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

[SunflowerGuy]

Blueberry Patchwork bean

 

[flowerbug]

Blueberry Patchwork bean

welcome aboard.

i'm guessing those beans are not fully dried yet and will get darker with age?

 

[SunflowerGuy]

welcome aboard.

i'm guessing those beans are not fully dried yet and will get darker with age?

 

[SusanneinHastings]

Russ, do you want me to send you back the 52 Andikove I got, or try for more next year? I have plenty of Frost beans to send back, although I think I would like them to dry out a bit more.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ, do you want me to send you back the 52 Andikove I got, or try for more next year? I have plenty of Frost beans to send back, although I think I would like them to dry out a bit more.

Try to grow them again next year. Now you have more beans to work with.

 

[oxbow farm]

Wondering about bush dry beans that might show some resistance or tolerance to white mold (Sclerotinia). I really have a problem many years in my bush beans with white mold taking off during prolonged wet periods, which we get at least every other year. I'd like a high yield dry bean that I could feel more confident about. It can be amazing how fast the mold spreads in just a couple of wet days, and its usually after there are lots of pods set on and the plants start to flop together from the weight, which allows the fungus to run along from plant to plant in huge patches.

 

[flowerbug]

Wondering about bush dry beans that might show some resistance or tolerance to white mold (Sclerotinia). I really have a problem many years in my bush beans with white mold taking off during prolonged wet periods, which we get at least every other year. I'd like a high yield dry bean that I could feel more confident about. It can be amazing how fast the mold spreads in just a couple of wet days, and its usually after there are lots of pods set on and the plants start to flop together from the weight, which allows the fungus to run along from plant to plant in huge patches.

there are certain beans here that are more troubled by it than others. my advice is to pick the dry bean pods as soon as they are ready and not leave them through wet spells.

another approach is to only plant beans with close to the same maturity time in the same area so that you don't have any dry materials being overgrown by other plants.

when i've noticed white mold starting up i can often head it off by removing the affected plants (but it starts on dead material that is touching the ground - so picking up any dead materials can help prevent it from getting an easy start) and opening up the area to more air flow and sunshine. so in general leave more room between rows and plants.

i've learned by many years of growing beans that do have some white mold succeptibility that the above does take care of most of the problem, but it still pops up here or there (mainly because i really like interplanting some beans to encourage more crosses - so it is really a trade-off).

 

[Blue-Jay]

Wondering about bush dry beans that might show some resistance or tolerance to white mold (Sclerotinia). I really have a problem many years in my bush beans with white mold taking off during prolonged wet periods, which we get at least every other year. I'd like a high yield dry bean that I could feel more confident about. It can be amazing how fast the mold spreads in just a couple of wet days, and its usually after there are lots of pods set on and the plants start to flop together from the weight, which allows the fungus to run along from plant to plant in huge patches.

I wonder if it would help to plant your bush beans farther apart maybe even 12 inches. More air space to allow for drying of foliage.

 

[heirloomgal]

I have had problems with it too in bush beans, and also in pole beans at times @oxbow farm. Impossible to control on the poles, but with the bushes you could pull them and dry the pods up hanging instead. Can be a very impractical option if your growing a lot of plants, but even if you pick out every second plant it might help. And as @Blue-Jay mentioned wide spacing really helps too. I think it's a species with fairly arid origins, so doesn't cope well with lots of moisture & humidity sadly.

 

[P Suckling]

i first saw those happen in some Cranberry beans, it's commonly called reversing or a reversal, but the geneticists probably have a different name for it. it's when the background color switches with the foreground. i've seen it several times since and sometimes it is the whole pod that switches and other times it is half the pod (alternating).

i think it is also one of the few examples of where the genetics of the pollen have some effect on the seeds that develop.

I believe it is called 'inverse' but reversal is perfectly understandable and it is caused by the way the bean seedcoat is formed, which is in layers. A seedsaving friend asked OSU years ago on my behalf, when I first discovered this with a cranberry type of bean. If the seedcoat starts to develop with the 'wrong' colouring, then there are then only one (or two) other colours available to form the rest of the seed coat. It develops in layers apparently. When conditions are not favourable, there is a slight increase in this happening. And of course inversed beans will grow into normally coloured beans again (with only a small percentage inversed). Pods with both types of seeds are rarer, but do happen, just like yours.

A blurry photo (sorry) of Gramma Walters is attached, which shows one normal seed (bottom right), 4 fully inverted, one half inverted and one partially inverted seed, ie where only a part of the seedcoat is inverted. Full inversion is the most common form, but with some beans partial inversions are possible.