is Batumi Georgia 1, I didn't grow it this year because I had forgotten all about it being there all alone in the box. But I can grow it for you next year if you'd like. It's a nice bean. It's possible I may have requested one of the others with the name Batumi and that's how this bean found it's way to me.

 

[Decoy1]

I'm disappointed in the results of my network bean growing this year - sorry Russ. It's not been an easy season in the part of England I'm in. We had a warm June but the rest of the summer failed to have much of the warmth which beans enjoy. This meant that some varieties which need a long season didn't make it in time. So of the nine network varieties I had to grow, three have failed. Tennessee Cutshort died mysteriously, Ilene failed to prosper and hardly produced any pods at all and Kermit's Smoky Mountain failed to dry down in time. I shall try these three again next season as I have a small number of seeds left.

Here though are the varieties I've managed to collect at least 60 seeds from.

Etna - a good dwarf drying bean. It produced early and plentifully and dried down well.

Freckles - my other network dwarf bean. Another good dried bean. The seed I produced had quite a lot more white than the seed I received which was predominantly red. This has been the case with other varieties, so it seems that my soil produces beans with quite a lot of white, especially in these Jacob's Cattle type seed coats.

Heavenly Gold. This is a wax Romano type which I thought was wonderful! It produced prolifically, remained tender and stringless come what may, and then dried down beautifully too. Probably my favourite bean of the season. The seed is a bit variable in quality but there's plenty of it.

Headrick Greasy Cutshort. This was prolific too, producing lots of quite short, curved pods. It was quite late producing and I didn't sample any for eating but it continued to dry down well after I'd really thought I wouldn't get seed from it. I've labelled the photo 'Headrick's' but it's Headrick.

Skunk. As others have said, I think, this is a beautiful bean to shell. The pods dried over quite a prolonged period but made for easy shelling with very attractive, consistently good quality seeds

Doty India #1. Another drying bean. This was also quite late for me, and was another one I thought wouldn't make it. But it has dried down indoors, the snag being that it had quite a lot of split beans, presumably because I was having to harvest late in damp conditions. But I have just 64 seeds in total, with perhaps a few more to come.

 

[heirloomgal]

I'm disappointed in the results of my network bean growing this year - sorry Russ. It's not been an easy season in the part of England I'm in. We had a warm June but the rest of the summer failed to have much of the warmth which beans enjoy. This meant that some varieties which need a long season didn't make it in time. So of the nine network varieties I had to grow, three have failed. Tennessee Cutshort died mysteriously, Ilene failed to prosper and hardly produced any pods at all and Kermit's Smoky Mountain failed to dry down in time. I shall try these three again next season as I have a small number of seeds left.

Here though are the varieties I've managed to collect at least 60 seeds from.

Etna - a good dwarf drying bean. It produced early and plentifully and dried down well.

View attachment 61864

Freckles - my other network dwarf bean. Another good dried bean. The seed I produced had quite a lot more white than the seed I received which was predominantly red. This has been the case with other varieties, so it seems that my soil produces beans with quite a lot of white, especially in these Jacob's Cattle type seed coats.

View attachment 61865

Heavenly Gold. This is a wax Romano type which I thought was wonderful! It produced prolifically, remained tender and stringless come what may, and then dried down beautifully too. Probably my favourite bean of the season. The seed is a bit variable in quality but there's plenty of it.

View attachment 61863

View attachment 61862


Headrick Greasy Cutshort. This was prolific too, producing lots of quite short, curved pods. It was quite late producing and I didn't sample any for eating but it continued to dry down well after I'd really thought I wouldn't get seed from it. I've labelled the photo 'Headrick's' but it's Headrick.

View attachment 61861

Skunk. As others have said, I think, this is a beautiful bean to shell. The pods dried over quite a prolonged period but made for easy shelling with very attractive, consistently good quality seeds

View attachment 61860


Doty India #1. Another drying bean. This was also quite late for me, and was another one I thought wouldn't make it. But it has dried down indoors, the snag being that it had quite a lot of split beans, presumably because I was having to harvest late in damp conditions. But I have just 64 seeds in total, with perhaps a few more to come.

View attachment 61859

Very nice beans @Decoy1 ! The last bean in your post, Doty Inida #1 looks very much like Bigarrada Gris-Negre. That might be one to try if you like that seedcoat, and BGN was very early for me as well. Your Freckles bean is especially pretty.

 

[flowerbug]

@Decoy1 you did good IMO!

KSM was a long season pole bean here and i did get a lot of seeds from it but they were not high quality because of the having to pick them and dry them before they were fully done. i sent them back to the source and also sent some to @Bluejay77 so i wonder if the ones you got were from me. they're a longer season southern greasy bean i think if my memory still works - it's been a few years since i did much with them. i was glad that Russ wanted them because i was not going to grow them again.

i've had some beans grow super well the first few years and then when i've decided that they're a great bean and then plant a lot more of them all of a sudden they change their mind or get a hard season or something and then i'm back to wondering what i've done wrong.

like gambling i think the hardest thing with beans is to have a great first season. it sets you up for later trouble because your expectations are higher...

Etna for me was one of those beans. i had planted it the first season and had a wonderful crop of very high quality seeds. the problem was that where it was planted was the best garden soil i had at the time, most of the plantings after that did not usually have very good results.

 

[Branching Out]

One of the last beans to mature for me this year was a dry bean from the Black Forest region of Germany, Schwarzwalder Ausmachbohne. Both the plants and the pods looked terrible. The pods were a dark rusty brown colour and looked to be mildewing in the vines, however once I brought them indoors the pods dried well and the beans seem just fine. I am so glad that I didn't toss them in the compost. The bean seeds are a rather pretty shade of yellow, a hue that I had difficulty capturing in a photograph. I searched online, and would you believe there is a website with tips on how to photograph a yellow bean? http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artnov10macro/Casey-Murphy/Web-Site/index.html
I tried a tip that they mentioned that employs a dark background to reduce 'large amounts of flare' around the subject, and I placed the tray of beans in a fairly dark hallway--well away from any source of natural light. This strategy definitely helped to bring out the yellow tones.

 

[heirloomgal]

For the last week I've been trying to access the Bohnen Atlas site and have been getting the 'this site cannot be reached' message. I wonder what happened?

 

[Artorius]

@Bluejay77 When would you like me to start packing up beans for you? I'm a little nervous to get them into plastic too early, but that's nothing new, I always worry a little bit about that. There was such a big span of time from the first dry pods to the last dry pods, and then I only just dried up the last network bean indoors a couple weeks ago. I know some would be fine, but there are a couple that I wonder how truly dry they are. I honestly have no idea how much time it takes to get beans safe for sealing up, is there a rough estimate? We do have a de-humidifier going 24/7 at this time of year, which probably helps a little. I thought I read somewhere in the bean threads that you like to start receiving the beans in November and I'd like to get them to you at your preferred time.

@heirloomgal
I received information from @Bluejay77 that the green-yellow sticker for the returns package is valid only until December 11. That's why I postponed the photo session and now I'm shelling pole bean pods to send the seeds as soon as possible. You have a little more time than me because I think shipments from Canada arrive in the US faster than from Europe.

 

[Artorius]

@Decoy1
Did the pods of your Ooty India # 1 have a purple tint to them?
The seeds I collected have a more brown background, the color of the swirls is the same. Maybe it's because of my soil.

I wrote Ooty because that is the name under which I received this bean and that is the name of the city in India from where Joseph Simcox brought it. Doty is probably a typo.

 

[Decoy1]

@Decoy1 you did good IMO!

KSM was a long season pole bean here and i did get a lot of seeds from it but they were not high quality because of the having to pick them and dry them before they were fully done. i sent them back to the source and also sent some to @Bluejay77 so i wonder if the ones you got were from me. they're a longer season southern greasy bean i think if my memory still works - it's been a few years since i did much with them. i was glad that Russ wanted them because i was not going to grow them again

Thanks to you and heirloomgal for the encouragement!

And thanks for the information that you too found Kermit's Smoky Mountain to be a long season variety. I'll try sowing them specially early next year but I do struggle with longer season beans.
The seeds I received from Russ were dated 2018. The quality was quite good but not quite as plump as some so I'm not sure whether they were your seeds or not. Was Russ already offering KSM before you sent him seeds or were you his first source?