2020 Little Easy Bean Network - An Exciting Adventure In Heirloom Beans !

[Blue-Jay]

Marshall,

Looking at the photos of these two beans that I've posted both appear to have a subtle yellowish eye ring. So I am growing out the original 2013 Ringwoods seed this year (which had excellent germination) and will grow this years new seed next year again to see if the grow out sequence will lead to this bean that flowerbug says reminds him of Peregion.

I have never grown Peregion

Marshall you sent me samples of your collection in December of 2013. The Network growers have done a pretty good job of increasing and renewing those beans. Would you like me to send you small samples of them back to you wherever the quantity allows me to spare some seed. I have Molly's Zebra. It's on my spreadsheet as a Pole Snap. I obtained from a Alan Reynolds in Hercules South Africa. I'm wondering if the bean wasn't a selection from Bill Mollison in Australia. He's the developer and promoter of the theory of permaculture. Alan lives in South Africa and is from Australia and travels back and forth.

I keep all the extra seed in freezers here. So germination of anything we grow out should remain quite good for probably at least two decades.

I've still got your original letter envelopes that you sent your bean samples in to me. I also have your 2014 grow out of the seed I sent you of mine that you returned that year in the freezer.

 

[flowerbug]

@Bluejay77 i do not consider Peregion a variety of bean, i consider it a blend of several varieties (including black turtle).

 

[897tgigvib]

Oh! It's great that some i thought went extinct yet survive! My grow space is limited so i should only trade for a few. i can send you some Tic Tac White, and some Tic Tac Pink, both of which probably need another season or 2 to sort dry pod versions from the southern edible podded versions. The white seeded one is a wax bean, shaped and sized like a semi cutshort, and is a big bush with no runners. Unless you or Mr. Best know of another variety like that, Tic Tac White Seeded Bush Wax Southern Podded is an entirely new class. There are also some color variations of Mbomba I can send you. These include different pod types. I don't know how true they are yet. (Robert Lobitz must have had acres to do what he did.)

I lost those among the Pebblestone family. I may be re-creating Breadstone, but if you still have Brickstone and Breadstone, I'd love to trade or buy a few seeds of those. I also lost Supernova Black, and am trying to re-create them. My selections in that group are now mostly for better quality seeds.

I hope it is not as hot where you are. It's a sudden thermal maximum hot here. Power company is doing rolling blackouts. oh, that gives me a space saving idea...next year i can plan on a bed or 2 to be Double-Season beds, using tricks I learned to garden while i lived in Montana...where planting on june 1st was just as tricky. Plant the quickest to finish varieties in them extra early under plastic around February 1st. they'll mature slower than normal in cooler weather, but still finish before july...resoil, and plant another crop of sure finishers around 1 July! yes, i'll try that.

Marshall,

Looking at the photos of these two beans that I've posted both appear to have a subtle yellowish eye ring. So I am growing out the original 2013 Ringwoods seed this year (which had excellent germination) and will grow this years new seed next year again to see if the grow out sequence will lead to this bean that flowerbug says reminds him of Peregion.

I have never grown Peregion

Marshall you sent me samples of your collection in December of 2013. The Network growers have done a pretty good job of increasing and renewing those beans. Would you like me to send you small samples of them back to you wherever the quantity allows me to spare some seed. I have Molly's Zebra. It's on my spreadsheet as a Pole Snap. I obtained from a Alan Reynolds in Hercules South Africa. I'm wondering if the bean wasn't a selection from Bill Mollison in Australia. He's the developer and promoter of the theory of permaculture. Alan lives in South Africa and is from Australia and travels back and forth.

I keep all the extra seed in freezers here. So germination of anything we grow out should remain quite good for probably at least two decades.

I've still got your original letter envelopes that you sent your bean samples in to me. I also have your 2014 grow out of the seed I sent you of mine that you returned that year in the freezer.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Marshall,

You can send whatever you want. Make a list of what you want back and I'll check my freezer list to see if it's there. Go take a look at my website. The network pages. There are nine of them now. See how many of your colletion appears on those pages. www.abeancollectorswindow.com. You don't need to buy anything. You are a genuine bean guy like the rest of us here. The people who post on this thread can get what they want free of charge. The more people that grow any bean variety the more likely they are to survive into the future. Hopefully til the end of the life on the earth itself.
I'm sure too that you have a new address. Let know what that is.

I still have Pebblestone. I think I grew it again in 2018.

Speaking of Robert Lobitz I have managed to amass almost his entire list of named beans. I've also been working with some legacy beans that he would have worked with had he lived beyond 2006. I received the beans with Robert's code numbers that he would give them. Nobody knows what the numbers and letters mean. However when each bean becomes what I believe is likely stable. I am naming the beans as Robert would have after towns, rivers, creeks, village streets or natural formations in his county where he lived or nearby areas in his state. Robert worked and lived on his father's truck garden farm. I'm sure there was room to grow what he wanted.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@ducks4you sent me a message and asked what I thought was the best way to store beans. I think he read where I mentioned freezing them. So I thought I would post this visual so you can see just how I store them. I have beans in ziploc baggies that I purchase from a place called Uline. I buy boxes from them too. Actually they have a plant near Kenosha, Wisconsin and I can place an order online and go pick it up and drive there and back with less expense in gas than if UPS delivered here in two days. Plus I have my order the same day.

So I use 3 x 4 inch ziplocs for storing 1.5 to 1.75 ounces of beans. I print and trim labels to go inside the baggies. With the name of variety, year grown, and growth habit or whatever info I want to remember about the bean. I also use a 2 x 3 inch baggie to store seed samples up to about 30 seeds for the average size bean. I store the ziplocs upright in cardboard boxes. I also try to squeeze as much air out of the packet as I'm closing the ziploc. I use a 12 x 7 x 5 inch box for the 3 x 4's and a 12 x 7 x 4 for the 2 x 3's. I cut cardboard dividers to keep the rows from mixing. The larger ziploc has two rows inside the box and the smaller baggies has three rows. I also number the labels that go inside the ziplocs by variety. So for instance if I put 5 - 2 x 3 packets of Cherokee Wax starting off in the box in the left row. All those packets are numbered #1. Then after that if I put 10 packets of Jacob's Cattle after the wax beans all the JC packets get the number #2 printed on the label and so forth until the entire box is filled. The boxes are all numbered and the information of what is in those boxes are recorded on a word processor file on my computer. By numbering those packets and boxes you can locate box number and packet number of a bean very quickly.

Always remember if you want to grow your frozen bean or give it to someone else. Allow frozen seed to warm to room temperature naturally before opening any packets of seed.

So below are photos of how the boxes look when I'm filling them with packets of beans. It is a system and it works. You might think of something else. I have shown this to other people before and have had some adopt this way of storing seed.

2 x 3 inch baggies of beans.

3 x 4 inch baggies of beans. The label hadn't been printed yet for this box.

 

[Artorius]

I shelled out some Ernie's Big Eye dry pods. I was very curious about what I would find inside.
I sowed the seeds I got from Russ. They looked like this.

Now the seeds look like this.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I love it, beautiful beans. Were those all from the same plant or did they all change that way? It will be interesting to see what Russ has to say but you may have a nice segregation there.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Artorius,

I knew Ernie's Big Eye was a more beautiful bean than what I had sent you. I have also sent this bean to @Decoy1. I'm sure her results will be similar when she makes her seed harvest. I have no doubts that all the seed from every plant changed that way.

I had first grown Ernie's Big Eye in 1978 and I've known the bean was soil sensitive since then. It just takes the right soils for Ernie to really shine. You do not have a segregation, but this is the way Ernie's Big Eye should look. The beans original source is from the collection of Ernest B. Dana of Etna, New Hampshire back in the 1970's. I am growing Ernie's Big Eye also this summer in my large 80 variety bean plot.

Most all the beans in this large plot are growing abundantly and many of the plants are just massive. 40 inch wide rows (101.6 CM) and many of the bush varieties are just nearly closing up the space between the rows. Most of the beans are loaded with pods. Seed was planted 6 inches apart (15.24 CM) A couple of recent photos below.

Sky of Blue
Sea of Beans
Living In a dream come true

Brooten - Bush, A Robert Lobitz Legacy bean that I have named after Brooten, Minnesota

 

[flowerbug]

@Bluejay77 beautiful! what a difference sandy loam makes vs. clay!

 

[ducks4you]

@Artorius,

I knew Ernie's Big Eye was a more beautiful bean than what I had sent you. I have also sent this bean to @Decoy1. I'm sure her results will be similar when she makes her seed harvest. I have no doubts that all the seed from every plant changed that way.

I had first grown Ernie's Big Eye in 1978 and I've known the bean was soil sensitive since then. It just takes the right soils for Ernie to really shine. You do not have a segregation, but this is the way Ernie's Big Eye should look. The beans original source is from the collection of Ernest B. Dana of Etna, New Hampshire back in the 1970's. I am growing Ernie's Big Eye also this summer in my large 80 variety bean plot.

Most all the beans in this large plot are growing abundantly and many of the plants are just massive. 40 inch wide rows (101.6 CM) and many of the bush varieties are just nearly closing up the space between the rows. Most of the beans are loaded with pods. Seed was planted 6 inches apart (15.24 CM) A couple of recent photos below.

View attachment 36636





View attachment 36638
Sky of Blue
Sea of Beans
Living In a dream come true

View attachment 36639
Brooten - Bush, A Robert Lobitz Legacy bean that I have named after Brooten, Minnesota

Can you talk about your structures for your beans, how you prep your beds, etc.? Maybe you have pictures from pre planting? Thx!