2017 Little Easy Bean Network – Everything Beans, Post It Here & Join The Fun

[baymule]

I'm sure it was rabbits.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm amazed that something actually ate an okra plant. I just did not expect that at all.

Bay, I'll still question if you are sure it was rabbits. Why are you so sure? Rabbits will eat bean plants but when I've had that problem with rabbits it was as the beans were still quite young, right after they sprouted. They bit them off, stem and all. I have had groundhogs eat the leaves off of beans and not touch the stems. That was pole beans and they actually produced fairly well up high. And going back to the okra, how tall was that okra? How does a rabbit physically eat an okra plant that was ready to bloom to a stump?

 

[Zeedman]

My own bean list finally came together; a very late dry-out has kept me guessing until now, since I was unable to turn over the ground on my main plot. Fortunately, we dodged a few storms in the last week, and it dried out enough for me to get nearly everything in... just in time for me to take advantage of a few planned days off from work.

Beans
Atlas (bush)
Bird Egg #3 (pole)
Clem & Sarah's Big Bean (bush)
Dolloff (pole)
Fortex (pole)
King Horticultural (pole)
Maradan Hill (pole wax)
Tarbais (pole)
True Red Cranberry (pole)
Uzice (bush)
Uzice Speckled Wax (pole)
Woods Mountain Crazy Bean (bush)

Limas
Berrier's #2 (pole)
Sieva (pole)

Runner Beans
Sunset
Tarahumara Tekomari

Cowpeas & Yard Longs
3-Feet-Plus (yard long)
Bush Sitao BS-3 (cowpea)
Chinese Red Noodle (yard long)
MN 157 (cowpea)
Washday Peas (cowpea)
Zipper Cream (cowpea)

Peas
Dunn (soup)
Nadja (soup)
Rimpaus Green Victoria (soup)
Sugar Lace II (snap)

22 soybean cultivars (6 edamame, the rest processing types)

A series of big storms passing through as I write this, with 2-3" falling today, and more to come this week. This happened about the same time last year (just after I finished planting) and caused about 1/2 of the seed to rot in the ground. Backup bean transplants saved the bean crop last year; I started transplants for most of my beans again this year, when I saw the precipitation forecast. Soybeans are potentially the biggest losers, I just don't have room for that many transplants.

 

[baymule]

I'm amazed that something actually ate an okra plant. I just did not expect that at all.

Bay, I'll still question if you are sure it was rabbits. Why are you so sure? Rabbits will eat bean plants but when I've had that problem with rabbits it was as the beans were still quite young, right after they sprouted. They bit them off, stem and all. I have had groundhogs eat the leaves off of beans and not touch the stems. That was pole beans and they actually produced fairly well up high. And going back to the okra, how tall was that okra? How does a rabbit physically eat an okra plant that was ready to bloom to a stump?

The okra had not gotten very tall. We had lots of very cool nights and it stunted the growth. We have had a population explosion of rabbits around here. The dogs chase them all the time, but they pop through the 2x4" wire fence where the dogs can't go. I have a trellis 32' long covered with butterbean vines and the rabbits haven't touched them, go figure.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi @aftermidnight,

I was out watering all day today. Our overly wet spring suddenly turned on us and no rain for about 2 1/2 weeks with a sun that is hot as a blow torch. Then later this evening I check into the thread and see the photo of this lovely looking bean. Wow Nice !

Sounds like from your description that it is a green podded snap bean with a dual purpose of dry bean as well. How long have you been growing this bean? I've seen beans in the book "Beans Of New York" published in 1931 that have colors and pattern like this, but they seem to be mostly the old wax varieties. This is definitely "Not" Jacob's Cattle. The patch around the eye is also mottled and mixed with a tan coloration. Jacob's Cattle is dark red and it's red color is not mottled or mixed with another color, where this bean is also more purple to me. I will have to do some reading through descriptions in "Beans Of New York" and see if I can find anything that matches this.

Where did you come by this bean and did your source give you any sort of history on it? Any indication of where in the world it originated or how long it might have been around?

 

[aftermidnight]

@Bluejay77 , not a bean I'm growing, Shirley Bellows contacted me to see if I might be able to identify it. Someone had contacted her to see if she could identify it. I gave them one possibility "Littlefield's Special" a rare bean which is still sold in Canada by two different companies. Not growing many bush beans, I have never seen it in person but found this one by looking on the internet. A photo from The Cottage Gardener... The description is from the person trying to identify it. There are so many beans that lookalike this may or may not be it.

Annette

 

[Blue-Jay]

@aftermidnight,

The photo you put up this time does look like Littlefield's Special. I have never seen Littlefield's Special Grow to knee high. For me LS grows to about 18 to 20 inches. This one is only two colors in the seed.

The photo you put up yesterday the seed shape is different than these and there is a third color in the eye patch. Two different beans.

I'll try to check Beans Of New York descriptions and see if anything matches.

I wonder where Cottage Gardener obtained the bean. Perhaps they should just name it.

 

[aftermidnight]

Russ Heritage Harvest Seed is selling it too but neither of these outfits say where Littlefield's Special originated, only that it's rare. I don't think Shirley was given any seed, just the pictures. The search goes on.....

Annette

 

[Blue-Jay]

@aftermidnight,

I will say this again. I don't know if you are aware of this, but the Littlefield's special photo you put up today is not the same bean as shown in your photo yesterday. Subtle differences in color and seed shape and pattern.

Back in the 1980's I had grown a Littlefield's Special that was a pole bean and marked and colored just like a cranberry type bean.

 

[aftermidnight]

Yes know it's not the same, close but no cigar.

Annette