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

[Beanfan]

Even though there is lots of other food to eat in my yard, including all the apples they could eat, I think some deer developed a taste for bean leaves and has decided to do whatever it can to eat more. Grrrr. I decided maybe my aging plastic trellis netting above my wire fence is too weak and one jumped through it, so I'm working hard surrounding my whole garden bed with bamboo canes with the branches and leaves on so they will not be able to find a nice place to jump in again. It does seem that stripping leaves off can spur the bean vine to make more flowers in some cases and perhaps more pods, it remains to be seen. My big garden beds had been safe from deer for 4 years. But the voles continue to nip some bean plants off at the ground and I may try the castor oil, dishwashing detergent and water again because it seemed to stop them earlier when they were really affecting a lot of beans, they are actually harming more plants than the deer.

 

[flowerbug]

voles can sometimes be discouraged by having some rough gravel in the soil. this year we've had more voles around than normal, but i'm not sure they've gone after the beans that much. i've seen some chipmunk and mice damage as usual, but not too bad that i'd fight it out with them. i like to leave something for the snakes to eat.

 

[Zeedman]

My first harvest of dried seed from my 3 vines was divided up and sent back to those in the states who either didn't get them, they died or hadn't produced so far. The first batch of collected seed, the seed coats were a little pebbley to the touch, perhaps from the heat wave that descended on us. The second batch was picked and shelled yesterday, all seed in perfect shape but vary in size according to how many seeds in a pod. The pods that only had one or two seeds in them were the biggest very much the size of Gigandes, the smallest were from pods that had 4 seeds in them, I only had one pod with 5 seeds.
Annette

Mixed is fine. I've noticed that most runner beans take several seasons to adapt to my climate anyway. Gigandes may need more time than usual, but since I can't grow it every year, it is an ongoing project. Hopefully Piekny Jas will prove to be a little more cooperative.

Funny how several runner beans have evolved into multi-year projects... I need to find 1-2 more locations to grow them, maybe recruit family & friends to slip a few into their gardens. I could grow more limas that way too, I'm collecting them faster than I can grow them.

Speaking of Bosnian Pole I'm growing it this year. Last time I grew it was 2013. I checked on it today for dry pods, and noticed a deer had eaten all the top leaves off nearly half way down my pole support. Most of the pods are nearer to the ground. That deer didn't touch a single other pole bean. I hope he or she won't be back.

@Bluejay77 , I am growing it again this year too - with seed from the original 2009 seed increase. The plants are all healthy, and the pods have now begun to dry in large numbers. The first pods had begun to dry just before the "Midwest monsoon" began; I'm surprised that so far, there appears to be almost no spoilage. I could end up with a pound or two of dry seed - but DW has been asking for some shellies, so part of the crop may be eaten by my "dear" as well.

I tried Bosnian Pole last year for seed, but actually used too large a population... and one VERY productive plant in the middle of the row turned out to be a cross. So the seed from the grow out was not saved, but all was not lost - I used most of the crop for frozen shellies. The seed this year, grown in isolation, appears to be all true to type. The black-seeded cross (which produced a pound of seed from that one plant) was saved for possible future selection. Don't know about the culinary qualities, but if that yield can be carried forward into successive generations, it could lead to something noteworthy. If anyone might have time to experiment with it, I'd be happy to send some seed; just send me a PM.

 

[Zeedman]

Voles are becoming an issue in my garden as well. That usually happens about this time of the year, when fruit & seed begin to ripen, and there is dense vegetation to provide cover. They had begun to strip all developing seed from the "bush" long bean... that thoroughness of destruction is what identifies voles as the likely culprits. Traps have proven to be the best solution for me, and I have enough traps to target any locations at risk. I bait them with dried apricot, which apparently has an irresistible scent, and can be jammed tightly into the bait cups. The traps are placed under the foliage where runs are likely, with locations marked by survey flags. I Put 4 traps under the beans two days ago, and caught 3 voles by the next day. Today I put out 10 traps, which should catch most of the remaining voles in that area. When the garden has dried out a bit, I'll put out more traps under the tomatoes & zucchini.

 

[reedy]

I got my return seeds for two of my network beans all dried down and ready to pack. Small Speckled Bunch finished up weeks ago and now Madagascar Limas, the Madagascar sure are pretty beans. Mrs. Maud's Limas were first to bloom quite awhile back but I didn't get any pods for that blooming, guess cause of the dryness then but they are coming on great now and plenty of time to finish up so should be fine. Losing hope on that poor Dr. Martin vine, only one pod so far and it looks empty. Current flowers won't likely have time but who knows.

Bunches of new beans showing up over in the mixed patch. Several black ones but black beans are not our favorites, I know they are new cause I didn't plant any black seeds. I also think there is something about black beans, they are more promiscuous than most. Whenever I grow our favorite black snaps, Cherokee Trail of Tears or Ideal Market I isolate them from everything else, including each other.

Greasy's seem to me to be a little promiscuous as well but I never met a greasy bean I didn't like both as snaps and as a soup bean. I love finding new ones. Here are my favorites from this year, not many so far but lots more pods yet to harvest.

The brown ones aren't too much of a surprise but the pink ones sure are. {turns out the pink ones were just less mature, they turned brown when dried} hope maybe they came from Ohio Pole, another of my favorites, but no way to know as the mix patch has been a mix for several years.

 

[aftermidnight]

@Zeedman had a look at my basket of PJ's just now and although a good size Gigandes are still the biggest runner I've grown. I don't have a Gigandes handy to show a comparison but here they are with a penny. I could send more but want to keep the envelope light.

Annette

 

[Zeedman]

@Zeedman had a look at my basket of PJ's just now and although a good size Gigandes are still the biggest runner I've grown. I don't have a Gigandes handy to show a comparison but here they are with a penny. I could send more but want to keep the envelope light. View attachment 28312

Annette

Those seeds appear to be very well filled, a trait that caught my attention back on that original thread elsewhere. In comparison, the problem I have with Gigandes is that although the shellies are very large, the dry seed always appears to be a little shrunken. Gigandes is the only runner bean I've grown that has that issue, all other varieties have well-filled seed. I'm assuming (read: hoping ) that the seed quality will improve as it is grown out a few more times; but it's possible that Gigandes just doesn't like my soil and/or climate.

The Tarahumara Tekomari selection has ripened its first dry pods, so looking good for dry seed... and all of the seed thus far has been the gray that I am selecting for. The explosion of flowers & new runners continues unabated, in spite of the large number of pods already set. I have never grown a runner bean that flowered continuously for this long; that it is doing so on my less fertile home plot makes that all the more noteworthy. I'll post new photos shortly.

 

[aftermidnight]

@Zeedman , yes although smaller the PJ seeds are fatter than the Gigandes I have, also the three plants I grew were grown in less than perfect soil, I'm afraid they didn't get much attention being out of commission most of the growing season. From these three plants I collected over two hundred seeds.
I almost didn't plant them as I was originally searching for them for someone else. Of my original 8 seeds, 5 went to the UK. The 3 I kept were planted as a backup just in case...
It's a good job I did because the other 3 that shared in the original packet of seed ran into problems, luckily I was able to send some back to them. Your envelope will be in the mail tomorrow. I haven't grown as many different runners as you have but Aeron Purple Star is my favorite, kinda bummed I didn't get to grow it this year. What PJ's I have left will be spread around.

Annette

 

[Zeedman]

Hmmm... that didn't work; tried to drop in a photo, and it deleted the entire post.Try again...

@aftermidnight , I too am bummed that my plans were altered, and I didn't grow APS this year. But then again, had I done so, I probably would have lost all of that valuable (and perhaps irreplaceable) seed to the squirrels. Funny how things that initially appear to be disastrous, sometimes work out for the best in the end. I'm really determined to grow APS next year, it will take more than a broken foot to stop me this time... and having been warned of the danger, I'll be protecting the seedlings against the squirrels.

I can take some consolation in the fact that the second planting of the Tarahumara runner bean (a breeding project) was early enough to still produce a good quantity of dry seed. From the original highly diverse land race, I have been attempting to stabilize (from one outstanding plant) a particularly vigorous strain with very large gray seeds.This was the third year of selection, and from the seed harvested thus far, the selection process is progressing nicely. All of the red-flowered plants appear to have gray seed, as well as the vigor displayed by the original parent. I rogued out a few white-flowered plants early (before they bloomed) so it will take at least one more year to verify whether there are still recessives to be eliminated.

 

[flowerbug]

picking, shelling, drying (critical here at Froggy (our other word for foggy) Bottom) and waiting for the last of the beans to finish up (may be until we get a hard frost for some of them). patience grasshopper...

i'd picked quite a few beans when they were soggy from rains and put the fan on the box tops to keep the air circulating and drying, but in some cases i had them rot anyways. still the overall crop is pretty good.

i'm caught up on shelling anything that is dry enough. in some cases i'm findiing out that they're much easier to shell before they've completely dried. i'm marking those beans because at times i do plant beans solely for the trait of how they shell out and hope they'll cross breed with the tougher to shell neighbors to give me an easier shelling variety.

i'm curious if i'm the only person here who does such things?