2015 Little Easy Bean Network - Old Beans Should Never Die !

[Blue-Jay]

Hi @flowerweaver,

Yeah I think that's the photo I saw. I think @aftermidnight will eventually be able help me locate the purple seeded runner bean. Like I said I'm really after the Runner beans for a Native Seneca friend I have run into on FB about two years ago, but I must admit I'm probably going to grow these Runner beans too. They do very well here. I've grown Runner beans before back in the early 1980's.

 

[journey11]

@Bluejay77

Pods are beginning to dry on both of my grow-outs now. I'll be sending you seed here in a couple weeks.

Aussie Purple King
52 days to snap bean
~74 days to dry pods (probably just a couple days sooner, but the pods don't change color when they dry, so I didn't notice them until I touched them.)

Climbed well past the 7' poles they were on. Dark purple vines, dark green foliage, pretty violet colored blooms. Dark purple pods are about 7-8" in length and do have strings. Pods are thin walled and not very succulent, but could be used as a snap bean if picked young enough. Two of three plants made very dark purple pods. One plant threw pale green pods with a purple blush, otherwise consistent with the traits of the other two. I'll keep those seeds separate. Vines were mostly linear, not a very full foliage on this plant. Two Australian seed sources online cite them as being long producers; but for me, as soon as the heavy rains stopped and the heat ramped up they pretty much quit after bearing one big crop. I did not pick any since I needed them to go to seed, but maybe that would have encouraged more production.

 

[journey11]

@Bluejay77

Lazy Housewife
49 days to snap bean
74 days to first dry pods

A vigorous climber exceeding my 7' poles by 3 or 4 feet, very bushy and full foliage on the plants which bear prolific and steady yields. They're still going right now, despite a couple of weeks with no rain and temps in the 90's. 8-9" long pods are big and thick, very flavorful and stringless as expected. (This is not in anyway similar to the Lazy Wife greasy bean Bill Best has, for anyone wondering, but an impressive bean nonetheless.) Blooms are pale and cream colored, pods set on in groups of 6-10 beans per branch.

(I've got some bean beetles to find and squish, as you can see in the pics. )

 

[journey11]

@marshallsmyth , those Long Tom beans are something else! They sure like to reach out and touch their neighbor. I think if I'd given them a 15' pole, they would have topped it. They spent a lot of time growing fat and bushy and are just now starting to bear (as all of my other beans have pretty much puttered out.) Lots of long runs with many blooms on them too. I'm really excited to see how they do and how they taste. Thanks for the trade.

 

[Hal]

@Bluejay77

Pods are beginning to dry on both of my grow-outs now. I'll be sending you seed here in a couple weeks.

Aussie Purple King
52 days to snap bean
~74 days to dry pods (probably just a couple days sooner, but the pods don't change color when they dry, so I didn't notice them until I touched them.)

Climbed well past the 7' poles they were on. Dark purple vines, dark green foliage, pretty violet colored blooms. Dark purple pods are about 7-8" in length and do have strings. Pods are thin walled and not very succulent, but could be used as a snap bean if picked young enough. Two of three plants made very dark purple pods. One plant threw pale green pods with a purple blush, otherwise consistent with the traits of the other two. I'll keep those seeds separate. Vines were mostly linear, not a very full foliage on this plant. Two Australian seed sources online cite them as being long producers; but for me, as soon as the heavy rains stopped and the heat ramped up they pretty much quit after bearing one big crop. I did not pick any since I needed them to go to seed, but maybe that would have encouraged more production.

View attachment 9218

@journey11 'Purple King' is quite good here in summer when others struggle, we also have another known as 'Anderson's Purple King' but it has much smaller seeds and is not available anymore but I'm working in getting it into circulation. @Bluejay77 will recognize the name because it is from the same seed company that sold 'Anderson's Wonder'
Production is quite long but you need to keep picking, when grown for a seed crop I have also noticed that it just produces one flush and fades but that is because leaving the pods on tells the plant via chemical processes that it has completed the goal of reproduction and it winds down.

 

[journey11]

Thanks for confirming that for me, @Hal . I had such a small sample to work with, so I took no chances, but I'll look forward to eating some next year.

 

[Hal]

@journey11 What was the seed return like?

 

[journey11]

@journey11 What was the seed return like?

The pods are still drying on the vine, but there are quite a lot.

 

[Hal]

The pods are still drying on the vine, but there are quite a lot.

Did you grow any of Molley's Zebra this year?

 

[journey11]

Did you grow any of Molley's Zebra this year?

Unfortunately, no. It was a pretty sad garden for me this year. I didn't get to grow as many beans as I had planned. The incessant rains in June and July kept me out of the big garden for the most part, so I focused on those beans I was most desperate to increase, as many as I could squeeze into my raised bed. I haven't any beans to can for winter eating. Really bummed.