2019 Little Easy Bean Network - Come And Reawaken The Thrill Of Discovery

[flowerbug]

sometimes it takes time to find the right soil for some of these beans. last year i planted the Early Warwick beans in several places, but mostly in heavier/clay soil and they looked ok at first, but most of the pods were empty when it came time to harvest. this year i put them in sandier soil which is poor quality but i amended in a trench through there and put the Warwicks on top of that. i have had seeds in the pods and some of them look like they should. next year i'll try some in the North Garden and hope they survive predation. that soil is prime topsoil, i've grown very nice beans in that garden before - i wish i could get a decent fence around it...

 

[reedy]

I don't do anything special as far as trying to tailor soil or conditions to any specific variety of anything. I used to fuss over such things but I got tired of that years ago. Now basically it grows in my dirt under my care habits or it doesn't. That said I do pamper network beans a little more but following season they are gonna have to fend for themselves like everything else.

I'm always looking for new ones I like as green beans and not above cooking just three or four pods to see what they are like. Most that pass that test get saved as pure varieties but I also keep a green bean mix. I only have a few that I save as pure varieties for dry, KY Wonder is one. I love them as green beans and when cooked dry with a little onion and bacon they have a lot of the same flavor as they do green, yum, yum, throw in some carrots too!

From Russ, I now have two great new green beans, the Wide Pod White Greasy and Refugee, which I'v raved about before. I got some interesting segregation in the off-type Refugee this year, I'm calling them Escapee. I'll post some pics later. Actually I have a late patch of Refugee growing now on some spent corn stalks. Sure hope they have time to make, I think they will. It's ok if they don't have time to mature seed, I have lots in back up. We'll just eat em.

My general dry soup bean mix gets everything mixed in to it. Pretty much only criteria is that it grows and produces well. That said, I don't like black beans in my soup so I sort them out at harvest and the woman makes black beans and rice or black bean salsa with them.

Beans, beans, beans, I loves me some beans.

 

[Blue-Jay]

A noticeable change in color taking place in my backyard bean nursery plot. About 4 varieties giving small amounts of dry pods every few days. "SMITH RIVER SUPER SPECKLE" was the first variety to give dry pods this year. I was disappointed in it's seed coat of about 99.5% red. The variety in the center that looks nearly all harvested out is a Robert Lobitz variety called "EARLY VIRMILLION". EV looks like Jacob's Cattle and it pods are nearly all harvested with just a few more to go. EV's pods dried so very close together after producing it's first dry pod. Another bean in which I was disappointed in it's seed coat. EV's seedcoat is also nearly all red. I was sure these two beans would have given beautiful seed coats in this very dark loamy soil. Will try them next year in a different location. The latest bean that is growing here is "BIRD EGG BLUE" which I don't expect to get dry pods until probably after the 1st of October. A few other varieties here are still producing a goodly amount of blossoms.

 

[flowerbug]

that's been happening too here the past few weeks too @Bluejay77. with the recent bout of rains now over for the next week or so i expect to get out each day this week for checking through all the patches to see what is coming ready to be picked.

@reedy, i enjoy a blend of beans for some of the time, but we've also become fond of a few varieties just by themselves (lima beans, molasses face/yellow eye, pintoes, red beans). the last batch of beans i made in quantity was about 10 quarts of small red beans. likely the next batch will be the several pounds of mixed beans i have. they're pretty old too, but i doubt we'll care as we like our beans too. once we cook them up we then put them in quart jars and into the freezer so they can then be used whenever we'd like some in the next month or two.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I went to my mailbox today September 6th, and I was just amazed. I got the earliest LEBN seed return ever. The lady grew Aunt Jeans. She lives in hardiness zone #8. In the state of Washington. She grew just gorgeous seed. None of my seed will probably be this dry until Late October or early November.

 

[flowerbug]

I went to my mailbox today September 6th, and I was just amazed. I got the earliest LEBN seed return ever. The lady grew Aunt Jeans. She lives in hardiness zone #8. In the state of Washington. She grew just gorgeous seed. None of my seed will probably be this dry until Late October or early November.

View attachment 32976

they look very nice! gread job Lady!

i have three days to go through and check all the beans for pods that are ready before the rains are forecast to return.

 

[reedy]

Well, I'm gonna carry on about the Refugee beans again. Love em. First got them from Russ in 2017, they looked like the ones on the right in the picture below and the two to the left grew as off types that year.

i'm not 100% sure about the "small flat" they may just have been an environmental variation.

I think Russ's original description of them was that they were one of the first beans used when commercial canning started. The by chance I came across this picture, dated to late 1800's. I'v posted it before but it is so neat, here it is again.

Refugee beans popped up again when I was doing research on vine growth habit inheritance in beans. You can read about it in this paper from 1915. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2455993?
seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents, some interesting stuff there, I think.

Last year, 2018 I only grew a small patch and we ate most of them, nothing out of the normal showed up in the seeds I did save. This year I planted some of the off types from 2017 and his is what I got.

They all had purple or purple streaked pods, which we do not like except for the brown ones. Those pods were much longer 6 - 8 inches with lots of seeds while the others were not more than 4 inches. The brown seeded pods were a nice green, no purple at all and the brown ones far out produced all the other put together. The all did pretty good and were well behaved at about 5 feet tall with considerable side branching. I think they might produce best if spaced at least 8 inches apart, maybe a foot.

The others will get included in the back garden mix next year but the brown are going to get a good sized grow out. I'v named it Escapee for now.

 

[flowerbug]

almost done checking through the beans. two gardens to work on today and then this round will be done.

the week ago forecast of no rain this week was a total miss. it has been rain or chances of rain almost every day. lol

at least most of the pods i've been able to pick have not been spoiled.

the crop of Purple Dove has been picked through for dry/drying pods and i have a nice pile of early seeds. i'll keep those separate from those i pick later so i can keep encouraging them to be early finishers - applying selection pressure to the seed population. so far not noticing too many bug or rot problems with them. they do keep the pods up off the ground better if the plant hasn't gotten knocked over. i was wondering how the drying/dry pods would fare with the rains we've had since they are on the thin side. the pods have some odd coloring going on that i've noticed before with the purple podded beans. a bright green splotchy pattern, not sure if it is a fungus or just how they go, but they look pretty neat to me. oh and likely relating to the thin pods is that a large percentage of the seeds are well formed and finished. unlike a lot of the other beans i grow which tend to grow a partial seed with an unfinished seed coat or hollow seeds and then give up. it is like the plant has better genetics for production than many others i grow. again traits/factors that i'll be quite happy to spread within the rest of my seed stocks.

i noticed that one of the Monster beans i planted clearly lived up to the name. the seeds from the plant are a brown pinto patterned bean unlike what i planted, but the plant is large and hugely productive. i have to finish picking that plant today. i would not be surprised to have between a quarter and half pound of seeds from that one plant alone.

 

[Zeedman]

Some of the seed legumes are starting to dry. All of the Sugar Magnolia peas are now drying, as are the two early soybeans, I-309 & Sakamotowase. Have begun harvesting some dry Chinese Red Noodle yardlong pods... which is interesting, because they were later to bloom than Chinese Long Green, which have not yet begun to dry.

Common beans: Serbian Pole has also set its full pod load, and many pods are beginning to yellow; so dry seed should begin soon. The seed row of Fortex has a lot of very fat pods, but they are very slow to mature... so as always, dry seed will be a race against frost. Soissons Vert was slow getting started; it is setting a prodigious amount of pods, but most are unlikely to ripen before frost. The Nunas have quite a few fat pods, but like Fortex, they are very slow to develop; I hope that enough mature to at least replace the seed that was planted.

Aeron Purple Star runner beans have set their full pod load & nearly all have stopped flowering. Many of the pods are fat, so I should (hopefully ) get a good seed increase before frost. The Hopi Pole lima flowered early & set a lot of pods, many of which are fat & should begin to ripen soon. The limas are a long row, so even moderate productivity should result in a lot of dry seed.

A lot of possible rainy days in the forecast, I hope it doesn't ruin a lot of maturing seed. Got a feeling I'll be out with boots & raincoat in the coming days, bringing in pods to dry under fans.

 

[flowerbug]

@Zeedman it reminds me that every year i seem to go through the same routine.

always glad to see some finish early so i don't have everything at once, but also worry that not many will finish. even though i do have over half the bean varieties/selections that have given me some seeds i still have a lot of plants that will like 2-4 more weeks. not that i'll get that most seasons, but the longer things can go the better.