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

[heirloomgal]

The postal workers are on strike again. No mail service.

All I can do is hope it doesn't last. Now both political parties are done with mail carriers and want them gone, no more door to door delivery. Because of all these problems with them for so many years, we may lose home delivery and be forced onto metal street boxes with key access. I would loathe that. What a situation.

On a happier note. I did a seed trade with someone in the US, I can't even recall the state anymore, Minnesota I think, and he put in a few extra packets of seeds, which was so sweet. I thought I might have a version of one of the bean varieties in one of those packets, 'Hopi Purple'. I don't know why I thought that, the name I guess. Anyway, I lost the only 2 plants I had in pots to the frost (they got missed with the hose) but today I found a small pole I had also planted of them in the front yard! And there was quite a few beans on the semi-runner vines! Wow, that was a nice surprise.

The seeds are so much different than I expected, I have nothing like this. The beans are later maturing, but they will all make it. The pods are all far advanced and can dry inside now. You can't really tell from the picture in late evening light, but they are kind of purple-ish grey speckled, with a dark purple/black swirl.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Today I decided to take a photo of my Blue Spitball plants. Just to show what some of my bean plants had done this summer. I think these plants are about 3 inches tall and spread out a little on the ground. The last time I grew them they climbed a 6 foot 2 meter pole without any trouble. There are a few green pods on these plants and I already harvested 3 beans. I will porbably get a little more back than I planted.

Blue Spitball - Pole - Really !

Another thing I did today was severed the vines of Schneebohne from it's roots. The plants went through a big transformation in the last week. Leaves were green and so were the pods and swollen with seed. Today the leaves look like there were yellowing most all the pods were splashed in red and becoming softer. I even found a couple of dry pods. The plants are just loaded like I'm not sure I've ever seen bean plants loaded with pods before. The exact opposite of what Blue Spitball had done this summer. I trimed off most of the leaves on the sunnyside of the plants. What a great variety. Thank you @heirloomgal for sending this great bean to me. I just love it. I never took any photos of Schneebohne at it's peak. Maybe I will take a photo of it's pods tomorrow. We've had 80 F+ 26+ C for about the last week. Yesterday it hit 90 F, 32 C for a little while here.

 

[heirloomgal]

Today I decided to take a photo of my Blue Spitball plants. Just to show what some of my bean plants had done this summer. I think these plants are about 3 inches tall and spread out a little on the ground. The last time I grew them they climbed a 6 foot 2 meter pole without any trouble. There are a few green pods on these plants and I already harvested 3 beans. I will porbably get a little more back than I planted.

View attachment 78076Blue Spitball - Pole - Really !

Another thing I did today was severed the vines of Schneebohne from it's roots. The plants went through a big transformation in the last week. Leaves were green and so were the pods and swollen with seed. Today the leaves look like there were yellowing most all the pods were splashed in red and becoming softer. I even found a couple of dry pods. The plants are just loaded like I'm not sure I've ever seen bean plants loaded with pods before. The exact opposite of what Blue Spitball had done this summer. I trimed off most of the leaves on the sunnyside of the plants. What a great variety. Thank you @heirloomgal for sending this great bean to me. I just love it. I never took any photos of Schneebohne at it's peak. Maybe I will take a photo of it's pods tomorrow. We've had 80 F+ 26+ C for about the last week. Yesterday it hit 90 F, 32 C for a little while here.

I'm so happy Schneebohne did so well for you @Blue-Jay! Kinda makes me feel all giddy that my bean hero likes a bean I sent him! lol

It's funny, when I grew Blue Spitball last year it grew exactly like your plants in the photo, they didn't even climb up. ]They just sort of sprawled. I wanted to regrow it this summer, but it got lost in the shuffle this year. I will for sure replant it in 2026. In 2024 some of my beans looked as though they has suffered some kind of herbicide drift, like the network bean Lambada. It did not do well and I didn't have enough seed to send back; but I replanted the seeds this year and the vines were luxurious, deep green and glorious. Outstanding production. Beans are not an easy species to understand, seems like they are affected by mystery influences. I hope when I regrow Blue Spitball it does better.

 

[Artorius]

Today I decided to take a photo of my Blue Spitball plants. Just to show what some of my bean plants had done this summer. I think these plants are about 3 inches tall and spread out a little on the ground. The last time I grew them they climbed a 6 foot 2 meter pole without any trouble. There are a few green pods on these plants and I already harvested 3 beans. I will porbably get a little more back than I planted.

My network bean Nyautenibe Nchenachena looks similar. I've been growing it for three years now and it's been a failure again. In February, I sowed the last seed from the sample I received from @Blue-Jay into a pot. A beautiful, strong plant grew and gave me a dozen or so nice pods. I sowed fresh seeds in the garden, and again the plants were stunted and flowerless. What is this about? Maybe it's something with the soil? Anyway, I still have some seeds so I will try again next year.

 

[Oxford]

The weather has been a real rollercoaster this year. And after last year, this is the second year in a row.

The initially hot and dry weather in June stopped the flowering, and the subsequent almost four weeks of wet and cold weather in July and August interrupted the entire development, so that the beans are now about five weeks behind schedule. As a result, I still have no seeds from 12 late varieties. The pods are green and nice and full, but they are not yet showing any signs of ripening.

Two weeks ago, some of the medium-late varieties were just turning color when it started to rain for 10 days. Some pods rotted straight away, while in others seeds began to germinate in the pod! I checked them daily, harvested what I could, and dried them indoors. Nevertheless, I lost many seeds. This week, we will have two nights with temperatures down to 4 C (39 F) degrees, but during the day it will still be around 15 C (59 F) degrees. Unfortunately, we also have a lot of fog, so it remains very humid. I continue to check daily and bring what I can inside to dry. I hope that I will still be able to get some seeds from the 12 varieties.

Bringing some color into this gloomy outlook:

 

[heirloomgal]

The weather has been a real rollercoaster this year. And after last year, this is the second year in a row.

The initially hot and dry weather in June stopped the flowering, and the subsequent almost four weeks of wet and cold weather in July and August interrupted the entire development, so that the beans are now about five weeks behind schedule. As a result, I still have no seeds from 12 late varieties. The pods are green and nice and full, but they are not yet showing any signs of ripening.

Two weeks ago, some of the medium-late varieties were just turning color when it started to rain for 10 days. Some pods rotted straight away, while in others seeds began to germinate in the pod! I checked them daily, harvested what I could, and dried them indoors. Nevertheless, I lost many seeds. This week, we will have two nights with temperatures down to 4 C (39 F) degrees, but during the day it will still be around 15 C (59 F) degrees. Unfortunately, we also have a lot of fog, so it remains very humid. I continue to check daily and bring what I can inside to dry. I hope that I will still be able to get some seeds from the 12 varieties.

Bringing some color into this gloomy outlook:
View attachment 78093 View attachment 78094
View attachment 78095 View attachment 78096

All beautiful @Oxford, and that one bottom right is stunning.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Bringing some color into this gloomy outlook:

Nona Agnes, Grand-Mere and Grah Rovicak are just gorgeous and my three favorites of your post. Yes weather definitely makes growing great quality dry beans a big challenge.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Took a photo of both Schneebohne poles today. I was impressed.

 

[heirloomgal]

Took a photo of both Schneebohne poles today. I was impressed.

View attachment 78097View attachment 78098

Wow! That's incredible @Blue-Jay! I looked at my Schneebohne seed compartment, and it's @Artorius that I got that bean from originally! We really have our own little bean universe here!

 

[flowerbug]

sprawl is one habit of beans for sure as i have seen it here too. no wrapping around anything to climb, just there...