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

[ruralmamma]

I'm second-guessing the Coal Camp beans as I'm now suspecting they could possibly be the September Blue. I reserved a few of the original seeds as backup and pulled them out today and though similar, the Coal Camp just isn't that vibrant. To make matters worse, I looked the variety up from a local seller and his picture shows the bright blues. They were planted side by side and both varieties are very vigorous because I have one huge tangle of vines along with a volunteer cucumber in the mix. I thought I'd identified which plant it was coming from earlier but this evening's effort to trace the vines resulted in losing track of the vine numerous times before I gave up. Definitely need to work on wider spacing next year.

Oh and my reserved seed of Avalon appear to have the same variation as what I'm harvesting.

 

[Decoy1]

With common beans you oftentimes find traits mirrored in populations on both sides of the Altantic. Exceptions to this generalisation are the shiny 'greasy' beans from the Appalachians and these curved Kipfler beans which appear to be exclusively clustered in regions around the Alps.

Interestingly there doesn't appear to be any varieties with this phenotype from the Americas, and they are absent from Europe more broadly, except in this limited area. What piques my interest is the obscure reason as to why?

Did the trait arise in the region? Is there a genetic linkage between the genes for curved pods and a particular adaptation that makes them thrive in a that particular climate? Why did it not travel further? Were they selected simply because they satisfied the human penchant for the aesthetically appealing, or did they serve some other purpose before the rise of modern agriculture? Are curved pods a chance mutation of a single gene, or is pod curvature something controlled by multiple genetic factors that take generations of rigourous selection to reach such extremes?
Alas, I'm now hypnotised by the spirals
I need answers, but I do not need another bean project

Interesting. I’m wondering about the curly podded/Kipfler strains. I have the impression that the term kipfler is sometimes used specifically for a small number of variations from the Austria alps and sometimes used more generally for a larger number of curly beans from the wider alpine region. I’d be interested to hear whether that matches other bean growers understanding.

This season, by chance, I’m growing two curly podded varieties. Anellino di Trento is from the Italian alps so conforms to the broader use of the term kipfler. Sultan’s Gold Crescent, though, whose curliness I mentioned a week or so ago seems to have hazy origins but is usually assumed to have emerged in US it seems. If so, it’s perhaps an exception to the limitation of curly pods to the alpine region?

 

[flowerbug]

perhaps it's just a reference to the curly hair of the Northern Italians (and like in our case the curly red hair)? i dunno. always interesting these beanos...

 

[Artorius]

I started picking the first dry and soft Amber Queen pods.




Bis will be ready for harvesting in a moment...



...and Zilie Hameleoni too.



I still have to wait a little longer for pole beans.

The Czar runner bean.



Gvnagei - Cherokee bean. I saw somewhere on the internet that Gvnagei and Cherokee Trail of Tears are the same bean. I think CToT has shorter and flatter pods, but I could be wrong because I grew it a few years ago.

 

[ruralmamma]

A few pictures from last week:

Ma Williams is a standout variety due to those vibrant pink 6-inch pods. Garden is approximately 30' from the driveway and the UPS guy was astonished to discover he was seeing bean pods and not a vining flower like he first assumed. Majority of these pods have dried and been harvested. Forgive the ratty-looking foliage as it's been dry and the plants are beginning to shed leaves.

Lazy Wife Greasy is a very plump variety versus most of the Appalachian beans I have grown. No dried pods yet. Maybe towards the end of next week

Did some more research into Coal Camp and found a picture and description of the pods online and those 6" pods are what I was mistakenly referring to as September Blue.

 

[heirloomgal]

Went around to all the pole bean plants today and collected dry & semi-dry pods anywhere I found them. The harvest is really starting, and boy it feels great. It feels like that part of trick or treating when your bag is really starting to fill up and you're just itching to get home and dump it to see everything you've got!

 

[heirloomgal]

A few pictures from last week:

View attachment 77776

Ma Williams is a standout variety due to those vibrant pink 6-inch pods. Garden is approximately 30' from the driveway and the UPS guy was astonished to discover he was seeing bean pods and not a vining flower like he first assumed. Majority of these pods have dried and been harvested. Forgive the ratty-looking foliage as it's been dry and the plants are beginning to shed leaves.

View attachment 77777

Lazy Wife Greasy is a very plump variety versus most of the Appalachian beans I have grown. No dried pods yet. Maybe towards the end of next week

Did some more research into Coal Camp and found a picture and description of the pods online and those 6" pods are what I was mistakenly referring to as September Blue.

That pink is gorgeous!

 

[heirloomgal]

The end begins!

It's bittersweet, always sad to see the summer end but happy to harvest seeds. There also have a few stragglers that are not yet letting go of their green color; Domaci Cucak (below), Custodia (below, left), Ukrainian Pole, Pink Tip Greasy, Malawi Mix, Gialet, mostly those. Custodia in particular has a remarkable number of pods, whether they'll mature or not is the question. The majority of plants though are really in the yellowing, dry down stage. Quite a lot of variation in this year in maturity times.

Network bean Blaugraue is on the late side, but certainly doing well and on the way to making seeds. I have a few places that I'm growing them and all of them look about the same, and all of them doing much better than they did last year. I really do love this bean variety, it's exquisite!

 

[flowerbug]

...Forgive the ratty-looking foliage as it's been dry and the plants are beginning to shed leaves.

yes, this is the time of the year when beans are somewhat finishing up and they can look rather beat up between the weather, Japanese Beetles and the dropping leaves. time to get picking as soon as i can get around to it again. a lot of other things going on...

 

[Neen5MI]

I don't think Doty India #1 is going to make it to mature seed. Pods are barely started, and seeds were planted quite early for my location. Just too late for my garden. The large pods at the lower left corner are a neighboring bean variety.