This is an original bean of mine from the early 80's that I named. It's a little later than many of the bush dry beans I grow. The bean pretty much uses up the entire growing season to produce it seed and dry out. Sometimes I even wind up pulling plants out of the ground and hanging them in the garage to dry like I did this year. It grew fairly well this summer. One of our Canadian Network growers got this bean from me and she grows it for Heritage Harvest Seeds In Carmen, Ontario. They started selling the bean this past winter. The bean produced 9 ounces (255 grams) of seed on 8 plants. No off types. I don't think this bean is a promiscuous type. I've never seen it produce an off type.
I got this bean last winter from John Coykendall in Knoxville, Tennessee. I've grown the bean before back in the early 1980 and have always liked it's glossy seed. Solid black it is. Like all my other beans it was planted probably about two weeks later than it should have and I got a total of 13 beans from it. Maybe I'll try it again next year. I still have some of John's seed left over too.
I'm the person who originally gave HIM the seed for Armenian Black (he asked on the other forum I belong to if anyone had seed for BIG beans). The seed originally came from Richters. I split my pack at the time with another member on the other forum since I was only interested in the ones with white spots (which you have told me is in fact only pod residue) So I'm responsible for the crummy condition of the original seed. They REALLY didn't like it here.
Yeah the fellow was Nik Brown from somewhere in Ohio. I never saved his address after I sent him most of the seeds I grew. I just thought I would do him a little favor and be nice and stick the beans in the ground and see if anything came of them. I was amazed one made it. Now after all these years I realized this summer I've got another pretty nice bean. It was planted a little late besides. I planted them about the middle of June. Another two weeks would have done wonders for the maturity and drying of the pods. Well that is neat you said something @Pulsegleaner. Now I know a little bit more about them. I wonder if Joseph Simcox may have found the bean and had a shipment of seeds sent to Richters like he did with the Fort Portal Jade. Look what's become of that one surviving plant. I'll grow them again too. I put them up on my website today.
I can almost GUARANTEE that is what happened, as the seed was in the Seed Zoo, and that is ALL Joe Simcox's work. At the time he had a LOT of Middle Caucasian material ("Caucasian" as in "from around the Caucuses") in the store. I think Hashuli came from the same batch. I also remember something called Gori Giant.
I actually still have one of the other beans from then I am trying to work out; one seed left of the Ijevan #1 Runner Bean (I got in too late to get my hands on Ijevan #2). I'll try and add it to next springs grow out (though bear in mind 1. the seed is now something like 10 years old and 2. none of the other ones germinated when they were FRESH (or as fresh as anything from Ricter's may be)
I tried to grow these again this year since I have not grown them since 2014. I got them from a bean guy in Germany by the name of Professor KIaprott. He tells me they started out as an outcross from someone in the south of France. They haven't produced any off types for me and were very productive the first time I grew them. I planted them in the same place as I did A Cosser Di Chevilly and only got enough seed to hold in the palm of my hand. I will try again next year.
This bean I acquired after making an inquiry about some other Robert Lobitz beans in an old out of date listing in one of the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook. The yearbook I was looking at last November 2018 was dated 2013. As it turned out the reply came from not the person who grew the beans I recieved as he had passed away. A neighbor of his had inherited his bean collection and as I found out she had nearly 12 of Robert Lobitz varieties from his 2013 grow out. She sent me samples of all of them and we did some bean trading.
So this is an original Robert Lobitz variety and he had first introduced the bean in the 1999 Seed Savers Exchange yearbook.
I planted 10 seeds of this bean and it produced 11.8 ounces (334 grams) of these black beans.
This bean did quite well this summer. I planted 15 seeds and I harvested 34.45 ounces (976 grams) of beautiful beans along with some seed of an off type it produced. First photo is Black Nighfall. The beans in the second photo I'm sure I will wind up eating.
Grown in the same soil and plot as was Black Nightfall. This bean struggled this year. It didn't produce much seed or any that was in really good condition. Lots of shriveled beans. I will probably growing it again next year using prevous seasons seed. Total seed harvest from Bobolink was 4.80 ounces (136 grams) of poor quality beans.
I had grown this bean back in the early 1980's. My early years as a member of Seed Savers Exchange. I saw the bean listed in the SSE yearbook this past winter by SSE's Heritage Farm. I really wish I had written down who I had orginally gotten the bean from. SSE's seed historian would probably like to know. SSE credits me as being the only person who donated this bean to them in those early years. This bean grew very well on the south side of my house in a flowerbed. Total amount of seed harvest was 14.35 ounces (407 grams) of pretty good quality beans. I think I had about 4 plants growing. The seed I got from SSE was of lower germination.
