2016 Little Easy Bean Network - Gardeners Keeping Heirloom Beans From Extinction

Tricia77 said:

I found another dry pod on another #34 vine last night! The immature pods are green with a little splashing. The mature pods are flamingo pink!

Untitled by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr

Untitled by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr

Untitled by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr

Untitled by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr

Untitled by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr
Comparison picture of the two beans I have so far from #34.

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Those are a gorgeous color, Tricia! How exciting.

Tricia77 said:

I found another dry pod on another #34 vine last night! The immature pods are green with a little splashing. The mature pods are flamingo pink!

Untitled by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr

Untitled by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr

Untitled by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr

Untitled by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr

Untitled by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr
Comparison picture of the two beans I have so far from #34.

Click to expand...

Similar patterns but different colors. Very nice. I predict you are in for many more surprises. I have a few pods that turn that color as they dry too, but mine were different, they had some yellow mixed in, some of them a lot of yellow. Some of the pods can be strikingly pretty as they dry. Too bad those colors don't last.

I generally let the pods dry out totally until they are crinkly unless I'm concerned about wet. if the pods get wet the beans can sprout in the pod. Also I've been getting a lot of brown spots on my wet ones, I believe it's rot. The brown areas are usually kind of mushy. I don't think those will grow. Any pods touching the ground are at risk. Those I try to get early even if the weather is dry. Heavy dew may be enough to cause problems with them or maybe they just absorb moisture from the ground or mulch.

Don't be surprised if those seeds darken a little as they dry. They will probably shrink a little in size too. But those are good seed, they will grow.

Doesn't it feel good to actually see what you are getting? And pretty exciting.

The beans in the picture were harvested from a completely dried pod, not from the flamingo pink pods. I was surprised when I opened it to see these beautiful brown beans! This is a lot of fun growing these mystery beans, it reminds me of a grab bag! You don't know what you are going to get until you open it!

Bean update, 8/4/16.

Milk & Cider is going bonkers. No blooms yet, but will be soon. Both of these teepees are same, so I will have lots of these for eating.


Upside down for some reason! This is #49. Would appear that it is a bush bean after all. The leaves look funny. Maybe it needs fertilized?


This is #48, also a bush bean it seems. It has a pretty pink bloom and is just setting pods now.



#47, which is clearly at least 2 different beans now. The two vines to the left are blooming profusely, white blossoms. The two vines to the right have not begun to bloom yet. These have a dark red vine, so I can tell them apart anyway.


(Blooms on #47-A)


(Vines of #47-B)


Aunt Jean's is blooming now.


This one specimen of Aunt Jean's looks horrible. Any thoughts on this? Would root damage from pulling weeds have done this? No other beans affected at this point, just this one.

Continued...

Two teepees of each of these 3, so expecting plenty.

In the foreground, this is Monachelle di Morcia, just starting to bloom. Blossoms are white.


And Rote Kepflerbohne, also just started blooming, pink.



And lastly, Solwezi #2. Not very far up the pole, short runners, about to start blooming.


(Editted for correction.)

journey11 said:

Bean update, 8/4/16.
This one specimen of Aunt Jean's looks horrible. Any thoughts on this? Would root damage from pulling weeds have done this? No other beans affected at this point, just this one.
View attachment 15421

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I'd be concerned about a bean mosaic virus on that one, but welcome other opinions. Particularly if you have other plants of the same variety, I would remove that entire plant from your garden ASAP (plastic bag -> trash). No need to take chances with your other beautiful plants. Glad everything else is doing well, @journey11 , and that you are having a great season!

@journey11, Nice photos. The Milk And Cider look just lovely and vigorous.

The way you can tell mosaic in your beans is the leaves will no longer have that nice valentine shape. I had it on some bush beans one year. The leaves will become elongated and blistered looking on top that faces the sun. They may even take on a cuped shape too. If you determine you have mosaic you don't want the refuse of those plants affected to be turned back into your soil. The virus overwinters in the soil and can be taken up by beans the next season or tomatoes or whatever plants can be affected by mosaic. You want to remove all the vines and leaves of the affected plants from your garden. Don't save seed that the affected plants might produce if any.

My bush bean plants that had the virus died and turned almost a black/brown. My mosiac infected bush plants never lived long enough to produce seed.

My Solwezi #2 plants produced pale yellow flowers. Is this variety stable or still segregating?

I believe the Solwezi varieties are stable.

Bluejay77 said:

@the1honeycomb, What did you grow this year? Did you have health problems and couldn't do weeding?

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In and out of hospital only thing that grew was carrots I paid a man to come weed but he saw a copperhead and quit. I can't go out in the heat I talked to the people at the farmers market they are giving me great prices and I've rented a room to a young girl who wants to learn to can and store but she doesnt garden hopefully it will work out but not sure I'll be doing any planting next year.