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

[Blue-Jay]

@reedy,

Wow you did get some combinations your greasy bean. That'll be fun in the future to see what all those will give you. Yes you can send me some of the Crystal wax of Refugee off types as well. I'm growing out Refugee this year so I might get some of the same off types you got.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Ridgerunner,

You maybe could name your new purple bean Bruised Blue. I had something interesting happen to my Blue Jay back in 2013. I had planted a 20 foot section of row of them. I had cut mulch in the area around my bean garden which was indigenous grasses red clover and whatever else was growing wild. Most of the row section of Blue Jay came down with Mosaic except one plant. The other all died and I removed all their remains from the garden area. I saved seed of the one plant that didn't come down with Mosaic, and grew it out the next year. They all look normal and healthy. This year I'm growing Blue Jay from those 2014 seeds again. These plants about a month ago put out these long stemed growth but didn't look like they want to climb. When the leaves on these long stems grew larger the long stems layed down on the ground and the rest of the plant continued to grow upright. Strange looking Blue Jays. I still have some Blue Jay seed that is decended from the Blue Jay I got from Seed Savers Exchange. Need to do a grow out of those next year and see what those look like.

 

[aftermidnight]

A few years ago I bought the 'Tennessee Greasy Mix', a variety that is so mixed up you never know what you'll get. These are the seed coat patterns in my pkt.

I planted the ones with the red speckles....

Got these...


The next year I planted only the brown seeds, the one in the middle and got these...


The grey splotched on the end was really pretty so I only planted these hoping to get a few more.

No such luck, this is what I got, no other colors...


Some of the pod colors....




I don't have a photo but if I remember correctly the very light colored seed with no speckles had a deep purple pod. I never did get another seed with the reddish brown speckles. When I was growing these they were in complete isolation, it's said they are impossible to stabilize. When you open a seed pod it's a real surprise package every time.

Annette

 

[Blue-Jay]

@TheCuteOrpington,

Nice to see your post here. Do you grow a lot of pinto beans? Do you make soup or whatever out of them?

 

[Blue-Jay]

@aftermidnight,

Your first photo on top looks the most interesting. Interesting combinations. I just got a bean from a fellow in Kentucky called Rwanda Rainbow. I'm going to try to separate the colors and patterns and see if any of them will come true next year. These might have been grown together so long that they too are in perpetual segregation.


Rwanda Rainbow

 

[aftermidnight]

Another interesting mix, I traded a Canadian heirloom strawberry plant for some 15 year old bean seed that was bought at a farmer's market in Ecuador high in the Andes.

I got quite a few to germinate, didn't know if they were day length sensitive so I crossed my fingers and planted. They turned out to be pole beans. I managed to get a few seeds from most by September. They almost sparkled like tiny gems. Click to enlarge.

One plant was very late blooming but having a decent fall that year I managed to get seed by the end of October. This plant had white flowers and the seed was this color.

The young pods on all were very fibrous and not good as a snap bean, I imagine they were grown for dry bean use. I have never grown them again myself, it was a fun experiment but I grow mostly for snap beans, don't have the space to grow enough to of be of any use to us as a dry bean. The only bean I grow for dry use is Gigandes.

Annette

 

[thejenx]

@aftermidnight,

Do you still have those seeds? The lime green ones look very pretty! I would be interested to grow them.

Since I started gardening 3 years ago I've contemplated to grow a bean mix called Huberts Mischung. But I still haven't gotten them.
The mix is supposedly selected/created by Hubert Plücken a visual artist from Germany. So far I'm not sure if that story is correct because I can only find one source telling this story.
The beans from that mix look like this:

 

[aftermidnight]

@thejenx unfortunately I can't say yes and I can't say no right now. Most of what I grew have already been given away, then someone else was interested in trying a hand at growing this mix, when I went to find what I had left I couldn't find them, so had to send him some of what I had left of the original old seed.
I know there must be a few left in the freezer but they must be packed in a glass jar with other varieties, my bad, I forgot to keep track of which jar they're in. BUT if I do come across them I'll mention it on the forum. I have over 250 varieties stored in the freezer right now, all in glass jars. Which jar they are in is anyone's guess, if I could have put my hands on them I would have gladly sent them to you.

Annette

 

[thejenx]

@aftermidnight I'll keep my hopes up, maybe someday...
250! wow! I have only 6 kinds of beans in the freezer.

 

[Tricia77]

Update on my Bubblegum beans from last year. Most of the vines are producing pods that look almost like my pods last year. They are a bright pink, maybe a bit darker this year. There are two vines that are producing all green pods.
Bubblegum 2017 by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr
Bubblegum 2017 by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr