2026 Little Easy Bean Network – Plant A Garden, Water Your Soul, Join Our Family

[flowerbug]

I’m charmed by how utterly massive and “antique” the 1000 year cave bean was in my garden last year, but I was only able to get a few seeds last year, and I ended up having to bring a section of the vine indoors to dry. My short season didn't give it much time to do its thing. If I could get a massive-leaved, similarly light green, productive and more quickly maturing shelling pole bean, I’d be happy as a clam. I have visions of this growing on my fruit trees, and being able to grow it on the same trellis with my similarly attractive runner beans without fear of cross pollination. And… as much as I hate to admit it, a beautifully colored seed and pretty flowers would be a huge plus.

i'm not much into pole beans, but years ago i grew "Adam's Family Six Weeks" from @Blue-Jay 's collection of network beans and it was the earliest pole bean.

unfortunately it did not get very big growing for me and the beans are pale/tan color and i think the flowers were white (or maybe pale yellow).

the fun with doing crosses is having your selected plants blooming at the same time (which can be a challenge right there) plus if you are able to do the crosses by hand (i'm not able to do them myself as i shake too much and can't see that well so i have to hope the bees will do the crosses i want for me and then i have to replant as many seeds as i can so the crosses show up the next season(s) and then i select from those what projects i want to continue). for sure it is much easier to do your own direct crosses (don't forget to mark the flowers/pods ) and to know what seeds might have the traits you're after for replanting.

 

[Heliena]

I’m imagining that you have quite a short season and that breeding for a short season trait might well be a priority? Do you find that there are quite a lot of pole varieties which dry their seeds too late for your season?

Thank you! In short, yes on both accounts. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about stretching the season, and if I hadn't lost 3 weeks to an unseasonably wet spring last year, the pods I got may have dried just fine. But... I recon that in southern states they'd get many more pods than I could. So priority? I think so. Its kind of hit or miss, I've had some perfectly abundant seasons with Cherokee Trail Of Tears as my go-to, but they have a days to maturity of 85 days, as opposed to 105. Even then though, I have had years when drying was an issue. our fall is typically very wet, so that doesn't help either. I also wonder if inherently, the cost of huge foliage is a longer grow time.

Have you ever tried transplants?

Yes! I had always been told that transplanting beans was a no-go, but this year I broke down and did it. Our spring was unreasonably wet. Nothing direct sown in May or early June came up. I noticed that one of our local organic farms did it, so I gave it a go and it was painless! I let them leaf out their first sets of leaves and then transplanted under row cover and they did great! I think I like it even more than when direct sowing goes right. I'll probably do a round of both this year and take notes.

i'm not much into pole beans, but years ago i grew "Adam's Family Six Weeks" from @Blue-Jay 's collection of network beans and it was the earliest pole bean.

the fun with doing crosses is having your selected plants blooming at the same time (which can be a challenge right there)

Thank you for your wisdom! I hadn't put much thought to bloom time. I should know better, I have fruit trees! I'll have to check out that network bean!

 

[Zeedman]

I’m charmed by how utterly massive and “antique” the 1000 year cave bean was in my garden last year, but I was only able to get a few seeds last year, and I ended up having to bring a section of the vine indoors to dry. My short season didn't give it much time to do its thing. If I could get a massive-leaved, similarly light green, productive and more quickly maturing shelling pole bean, I’d be happy as a clam. I have visions of this growing on my fruit trees, and being able to grow it on the same trellis with my similarly attractive runner beans without fear of cross pollination. And… as much as I hate to admit it, a beautifully colored seed and pretty flowers would be a huge plus.

Is your primary focus on snaps, shell beans, or both? It would help if I could narrow that down. I grow quite a few large-seeded pole shellies, some of which might mature in your area. The large-seeded shorter-season pole beans (many from the Northeast states) often have fibrous pods though.

Would you consider a pole wax bean? And if you love large shellies, would you absolutely rule out a short-season bush variety?