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

[flowerbug]

...How do I know which ones are safe to eat green (low enough in lecithin) does the "snap" name denote that? Do "bush" beans still need support?

i think you mean lectins?...

 

[flowerbug]

... Guy Dirix in Belgium has said he has done that and has hardly ever seen beans crossing.

I wonder if it may be that they don't have as many native bees that will cross beans in Europe but I don't know for sure if that is what is going on?

 

[Blue-Jay]

I wonder if it may be that they don't have as many native bees that will cross beans in Europe but I don't know for sure if that is what is going on?

I would imagine that Europe has many bees otherwise why Guy Dirix want to surround his beans with so many flowers. A few nights ago I was watching a documentary on plants and insects in England. England has 50 species of just Bumblebees not counting other bees they have.

 

[heirloomgal]

I checked for fun on this bee situation, as I've always wondered myself. Europe has between 2,00 - 2,500 kinds of bees and North America has 4,000 - 4,500.

A number of North America's bees are invasive imports; the honey bee, giant resin bee, wool carder bee and the horned face bee are all considered to have the greatest negative ecological impact, with honey bees in the number one spot surprisingly, because they spread pathogens, are ubiquitous and compete with native bees. But there are many other introduced species of bees, probably brought in for commercial pollination purposes.

I did some research on which bees are the most responsible for cross pollinating our beans - it's honeybees! In order of crossing influence it actually is the exact same order as the invasive list. The bumblebee is also able to force open the cleistogamous flowers of beans with buzz pollination so they are a problem for cross pollination too.

 

[Artorius]

I had both the white seed and the bluish seed you sent. I planted the Blue seed as Tres Hatif De Massey and the white seed and Fine de Villenuve. I'm just wondering If I switched the names. So when I sent the seed to William Woys Weaver and he saw that I had the bluish seed marked as Tres Hatif De Massey he was very confused. Actually the white seed did not grow for me. So when you send me seed in the autumn of this year are they going to be the same seed with the names reversed opposite of what I thought they were. That is all I'm trying to figure out. I might have the correct seed just maybe
I am using the wrong name on each one.

@Blue-Jay

The white seeds are Tres Hatif de Massy.

Massy, Très hâtif de M. – Belle Epoque Meise

The bluish seeds are Fin de Villeneuve

Fin de Villeneuve (1310) – Belle Epoque Meise

 

[Rillowen]

i think you mean lectins?...

Sorry! I need to pay closer attention. I had to stop typing that message 4 times for "emergencies" and apparently wrote the wrong word!

 

[Rillowen]

Russ's 2025 Big Bean Show Day 50​

In 2020 I discovered one off type plant in Victoria Brown Eyes that looked like Jacob's Cattle but with slightly narrower seed. In 2021 upon growing that off type I got all sorts of shades of colors with the Jacob's Cattle pattern. The one I would really like to stablize and multiply is the one with a pink base color with a red eye patch. The first photo is Victoria Brown Eyes for color comparison.

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The rest of the photos are all the different shades of color I have harvested from a grow out of all the various colors harvested in 2021. The very last photo is the one with the pink base color and red eye patch that I would love to see stablize. Then I would have to test it to see if it is a stringless snap bean like Victoria Brown Eyes.

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Wow, those are gorgeous! I think i like the first and second to last the best.

 

[Rillowen]

Russ's 2025 Big Bean Show Day 50​

Viola di Assiago - Pole Dry. (Photo Left) From a grower in Valpiano, Italy in 2019. By this writting my entire 2025 crop has been requested and shipped out. I have my saved seed to grow the 2026 crop. People just love this purple bean even more than they love Koronis Purple.

Vulkan - Pole Dry (Photo Right) From a grower in Drevhostic, Czech Republic in 2019. Productivity was not the best and not the worst. I will no doubt give it another try sometime as it is a very attractive looking bean.

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Woah, the dark brown swirls on the eye side and very nice!

 

[Rillowen]

@Rillowen In regards to crosses. I only plant my stringless bush snap beans only with other stringless bush snap beans. No pole beans in the mix and no dry beans of any sort in the mix. No semi runner beans in the mix. I do the same for stringless pole snap beans. No pole dry beans in the mix. No bush or semi runner beans of any sort. Pole dry beans are planted only with other pole dry beans. You can also grow a row of flowers on either side of a row of beans. Guy Dirix in Belgium has said he has done that and has hardly ever seen beans crossing.

Ok, thank you. I certainly wasn't planning on mixing rows, and had planned to have about 10ft and various other plants and flowers in between, but we do have a high pollinator population here, and even a few honey bee keepers nearby. If they were accidentally crossed I wouldnt know until I tried to grow them out right? I wouldnt want to take the pure seeds and pollute the efforts of all you fine gents.

 

[oxbow farm]

I did some research on which bees are the most responsible for cross pollinating our beans - it's honeybees! In order of crossing influence it actually is the exact same order as the invasive list. The bumblebee is also able to force open the cleistogamous flowers of beans with buzz pollination so they are a problem for cross pollination too.

Heirloomgal can you give me a link to where you found that? Because I have never once seen a honeybee on a bean flower. I see bumbles on my peas and runnerbeans all the time, but the only bees I've ever seen working common bean are the little tiny ones (sweat bee types) that I don't know the name of. I get beans crossing at my place, and we do have feral honeybees in the woods, but most of the pollination done here is wild bees as far as I can tell.

I found this paper about a study in Brazil, they list a lot of pollinators that were seen, but the only one that actually tripped flowers effectively in common bean was a species of carpenter bee (Xylocopa sp.)