2018 Little Easy Bean Network - Join Us In Saving Amazing Heirloom Beans

[flowerbug]

@Bluejay77 - Grow out went mostly well. Comtesse de Chomboro was a failure as nothing germinated for me. Otherwise good yields on all of the Robert Lobitz's beans except Amber Queen. I did not have good success with the first batch of Amber Queen outside, only got around 30 seeds total of them. Second batch went into the greenhouse as I had some space and is still drying in garage at the moment. Otherwise all other grow out bean is dried and packed up ready to send off.

My favorite bean this year was Purple Dove, beautiful plant although it did get attacked heavily by Japanese Beatles like everyone else noted. I'll be growing that out again next year for snap beans. I also really enjoyed shelling Paynesville Amber as the pods were very straight and it dried extremely well. I did have a segregation in the Paula bean as noted in a different post with pictures of it; the plant had purple veining much like Purple Dove, but it was a larger plant. I will send you half of the Paula cross seed in case others want to play around with growing it out to see what it does.

Enjoying all your bean pictures. Keep them coming!

me too! i always like seeing bean pictures. as fall/winter gets going i'll be sorting more. too busy at the moment with other things. i hope to get beans back to @Bluejay77 before Thanksgiving. that is my goal... this week is looking like a lot more rains again and i got my fall cleaning done. one more project i'd like to finish and then back to sorting now that all are dried enough.

PD's here were very productive and early, two traits i am fond of.

Japanese Beetles loved 'em too.


only complete failure i had was the lone Red Bollito that did not germinate. i think of all the rest i have some beans to send back, but a few of them are not the best quality i'd have liked.

i will also send a few others (heehee ). i mean as long as i'm sending a package i should scatter the tribes further... right?

i think the beans i've called Sunset and a few others are worth passing on... i don't like that i'm the only person with these.

 

[flowerbug]

...

"CHOCOLATE 7.0" - Semi Runner. In 2013 I got a bean called "Chocolate" from a SSE member and grew it out. I didn't make any record of it that anything outstanding happened. In 2014 I decided to take some of that 2013 seed and grow it again. I got 7 segregations. This one I thought had a neat color and it's been sitting on my bean shelves in a baby food jar for 4 years so I thought maybe I should grow it this year and see if I could get more of them. It did very well most of the seed turned out like the 2014 seed and it threw off a small amount of another segregation that I've numbered as Chocolate 7.1. These are only temporary names if they stablize they will have new names.
View attachment 29064
"Chocolate 7.0" - Semi Runner dry.

View attachment 29065
"Chocolate 7.1" Semi Runner dry

two i'm making eyes at !!!

if they are early enough and round. haha...

 

[Blue-Jay]

Then I planted these hoping I might get a few more...View attachment 29079
And got these, all the same.
View attachment 29080
Annette

Looks like you planted one part of the mix and got one of the other parts. I wonder if they have all been grown together for so long each part will just keep throwing off segregations that are very similar to one of the parts of the mix.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Zeedman, I'm not sure I answered your question on where I got the Fagiolo di Angelo Impenia" bean. I believe I got that from Karen Golden of "Michigan Heirlooms". Her business is tomatoes but she likes growing beans too. I'm not sure I had that bean spelled correctly. Ben Cohen on his "Small House Farm" website has I think the same bean. He's got "Fagiolo Angelo Impero".

http://www.smallhousefarm.com/product/fagiolo-bean/

 

[Blue-Jay]

Seed Return Package #3 came in the mail yesterday. That makes 25 more to go. Two on the way from Canada. The package yesterday generously included besides some of the network that the grower grew. Mr. Tung, Potomac, Gorema, Beauty Pod, Cade's Cove, Clay Bank Fall, La Vigneronne, Potomac, Roger Newsome, Striped Bunch, and Sylvano's.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's Bean Show Day #5​

"LAKE GEORGE" - Bush - Dry. Again working with the Robert Lobitz Legacy Beans since 2015. I grew a white rounded bean in 2017 and it put out about 2 other white beans that were shaped differently. I named this particular white bean after another lake in Stearns county Minnesota called Lake George. 78 days to first dry pods. The remainder of the pods took several weeks to dry and to be completely harvest out.

"Lake George" - Bush Dry

''CHEROKEE WAX" - Bush Snap yellow podded. A dependable wax snap bean having been sold commerically since 1947. Introduced by the Asgrow seed company. The company says this bean is a mutation of "Asgrow Valentine: Cherokee wax became the seed mother of two of my original beans in 1977 named "Kishwaukee Green" and Kishwaukee Yellow". Named after the Kishwaukee river which the head waters begin in Woodstock, Illinois and runs west to the Rock river near Rockford, Illinois.

"Cherokee Wax" - Bush Snap Yellow Podded.

"COMTESSE DE CHAMBORD" - Bush Snap green podded. This is the version of Comtesse de Chambord the I purchased from Le Jardin Du Gourmet in 1975 and it became the seed mother of Blue Jay in 1977. Donated to Seed Savers Exchange in 1980 it became their bean #226. Larger seeds than the Comtesse de Chambord sometimes refered to as the Hungarian Rice Bean. Seeds of this bean are larger than the rice sized seeds but smaller than most modern American snap beans of the 1970's era. Pods are also more slender than what you would expect from beans such as Tendergreen.

"Comtesse de Chambord" - Bush Green Snap.

''ZUMBRO VALLEY" - Bush dry. Another of the Robert Lobitz legacy beans. I showed this bean last year after a grow out of a quite round brown seed. This year there were three different color segregations produced by this years grow out. Named after Zumbro Valley in Stearns county Minnesota.

"Zumbro Valley" - Bush Dry.

A more gold or yellowish segrgation of Zumbro Valley this year.
"Zumbro Valley 2018 Segregation"

"Zumbro Valley Gold Segregation"


Second 2018 Zumbro Valley Segregation. This bean very much takes after another one of the Lobitz Legacy beans. Similar color with the prominent eye ring.

"Zumbro Valley 2018 Segregation #2"

Third Zumbro Valley segregation was a lighter shade of brown with a similar seed shape.

"Zumbro Valley 2018 Segregation #3"

''CONSERVA" - Bush Green snap. White seed with a slight reddish blush. A bean that Joseph Simcox gave to me in 2013. Produces oval green pods that are fleshy but not stringy and slightly bent. Marketed in 1925 by Samenzüchterei David Sachs or Seed Nursery of David Sachs Quedlinburg, Germany. Bred by David Sachs's company. A cross between European varieties Alpha x Saxa.

"Conserva" - Bush Green Snap.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Seed Return package #4 and #5 both from Canada came today. Only 23 more to go.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's Bean Show Day #6​

"CONTENDER" - Bush Snap. A popular snap bean from the 1950's through the 1980's. Released to the Public in 1949. Bred at the Southeastern Vegetable Breeding Laboratory, Charleston, South Carolina. Mississippi, Alabama, Florida Agric. Expt. Sta. cooperated in this release. Early variety with oval pods. I really think this bean is likely the male pollen donor of my Kishwaukee Green and Kishwaukee Yellow. I can remember planting a 60 foot row of Cherokee wax next to a 60 foot row of Contender. One of the beans that Kishwaukee always throws off is a buff seed looking kinda like Contender. Contender was the only buff colored seed in my entire bean grow out in the late 1970's when the cross occured with Cherokee wax. I grew Kishwaukee Green this year and the second photo (right) is the buff colored seed it threw off again for the umteenth time.

"Contender" - Bush Snap

"Kishwaukee Green" - Variant Seed Coat - Bush Snap

"DRAYER CREEK" - Bush Dry. Another of the Robert Lobitz legacy beans that I'm working with since 2015. This bean was one of the white segregations from a round white bean in 2017. A little different seed shape than that of the round white one. This year this bean did have one segregant plant that was a semi runner with very similar white seeds. All the other plants looked very uniform and all white seed coats, same seed shape and pod length and shape. 71 days after planting to harvest it's first dry pod.

"Drayer Creek" - Bush Dry.

"Drayer Creek Segregation" - Semi Runner

"CRANE LAKE" - Bush Snap. Here is a Robert Lobitz bean that he did name and released through the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook in 2004. I acquired the seed from a Port Byron, Illinois SSE member who has listed a number of Robert's beans, but never puts in the listing that they are Lobitz original bean. I don't know if he knows they are Robert's beans but I recognize the names of them from a list that was obtained from James Lobitz. The seed was very dark when I got them this past winter. The packet was marked with the year 2007. I was wondering if they were going to grow but a few did germinate. I could tell by the old seed that it was marked like a cranberry bean. I was surprised when looking at Robert's listing in an old yearbook he considered the bean a snap type. I will have to give them a try that way when I get the seed volume up more.

"Crane Lake" - Bush Snap

"CROW RIVER PINTO" - Bush dry. Another of Robert Lobitz's bean. He released this bean sometime after 1999 also thorugh the SSE yearbook. Another bean I obtained this past winter from the Port Byron, Illinois SSE member. This seed too must have bean 10 years old or maybe older, but these germinated better than Crane Lake. Looks just like beans you can find in the grocery store don't they!

"Crow River Pinto" - Bush Dry.

"DAPPLE GREY" - Bush Dry. This summer was the fourth time I've grown this pretty bean since I obtained it in 2011 from Azure Dandelion, a seed seller on Ebay. It has grown true to type everytime I've grown it.

"Dapple Grey" - Bush Dry.

 

[flowerbug]

Russ's Bean Show Day #6​

...
"CROW RIVER PINTO" - Bush dry. Another of Robert Lobitz's bean. He released this bean sometime after 1999 also thorugh the SSE yearbook. Another bean I obtained this past winter from the Port Byron, Illinois SSE member. This seed too must have bean 10 years old or maybe older, but these germinated better than Crane Lake. Looks just like beans you can find in the grocery store don't they!
View attachment 29111
"Crow River Pinto" - Bush Dry.

"DAPPLE GREY" - Bush Dry. This summer was the fourth time I've grown this pretty bean since I obtained it in 2011 from Azure Dandelion, a seed seller on Ebay. It has grown true to type everytime I've grown it.
View attachment 29112
"Dapple Grey" - Bush Dry.

Dapple Grey is so purty fresh out of the shell. it did well for me this year and i was going to send some back with the rest of my grow outs, but now that i see you have fresh ones i won't bother. i'll send you a few of my Monster beans which came from DG...

are the Pinto beans the same ones you sent me? i just have Pinto semi-runner on the envelope. i'm thinking not the same ones... your beans look nicer.

 

[Raiquee]

Hello!

I’m Desire’ (I’m on instagram at des_sommers and on tomatoville under this name as well) I’m a 33 year old mom of 3 who’s been gardening and saving seed for about a decade. We moved to our mini farm 4 years ago (2019 will be our 5th growing season) and my garden area is 60’x100’. I work on several projects with Craig LeHoullier (dwarf tomato project but also his eggplants and pepper projects)

I just emailed Russ and got a growing list for 2019. I will be growing:

Tanyas’s pink pod
Pale grey lavender
Atwater
Red swan
Kutasi princess
Mona Lisa

I’ll also be growing some of my own collection- Juanita smith, fort portal jade, painted pony, salmon flowering crown pea, calima bean, Canadian wild goose, tobacco worm...and probably more. I grow a big crop of blue lake bush for canning and freezing.

I wish I could say one veggie is my passion, but really I love growing it all.

I’m excited to be joining you all in the 2019 thread!