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

(Photo Top Left) Is a pole snap bean that has been around for over a 120 years called "Tennessee Wonder" (Phot Top Right) Is the outcrossed seed I harvest from that grow out this year. (Photo Bottom Left) Is a productive pink eyed soldier looking bean that grows as a bush called "Tobacco Patch". (Photo Bottom Right) Is the odd looking Pinto seed I got from "Tobacco Patch" this year.



"Tennessee Wonder"..............................................Tennessee Wonder Outcross"



"Tobacco Patch"........................................................Tobacco Patch Outcross"

Interesting. The TW outcross looks nearly identical to the Bosnian Pole outcross I had last summer.

I suppose that seed coat colors and patterns can repeat when the right genes combine.

I will grow a couple of these dark beans just to see what they produce.

Another one of the bush snap beans I grew this season of 2016 was (Photo Top Left) "Tenderpod". The W. Altee Burpee company released this bean back in 1941. It had also become an All American Selections Winner. (Photo Top Right) Is a pole bean that is native American called "Tonawanda Variant". (Photo Bottom Left) Is a pretty pole bean I got from Joseph Simcox "The Botanical Explorer" called "Trebulino di Domenico". (Photo Bottom Right) Another pole bean I got from Guy Dirix, in Belgium.


"Tenderpod"............................................................."Tonawanda Variant"



"Trebulino di Domenico".............................................."Tuvagliedda"

(Photo Top Left) Is an old heirloom pole bean called "Turkey Craw". (Photo Top Right) Is an outcross I found among "Turkey Craw" this 2016 season. (Photo Bottom Left) Is a native American bean called "Vermont Mohawk". The bean will climb on poles. (Photo Bottom RIght) Is another pole variety that is very productive called "Volga German Siberian".. The Bean originates from German Mennonites who were brought to the Volga River region of Russia by Katharina the Great. I got the variety from Soren Holt of the Danish Seed Savers.



"Turkey Craw"............................................................"Turkey Craw Outcross"



"Vermont Mohawk"......................................................"Volga German Siberian"

Well we all had fun with the outcrossed beans this year. I had tried to grow 22 of them last year. Three of them would not germinate. Forme SSE member Will Bonsall of Maine sent me 50 packets of these outcrossed beans in 2015. Each packet was marked for the variety Will said he had harvested the off type seeds from. Some of the seed was very old, and some of those seeds ability to grow being very old amazed me. Well of course all the ones that are going to grow have been tried and we have renewed seeds from all of them. I numbered the packets with the formula of (WB) for Will Bonsall (PKT) for packet and then a hash mark and number for the number of the packet. Last year I tried packets WB-PKT #1 - WB-PKT #22. The first three didn't germinate. This year I tried regrowing 6 of the ones I grew in 2015

WB-PKT #14 (Photo Left) gave me back the same seed last year and this year the same seed again along with a different one (Photo Right) Will had this packet marked "Early Stearns" bush bean. I've seen seeds of Early Stearns before and Will's off type seed looked somewhat similar but the eye patch was a bit different.

"WB-PKT #14"..............................................."WB-PKT #14" segregation


WB-PKT #16 and WB-PKT #22 (Photo Left) which I have named the bean "Pecatonica" were marked that the off type seed came from a variety called "Andrew Kent" bush bean. I Iooked up the bean on the SSE seed exchange and "Andrew Kent" seeds are described as buff with red streaksl Just like the photo on the right. Both grow out results were the same in 2015 and the regrow this year was the same again. (Photo RIght) was what I got out of both of these beans in 2016. A horticultural seed with a light base color. This is probably what "Andrew Kent" seeds look like.


"WB-PKT #16 and WB-PKT #22" (Pecatonica).........WB-PKT #16 and WB-PKT #22 segregation



(Photo Left) is WB-PKT #17. Will's packet was marked "Ternser Kidney" or possible "Montcalm" bush bean. The original seed was small light tan and when I grew them out I got a climbing bean mostly light tan seed with some bluish looking ones (Photo Right). The same results again this year. I would like to try to select the blue ones. Seems everyone is after a blue bean. Joseph Simcox on his "Rare Vegetable Seed Consortium" website has one. Seakangaroo in California is even further along with a real beautiful shade of blue with her bean.


"WB-PKT #17"....................................................................."WB-PKT #17"


(Photo Left) is packet WB-PKT #18 which I have named "Sebastian". Will had this packet market rogues from "Early Stearns" (bush bean). I don't remember what the original seed looked like as I didn't take photos of those original seeds. The results of this years grow out is the same for the left photo and the (Photo Right) I got a similar looking seed back with one that was a bit lighter and grew as a (semi runner)


"WB-PKT #18" ( Sebastian )........................................."WB-PKT #18" segregation

(Photo Left) is WB-PKT #21. I got this same grow out result last year along with two different segregations in 2015. This year PKT #21 gave me back the same seed along with two other segregations than last years. (Photo Right) and (Photo Next Row Left).................(Photo Right) is the round back seed marked WB-PKT #24. Will had this packet marked rogues from "Andy's Romano" pole bean. All the beans grew this year as a bush without runners with tall plants and gave me back the same seed.



''WB-PKT #21".............................................................."WB-PKT #21" segregation



"WB-PKT #21" segregation................................................."WB-PKT #24"


(Photo Left) is WB-PKT #44. Will had this packet marked "Redlands Greenleaf" which is a pole bean from Australia which has solid reddish brown seeds. The seed in this left photo gave me back some of the same seed and (Photo Right) this light tan seeded segregation with brown striping.


"WB-PKT #44"........................................................"WB-PKT #44" segregation

After growing 27, 32, 38, and 39 from the WB seeds this past year and getting 24 different beans I'm amazed at how much consistency you got. The 32's and 39's had pretty poor germination too so I hate to think about what was lost there, but I'll concentrate on what was saved. As you saw when I sent them to you, there were some beautiful beans.

@Ridgerunner, You got some great beans as I think everyone did. Perhaps you didn't loose anything in packets 32 and 39. There still a lot of seed left of packet 32. do you want me to send you the rest of it and you can try growing it out next year. The seed was marked from '05. Packet 39 is empty. I must have sent it all to you.

In future years I will grow out those other WB packets that I grew in 2015 and then you can decide if I got amazing consistency.

No thanks Russ, I have no more room. I'm planning on growing out 5 of the segregations I got this year, several of each, plus I kept some 38's to grow. I did send you back my excess 27's, hoping someone else would grow those. Some of the 27's were stringless and fairly productive so I think they would be a good one to grow out. All my 27's were pole by the way, no bush, regardless of the bean they were originally harvested from. Your notes said they might be bush which leads me to believe there are a lot of segregations still left in those and the beans grown from them.

I also have a possible segregation from a bean I grew this year, I don't know if it is a true segregation or not. I was going to hold off until I grew it to see what happens, but I probably should tell you since it's your bean. I got some Bluejay from a source in Canada to check it out as my early bush green bean. I like it so I saved seeds for next year. A few of them, 8 or 9, were solid with no markings at all that I can find, even in good sunlight. I don't know if this is "natural variation" or maybe "growing conditions", the only way I know to tell is to grow them in various locations in the garden. I was hoping to surprise you with something I think you'll like since you obviously have an attachment to Bluejay, but I guess I'll let you in on my anticipation.

Just because we like pictures of beans I'll show the 5 segregations I plan to grow next year. There were other segregations it hurt to pass on.




Miss T



Raspberry Ripple



Jas



Karachaganak


Stinking Creek