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

[flowerbug]

Finally, after almost two months, the sun appeared from behind the clouds and I had enough natural light to take photos.
First up, the Flowerbugs

Tinker's Fire - half runner

those are all so nice to see!

TF is such a great color and pattern.

Sunrise is the right color so i'm glad it grew well enough for you to see that before it gets darker and more tan. i hope it will do better for you next time around.

Pheasant also turned out a nice crop for you! i see you have some in there i call Two Spots, but it may just be part of the natural range of the expression for that bean. i always culled those out and ate them.

 

[Blue-Jay]

( I can't get enough blue beans in my world), as well as 'Bomba' and 'Nigel' which you'll be familiar with @Buejay since those are in your gorgeous collection. (I can't believe what a teeny weeny little bean Nigel is!)

If you haven't grown Nigel yet wait till you see how much it produces. Most often small seeded beans are very productive. They will often out produce a larger seeded bean.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Artorius !

Wow what gorgeous beans. To me the sunrise looks great. Doesn't flowerbug have a bean similar to Grumbliai called Lemon Slice? Send me some of those Grumbliai with one of your Network return packages next year in '24. Love that Tinker's Fire too, and the name is neat.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Got a Canadian Network return package today in the mail from @capsicumguy. It was posted November 19th. I got a feeling Linden, New Jersey is pretty busy this time of the year. The package came from BC. This growers beans were for a 2022 grow out. I'm glad the grower kept the beans and tried again. The beans are really nice.

 

[Zeedman]

More 2023 soybeans...

"Gardensoy 12", edamame type. Bred from a (Prize x Kaohsiung No. 1) cross. Developed as part of an edamame/grain breeding program by Dr. Bernard of the University of Illinois Urbana, who sent me seed in 2007. VERY tall plants, ~40" (1 M) in height, which needed some support as the pod load increased. Very large, very high-quality as edamame, and a decent yield. This was one of the varieties heavily attacked by chipmunks, which harvested perhaps 25-50% of the pods before I caught them. This was also the variety that I was cutting off in the rain & bringing indoors to dry, which was successful in saving most of the remaining seed (26 ounces). The U of Ill developed a whole line of Gardensoy cultivars in a range of different DTMs, for climates from the U.S. Upper Midwest to the South (the number at the end is the soybean Maturity Group). For several years, they would send the cultivars suitable for their climate to any gardeners who requested them, free of charge (they also sent me "Gardensoy 24"). That breeding program, and its public outreach, was a great tribute to the way our publicly-funded universities ought to be.


"Gion", edamame type. Obtained from the now-defunct Evergreen Y.H. in 2006, originally from Taikii Seed Company in Japan. Short, upright 24" plants. Large green seeds as edamame, similar to "Gardensoy 12" above, but flatter & slightly smaller. 90 days to edamame, 105 to dry seed. This one too was heavily attacked by chipmumks (who were harvesting all soybeans at once) with about 50% of the pods lost. Still, with a double row, I was able to get an acceptable 14 ounces of seed.


"Grignon 17", from the estate of Robert Lobitz 2006, originally from the USDA, collected in France. I don't know how this variety was originally used, but the seeds are rather large (110 per ounce dry) 45% protein dry weight, and were decent eaten as edamame. Stout 30-32" plants. Germination was good & these matured before the chipmunk invasion, 18 ounces of seed.


"Grignon 18", grain type. From SSE member Robert Lobitz 2005, from the USDA, originally collected in France. Medium large reddish-brown seeds, 24-28" plants, moderate yield. These were grown in my TLC pots, which are usually mouse resistant - but apparently not chipmunk resistant. The chippies got at least 50% of these too before I caught them, 4 ounces of seed.

 

[Zeedman]

Got a Canadian Network return package today in the mail from @capsicumguy. It was posted November 19th.

Wow... that's a long time in transit. Good thing those weren't Christmas beans.

 

[flowerbug]

@Artorius !

Wow what gorgeous beans. To me the sunrise looks great. Doesn't flowerbug have a bean similar to Grumbliai called Lemon Slice? Send me some of those Grumbliai with one of your Network return packages next year in '24. Love that Tinker's Fire too, and the name is neat.

yes, i did come up with Lemon Slice but it doesn't look nearly as nice as Grumbliai. when fresh though the lines can be as nearly bright yellow and the pale background is nearly white to a very light tan color but as it ages it turns darker tan to light brown.

 

[flowerbug]

If you haven't grown Nigel yet wait till you see how much it produces. Most often small seeded beans are very productive. They will often out produce a larger seeded bean.

yes, and i find them more reliable in uncertain weather. the larger beans i've grown often have issues when the season is less than perfect but the smaller beans will still manage to give some nice seeds eventually. that is why Purple Dove has become such a staple part of my bean growing. but i won't go on again about them. heehee!

Thanks Russ for all the great beans i've been able to try to grow and to learn so much in the process.

 

[flowerbug]

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View attachment 63025 View attachment 63026
"Grignon 17", from the estate of Robert Lobitz 2006, originally from the USDA, collected in France. I don't know how this variety was originally used, but the seeds are rather large (110 per ounce dry) 45% protein dry weight, and were decent eaten as edamame. Stout 30-32" plants. Germination was good & these matured before the chipmunk invasion, 18 ounces of seed.

View attachment 63027 View attachment 63028
"Grignon 18", grain type. From SSE member Robert Lobitz 2005, from the USDA, originally collected in France. Medium large reddish-brown seeds, 24-28" plants, moderate yield. These were grown in my TLC pots, which are usually mouse resistant - but apparently not chipmunk resistant. The chippies got at least 50% of these too before I caught them, 4 ounces of seed.

i didn't know that Robert Lobitz was so into soybeans, how many of his soybeans did you pick up?

 

[Zeedman]

i didn't know that Robert Lobitz was so into soybeans, how many of his soybeans did you pick up?

Robert was into almost any field crop which is normally harvested dry. This is what he offered in 2005, the year before his death:
10 barleys
262 beans
3 millets
16 oats
31 peas
95 soybeans
12 wheats

A lot of conversations took place after Robert's sudden death in 2006 between interested seed savers (including myself) over who would attempt to preserve what. Others expressed an interest in the beans & grains, but not much interest in soybeans (other than SSE itself). I had already been corresponding with Robert & was interested in soybeans, so I chose to focus on those. Through a series of 3 requests, I acquired most of Robert's soybeans (some of which were not listed) and a copy of Robert's soybean database (which was invaluable in correcting many typos which had crept into SSE over the years). Can't remember just how many varieties total, but it was well over 100.

The seeds were of unknown age, and according to Robert's brother, had not been stored under ideal conditions. I could only grow 20-25 varieties a year, and I'm sorry to say that I had not thought at the time to freeze or refrigerate the rest. I was also trialing quite a few soybeans from the USDA at the time (16 of which I still grow) and am glad I did, since some of those are outstanding, and that window has now closed to gardeners. In the end, I was only able to grow about 60 varieties before the remaining seeds died. A few of those have since been dropped; I'm down to 45 of Robert's soybeans now. More drops may unfortunately become necessary, as the total size of my garden space diminishes.

Robert did a lot of breeding, and many in-progress soybean crosses were listed in the database. Sadly, I did not have the resources to take any of those, and as far as I know, they were all abandoned.