2025 Little Easy Bean Network - Growers Of The Future Will Be Glad We Saved

[Blue-Jay]

Frost - pole. This is my entire harvest. As I wrote earlier, the plants were badly damaged by hailstorm. They regenerated, but it was too late. Most of the seeds come from pods that were not fully ripe. Anyway, it is better than it was, but it is not yet what I would like to achieve.

Looks like you have very nice color considering you harvested not fully ripe pods. The beans are beautifully filled out too.

 

[heirloomgal]

A new bean I discovered online, which I plan to order. I actually found a bean that looked very similar to this once in a patch of Appaloosa beans I grew a couple years ago, but it darkened a lot as it aged and I never followed up with it. This one's called 'Gaia's Cosmos'. There is a couple that look like Magpie so I wonder if it's not quite stable.

 

[Artorius]

The more time you give this bean to age at room temperature that more color you get out of it. I think the seed I sent you proably sat about two months before I put them in the freezer. They would probably darken more if left to age a bit more. I should take a few seeds out of my freezer and let them sit for six months to a year and see how much color could be gotten from them in that amount of time.

In that case I will keep the Golden Bear Lake seeds at room temperature longer. They were already frozen so the weevils will not appear.

Looks like you have very nice color considering you harvested not fully ripe pods. The beans are beautifully filled out too.

This is true, but the seeds are clearly smaller than they should be. That's why I did not send them to you as a return. I think I have finally found a place where Frost feels good. We will see in the fall.

 

[flowerbug]

A new bean I discovered online, which I plan to order. I actually found a bean that looked very similar to this once in a patch of Appaloosa beans I grew a couple years ago, but it darkened a lot as it aged and I never followed up with it. This one's called 'Gaia's Cosmos'. There is a couple that look like Magpie so I wonder if it's not quite stable.
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Vermont Appaloosa looks very similar and that is the color they are when fresh out of the pods.

i've been growing it for 13 years.

some variations in it and yes it will get darker with age.

this is a pic of a sample from the beans sent to me in 2012.

 

[Artorius]

Zazza - pole bean from Val Camonica, Lombardy, Italy. Very productive, from two plants I got almost 2 kg of seeds.




Panzaredda - pole bean from Sarconi, Basilicata, Italy. It was growing in too dry place and most of the seeds are smaller than they should be.




Barba di Frate - pole bean from Cuneo, Piedmont, Italy. This is my entire harvest. As soon as I saw the seeds I received I knew there would be trouble. They looked very old. Indeed, almost all of them rotted in the sprouter, only one showed a small sprout. I decided to transfer the seed to a pot and see if anything would come of it. I was happy when the plant started to come out of the ground, but when the cotyledons opened it turned out that there was no growth cone. After a while, two not very strong shoots grew from the axils of the cotyledons. I told myself that whatever will be, will be and transplanted the bean to the garden. Despite everything, I got some good seeds.

 

[BeanieQueen]

Zazza - pole bean from Val Camonica, Lombardy, Italy. Very productive, from two plants I got almost 2 kg of seeds.

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Panzaredda - pole bean from Sarconi, Basilicata, Italy. It was growing in too dry place and most of the seeds are smaller than they should be.

View attachment 72927
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Barba di Frate - pole bean from Cuneo, Piedmont, Italy. This is my entire harvest. As soon as I saw the seeds I received I knew there would be trouble. They looked very old. Indeed, almost all of them rotted in the sprouter, only one showed a small sprout. I decided to transfer the seed to a pot and see if anything would come of it. I was happy when the plant started to come out of the ground, but when the cotyledons opened it turned out that there was no growth cone. After a while, two not very strong shoots grew from the axils of the cotyledons. I told myself that whatever will be, will be and transplanted the bean to the garden. Despite everything, I got some good seeds.

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All gorgeous..
On this photo Zazza looks a bit like Hewitt, when fresh. Is there a difference between them?

 

[Zeedman]

Barba di Frate - pole bean from Cuneo, Piedmont, Italy. This is my entire harvest. As soon as I saw the seeds I received I knew there would be trouble. They looked very old. Indeed, almost all of them rotted in the sprouter, only one showed a small sprout. I decided to transfer the seed to a pot and see if anything would come of it. I was happy when the plant started to come out of the ground, but when the cotyledons opened it turned out that there was no growth cone. After a while, two not very strong shoots grew from the axils of the cotyledons. I told myself that whatever will be, will be and transplanted the bean to the garden. Despite everything, I got some good seeds.

@Artorius , that is a remarkable success story.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Barba di Frate - pole bean from Cuneo, Piedmont, Italy. This is my entire harvest. As soon as I saw the seeds I received I knew there would be trouble. They looked very old. Indeed, almost all of them rotted in the sprouter, only one showed a small sprout. I decided to transfer the seed to a pot and see if anything would come of it. I was happy when the plant started to come out of the ground, but when the cotyledons opened it turned out that there was no growth cone. After a while, two not very strong shoots grew from the axils of the cotyledons. I told myself that whatever will be, will be and transplanted the bean to the garden. Despite everything, I got some good seeds.

I had a miracle bean also one year also back in 2014. My miracle bean was Armenian Giant Black. A young man from Ohio sent me 5 seeds of AGB. They look poorly formed and were small. I planted all of them around a pole 4 of them emerged from the soil in a little over a week. Within two weeks three of the four seedlings just dried up and died. The one that was left only made it to about a little over half way up the pole it was growing on. It produced a little bit of seed. I might have had about 15 beans out of the grow out. I didn't know exactly what the bean was truely capable of for about another 5 years when I planted it again. This time I saw it's full vigor and large pods. All the seeds I have of it and all it's progency are all because of the one struggling, hanging on for dear life plant back in 2014.

Your Barba di Frate beans are just gorgeous. Now that you have refreshed it's seed. You will see it's vigor and harvest it's true bounty next time you grow it.

 

[Artorius]

All gorgeous..
On this photo Zazza looks a bit like Hewitt, when fresh. Is there a difference between them?

@BeanieQueen, I can't answer your question because I don't have Hewitt bean.

 

[heirloomgal]

@Artorius is Barba di Frate purple the way Lucie is purple? Or a cartoon grape? At first I thought it was the same coloration as the Frost bean, but when I scrolled back to that post with the photo, it seems they're actually really different. That seems like a really unique variety.