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

[journey11]

I noticed a lot of beans I grew this year that had white speckles lost them in my garden this year or were extremely decreased.

This happened to me too, and I would love to know what causes it. I've grown Appaloosa 3 times and have never gotten any white speckles. Giant Red Tarka as well. I believe Rote Kepflerbohne was supposed to come out with some white as well, but mine didn't. I couldn't find it on the network page. I have a photo I took of the original seed...somewhere. ETA: found it, page 4...nope, it is solid red.

@Ridgerunner , I love your idea for a drying rack; a very practical solution that only an engineer would think of.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Tricia, the names you came up with are great. Bubblegum fits the pink poded bean so well, and it's beautiful too. The shading is just like bubblegum. So you did it... you came up with four names for these beans. WIth the names you gave them and the experience you had growing them. You have a personal connection to them forever. Someday you might stumble across a website and see a bright pink poded bean that someone says is so beautiful and how much they love growing it. You'll say Hey ! that's my bean.
You will get a new kind of satisfaction knowing you added something to the world of beans.

I think I can see what you see in the blue beans Blue Heron. Definitely can see the difference from the Caramel Delight.

So I will add the name tags to the packets you sent.

 

[aftermidnight]

@Ridgerunner , love your drying rack, I have been drying mine in wicker baskets.
@Bluejay77 , getting ready to send your package back, just waiting to hear back from Dan Jason about a bean I bought from him but it looks like he's taken it off his list...
JACK IN THE BEANSTOCK, hang on I did write the info down when I bought this seed, this getting old ain't for sissies LOL. This particular bean was brought to Salt Spring Island in the 30's. Grows to 16ft. Excellent green eating bean 6" long. Large tan beans with chocolate swirls, excellent flavor as cooked dry bean. I haven't grown these yet but will send you a sample from my packet.... Just heard back from Dan here's what he said....

"I took Jack in the Beanstock off the site when I ran out of seeds. Now I
have this year's harvest drying in the greenhouse, so I should be listing
it again in a few days. It's worthy of its name: my vines kept going to
about 14 feet this year. It's very popular in the backyards of Vancouver.
It has a beautiful swirl on its cream background and is one of the most
delicious dry beans I've tasted. I gave it the name because I've never
heard a name for it."

This is what I'll be sending back...
GEORGE MURPHY'S WAX from Salt Spring for you
UGANDAN BANTU BEANS from Salt Spring for you
WITSA (will be split into into two packets as the packets can't have more than 50 seeds in them)
BIRD EGG #3
LAZY WIFE (the original)
JACK IN THE BEANSTOCK
WHITE SEEDED CHEROKEE TRAIL OF TEARS
AERON PURPLE STAR (runner)
BARKSDALE (a favorite wax pole) family heirloom from George M. (Macmex) on GW.

and... the seed I managed to get from #45, this is the only one I had trouble with but managed a few seeds, most turned out to be wax beans and either bush or twining bush, only two pole beans. I did manage to get a few seeds out of one of the pole beans but the other, still growing, producing pods, but not a single seed so far out of about 200 pods.
I'm going to send what I have back, maybe someone else can grow them next year that has room for bush beans unfortunately I don't. If the plants in the greenhouse manage to produce anything I'll send them along next year, so far they are looking good, flowering but no beans yet, So whoever grows the #45's I'm sending back shouldn't have a problem with growing them. My observations so far...they would probably be better used as a dry bean. Although not many seeds I'll give the one pole bean that did produce a few seeds the name CHASE RIVER, the rest (bush or twining bush) will be in the same packet as they're not that many, someone else with more room can grow these out and name them for you.

Russ I'll give you a heads up when your package has been mailed.

Annette

 

[Ridgerunner]

but the other, still growing, producing pods, but not a single seed so far out of about 200 pods.


Annette

Sounds familiar. In got beans out of everything I grew except one of the 39's. I called it 39 C for paperwork purposes. I only had 5 seeds, a big bulky sort of square dark brown. Only one seed grew but it produced a nice pole vine. It's the only one I still have alive. It took it forever to bloom, then forever to start making pods. It's made about 20 pods but as of yet, no seeds. I'll keep it alive as long as I can, a gardener has to be an optimist, but I really don't expect anything from it.

 

[aftermidnight]

After giving this some thought @Ridgerunner , @Bluejay77, could this particular bean you are growing and the one I am possibly have a terminator gene in them? I've never come across this before. Scary thought.

Annette

 

[Pulsegleaner]

@Pulsegleaner Here is the Ugandan Bantu that Tricia sent. If the the camera made the color true to how they actually are.

Yeah, mine are sort of like the purple ones in that. Bantu basically looks like Fort Portal Jade, except for the seed color.

I'm might suggest actually separating the black ones from the others, as they seem to be WAY different from the others (compare the shapes). They also seem to be missing the eye around the hilum (though admittedly with the seed being black that could be hard to tell) Assuming this Bantu is ultimately the same as the one Ricter's had it was always described as a mixture of beans collected by Joe Sincox, rather than a discrete variety, so it entirely possible that there is more than one actual strain in there which will normally remain separate.

While I didn't get it to grow, my original packet did have one other color that might show up down the road; a sort of mustard yellow (kind of like a Ugandan version of a canario bean) that was a bit flatter.

I suppose that, since Bantu and Fort Portal Jade seem to be pretty closely related, any off color that FPJ has could show up in Bantu. The only off color I ever got to grow was the same purple as the Bantu (which is why I can't tell which is which in my seed) but there was one that was a steel blue as well, so that could be lurking in the Bantu genome too.

 

[Tricia77]

My original Bantu seeds were given to me by a woman in Canada. The black bean in the mix was originally maroon with white speckles. I posted a picture of the original seeds back further in this thread.

 

[Tricia77]

I almost forgot that I got a really pretty purple outcross from one of the Bantu vines. I will post a picture tomorrow when I can use a PC. I haven't figure out how to load pictures from Flickr onto this site using my iPhone.

 

[aftermidnight]

@Bluejay77 here's a picture of the Ugandan Bantu Beans I'm sending from Salt Spring Seeds, there's more than 50 so will divide into two pkts. There's a few speckled ones along with the other colors.

Second picture taken with a flash.

Annette

 

[Tricia77]

They look like what I got in the trade from Canada, maybe they are from the same source.