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

[Decoy1]

[QUOTE="Bluejay77,
"SMITH RIVER SUPER SPECKLE" - Bush Dry. I've grown this bean as early and 1980 acquired from the Seed Savers Exchange. The bean is productive and I've always enjoyed growing this interesting looking bean. This year I didn't get much white and speckling. I have grown it in other parts of the county where I live and have gotten better looking beans in other soils. Second photo is how this bean can look at it's best. The bean comes out of Jacob's Cattle in the late 1970's discovered by Jerry Gatchell of Drain, Oregon. The Smith river is located about 30 miles north of where Jerry lived.
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"Smith River Super Speckle" - Bush Dry.

Yes, I love this bean too. I had a very good crop from your seed and mine had more of the white speckle.

 

[reedy]

The color of Kentuckk Wonder that I've seen in the late 1970's looked like a bean I have called "Weaver". Go to my website sometime and take a look at Weaver. My dad used to grow K. Wonder that looked almost as dark as Hershey's Chocolate.

Weaver looks very much like my KY Wonder beans except mine lack that redish colored eye. Those that mine evolved from and we always bought each year from either Burpree or Henry Field were much darker brown.

I also have a cross bean I'm working with. I know it's mother is Ky Wonder and suspect the father is Cherokee Trail of Tears although it could be any number of others. The F1 (from a KY Wonder plant) was a light tan bean, larger and flatter than KY Wonder, pods were longer and wider. That same phenotype and four or five others showed up in F2. Planting just those large, flat, tan seeds from the F2 ended up with just two kinds, the large tan flat and a smaller dark brown bean. Looks like it might be stable in just a couple more years, maybe less. It's delicious as a green bean very similar flavor to KYW. I'm gonna plant a good sized row of it this coming year and if doesn't throw any off types I'm gonna give it a name.

I still have all the other segregations from prior years and some original F1 seed to grow someday and see what else comes up but I figure I got real lucky with this one, since it is so good and seems to be stabilizing so fast.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I think sometime in the 1970's Kentucky Wonder was rebred for some reason. The seed does not look like the ones my dad grew in the 1950's.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Decoy1, That's how Smith River Super Speckle should look. You got the Super Speckle for sure. Likely it's your soil that does it. This bean will look like this too grown in the New Englands States. I have found one spot so far here in my county where I can get it to look like that, but I don't garden there anymore. Too many deer munching on the gardens in that area.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's Bean Show Day #28​

"UNCLE WILLIES" - Bush Dry. Grew this one out this year on 5 year seed. Acquired this bean from Annapolis Seeds in Nova Scotia, Canada in late 2011.

"Uncle Willies" - Bush Dry

"VAQUERO" - Semi Runner dry.

First time growing this one this year. Very productive and very pretty beans. Got this bean from Sage Austin in Texas 4 years ago. The beans had been sitting in a baby food jar in my basement and I thought I should grow these beauties before they get too old. Sage used to join us in conversation here on this thread but seems to have disappeared. I think her and husband have a small ranch and it probably keeps them pretty busy. The beans have a similar pattern to other southwestern beans like Anasazi, Zuni Shalako, Gila, Gila River, New Mexico Red Appaloosa.

"Vaquero" - Semi Runner dry.

"VERDE TEMUCO - Pole dry. From somwhere in South Amercia. A fellow bean friend sent this to me in 2017 to give it a grow out. He said it's daylength sensitive, but it procduced about an ounce and half of beans. Not too bad for a daylength sensitve bean this far north. Will see if we can condition the plant to our longer daylight summers. It was blooming by mid August already. Got most of the dry pods very late in September and early october before the frost killed it. Will try it next year in a different location.

"Verde Temuco" Pole Dry

"VERMONT APPALOOSA" - Bush Snap Dry.

Native to Central and South Amercia. Can be picked as a snap bean when young. Probably gets stringy when it's growth becomes too advanced. I missed growing it only two seasons since 2011. Acquired the bean in 2011 from Azure Dandelion on Ebay.

"Vermont Appaloosa - Bush Snap Dry

"VICTORIA BROWN EYES'' - Bush Snap. I've never tried them yet as a snap but hope to sometime. A Robert Lobitz original bean. Very nice looking bean. I obtained this bean from Peace Seedlings in Corvallis, Oregon in September 2011. Robert released this bean through the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook in 2004.

"Victoria Brown Eyes" - Bush Snap

"VIOLA'' - Semi Runner Dry.

Acquired these from Synergy Seeds in Orleans, California the end of June 2014. They sat in their seed packet for three years in my basement. In 2017 I grew a few plants to increase the seed in flower pots on my backyard step. Got enough seed to grow them this year in a true garden location. A Robert Lobitz original bean. Also release through the SSE yearbook in 2004.

"Viola" - Semi Runner Dry.

"WB-PKT #21.1 - Semi Runner Dry. Right now this number is just a working title. The product of an outcross received from Will Bonsall (Grassroots Seed Network) in 2015. This year the bean produced one other off type seed. First photo WB-PKT #21.1 and second photo it's 2018 off type.

"WB-PKT #21.1 - Semi Runner Dry

''WB-PKT #21.1 - Semi Runner 2018 Segregation


​

 

[flowerbug]

Russ's Bean Show Day #28​

...

*happy sigh*

a lot of beans i like in there Russ...

bean envy for sure...

an interesting note to me is to see the difference between your VT Appaloosa and what i've been growing here for years. mine are narrower (similar in size to the VT Painted Pony).

and there are those pretty purple beans from Robert again. were those red stemmed too?

 

[Blue-Jay]

@flowerbug,

I think the Viola if I recall correctly had red stems. It's amazing that Robert got so many varieties that had such a similar color and pattern. Wish he were still alive. Would like to know the seed mother of every bean he came up with.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ's Bean Show Day #29​

"WEAVER" - Pole Snap. A bean that I've grown as far back as about 1980. Long wide flat pods. A bean that I've liked very much. Seed historian William Woys Weaver stated in one of the SSE yearbooks sometime ago that he believes this bean possibly came from a California seed company back in the 1920's.

"Weaver" - Pole Snap.

"WHITE TURKEY" - Pole Dry. 4 inch round pods. A bean from an outcross I found in 2014. I had gotten some beans from Mark Christensen 12 Central Tree Crop Research Trust Of New Zealand in 2012. Among the beans was an outcross bean he found in Turkey Craw. A black and white bean that looks so very much like Black Nightfall, but the plants grow and climb much more. The second grow out of this black and white bean I found this white seeded bean with rounded seed about the size of a navy bean. Every time I've grown this bean that I've been calling "White Turkey" is grows the same and the beans are always the same.

"White Turkey" - Pole Dry.

"WILLMAR PINTO" - Bush Dry. Another of the Robert Lobitz original beans. One of three of his beans that I obtained in 2017 from the Inspiration Garden Center in Exeter, Tasmania, Australia.

"Willmar Pinto" - Bush Dry.

"WOODSTOCK" WB-PKT #14 Bush. Another of the many beans that have come out of a batch of outcrosses sent to me by Will Bonsall of Industry, Maine. The bean appears to be growing the same lately. May have snap qualities. Productive of seed volume. Named after the town where I live.

"Woodstock" - Bush

"YELLOW BIRD" - Semi Runner Dry. A bean I discovered back in the early 1980's growing among a bean called Bird Egg. Bird Egg which is in the SSE bean collection eventually got a name change to Bird Egg #2. The bean is very productive of small yellow and white beans produced from short 4 inch pods.

"Yellow Bird" Semi Runner dry.

 

[Blue-Jay]

*happy sigh*

a lot of beans i like in there Russ...

bean envy for sure...

an interesting note to me is to see the difference between your VT Appaloosa and what i've been growing here for years. mine are narrower (similar in size to the VT Painted Pony).

and there are those pretty purple beans from Robert again. were those red stemmed too?

When the network grow out gets going next year you can get some of the ones you like that you have seen in my bean show as bonus beans for doing those grow outs.

 

[Zeedman]

It's amazing that Robert got so many varieties that had such a similar color and pattern. Wish he were still alive. Would like to know the seed mother of every bean he came up with.

The sad thing is, there were some breeding records kept, as confirmed by the executor of Robert's estate... not sure how detailed they were. I had been in contact with them several times in 2006 regarding Robert's soybeans, there were crosses in progress for some of those as well. I offered to drive there, to photograph the records; but they did not wish to have visitors. There were several other collectors who had expressed interest in saving some of the beans & field crops, I would hope that one of them acquired the records. Fortunately, the executor was very cooperative with passing on Robert's seeds to interested parties, or many of the wonderful varieties he bred might have been lost. @Bluejay77 , I'm glad some of his bean breeding projects found their way into your hands.