2021 Little Easy Bean Network - Bean Lovers Come Discover Something New !

Blue-Jay

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Couple bean things. That Candy bean is pretty extraordinary @Bluejay77 , can you tell me anything about that bean, does it originate in your gardens? It is just so big and so colourful, what an unusual and highly productive bean. And for a bean so large it matures quite early. It is a winner all way round.

Candy originates in my early 1980's gardens. Named by me. It took me about 5 seconds for the name to literally pop into my mind when I first saw the seed. The seed mother of Candy is a bean that I originally acquired from John Withee's Wanigan Associates from Lynnfield, Massachusetts. Seed mother bean is Big Light Red Trout. Big Light Red Trout is also a True bush type. I was surprised to find in the next growing season that Candy has climbing capabilities. Big Light Red Trout has the long wide pods that Candy inherited. BLRT does not produce a lot of seed and what it does produce is not of good quality either. So when I saw the seed that Candy produces I was very happy indeed. I never listed Candy in Seed Savers Exchange until 2013 , but shared some of the early seeds with another Seed Saver Exchange member Ralph Stevenson of Tekonsha, Michigan. The bean spread to other members in subsequent years. There have been two listings in older issues of the SSE yearbook that confirms the origination of Candy with Russ Crow. I was suprised to see in Candy a bean that is of the cranberry class come out of a bean like BLRT. BLRT is a bean the originated in the bean collection of Ernest B. Dana of Etna, New Hampshire. Ernest donated the bean to Wanigan. When I saw BLRT in the Wanigan catalog. I ordered it. I have a feeling that Ernest donated some of the very first BLRT seeds he found as an outcross in his gardens then John Withee passed those first seeds to me probably being very busy with growing out other priority beans. I am of the belief that Candy was a segregation of BLRT. It amazed me that nobody not John Withee or Ernest Dana every came up with a bean like Candy since at least Ernest must of had some of original outcrossed seed that made BLRT.

Candy is in bean collections all over the world. Has been sold commercially by a Canadian Seed Co. (Annapolis Seeds, Nova Scotia) Candy is in the USDA bean collections at Pullman, Washington. The bean was donated to the USDA by Joseph Simcox. He thought it was an original bean of Robert Lobitz. Joseph Had visited me at my house one evening in November 2013 and asked me about Candy. Joseph had met Robert Lobitz one time at Robert's father's farm in Minnesota and Joeseph had donated a number of Lobitz beans to the USDA along with Candy.

So there you have it. The run down on Candy.

Big Light Red Trout
Big Light Red Trout.jpg

Candy
candy.jpg
 
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Blue-Jay

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Wow Early Network Seed Returns !

I think it was around the 20th of August I got a seed return from a grower in Grygala, Minnesota. It was a bush variety and the seed was just gorgeous. Four days ago got another box in the mail with 4 varieties grown by a grower in Berea, Kentucky. I was just surprised to receive seed returns this early.
 
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heirloomgal

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Candy originates in my early 1980's gardens. Named by me. It took me about 5 seconds for the name to literally pop into my mind when I first saw the seed. The seed mother of Candy is a bean that I originally acquired from John Withee's Wanigan Associates from Lynnfield, Massachusetts. Seed mother bean is Big Light Red Trout. Big Light Red Trout is also a True bush type. I was surprised to find in the next growing season that Candy has climbing capabilities. Big Light Red Trout has the long wide pods that Candy inherited. BLRT does not produce a lot of seed and what it does produce is not of good quality either. So when I saw the seed that Candy produces I was very happy indeed. I never listed Candy in Seed Savers Exchange until 2013 , but shared some of the early seeds with another Seed Saver Exchange member Ralph Stevenson of Tekonsha, Michigan. The bean spread to other members in subsequent years. There have been two listings in older issues of the SSE yearbook that confirms the origination of Candy with Russ Crow. I was suprised to see in Candy a bean that is of the cranberry class come out of a bean like BLRT. BLRT is a bean the originated in the bean collection of Ernest B. Dana of Etna, New Hampshire. Ernest donated the bean to Wanigan. When I saw BLRT in the Wanigan catalog. I ordered it. I have a feeling that Ernest donated some of the very first BLRT seeds he found as an outcross in his gardens then John Withee passed those first seeds to me probably being very busy with growing out other priority beans. I am of the belief that Candy was a segregation of BLRT. It amazed me that nobody not John Withee or Ernest Dana every came up with a bean like Candy since at least Ernest must of had some of original outcrossed seed that made BLRT.

Candy is in bean collections all over the world. Has been sold commercially by a Canadian Seed Co. (Annapolis Seeds, Nova Scotia) Candy is in the USDA bean collections at Pullman, Washington. The bean was donated to the USDA by Joseph Simcox. He thought it was an original bean of Robert Lobitz. Joseph Had visited me at my house one evening in November 2013 and asked me about Candy. Joseph had met Robert Lobitz one time at Robert's father's farm in Minnesota and Joeseph had donated a number of Lobitz beans to the USDA along with Candy.

So there you have it. The run down on Candy.

Big Light Red Trout
View attachment 43865

Candy
View attachment 43866
Thank you! Info straight from the SOURCE! 🍬
 

heirloomgal

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What colour were the pods of your Kaiser Fredrich @heirloomgal ?
I believe I may have obtained a slightly offtype strain as I grew it this year and the pods are pink over green - I was under the impression that the base colour should be yellow, is this so?
I'll post a picture @Triffid, so you can see. ☺
 

Artorius

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@Artorius that Piekny Jas bean could become an addiction! What a bean! It is so, so giant and again, so productive. My daughter thinks those beans are just amazing. I have already harvested many bean pods and there are dozens more out there. I will definitely keep it in my collection. Is the translation 'Gentleman's Bean'?

@heirloomgal
I am glad that Piękny Jaś did well and you like it. The literal translation of the name is Beautiful Johnny or, from German, Hansel. As in the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel :)
The bean you have is a strain grown in the Dunajec River valley in south-eastern Poland. I also have another pole strain with a terrible pronounceable name for an English-speaking person: Piękny Jaś Wrzawski, cultivated in and around the village of Wrzawy. It is also south-eastern Poland, but more to the north. This strain has similar sized seeds that have a thinner skin and are sweeter in taste. Do you want to try it out? :)

Wild Gonny and Kroatische Stangenbohne have given me a nice harvest and I will also be able to send them to you.
 
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heirloomgal

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@Triffid I thought I had a picture that was a close up of Kaiser Friedrich, but this is all I have. KF is the 5 plants on the right of the trellis; I think they were pure green judging by the few pods I can see in the foliage.

20210807_144147.jpg


This is the dry pods, with significant purple mottling so maybe they developed a purple overlay in the final stage of pod development -
20210920_180703.jpg

20210920_180743.jpg


@Artorius do you recall the pod colour?

My 'Gout' beans were identical in pod form to KF. The beans, though, I think were generally a more grayish lavender. There was some variation pod to pod.
20210920_180918.jpg

20210920_181102.jpg
 
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Triffid

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Thanks @heirloomgal! Very interesting, the pods on the plants I've grown are different from both yours and those that I've seen online. Maybe the striping comes later.

https://deaflora.de/Shop/Bohnen/Stangenbohne-Kaiser-Friedrich--Samen-.html


The seeds, however, are identical. I do wonder whether it wasn't a pure strain to begin with, though perhaps that would be unlikely with an inbreeder such as French beans.

From the 1891 Cannell's catalogue:
EMPEROR FREDERICK, NEW RUNNER.— The pods of this valuable novelty are perfectly stringless until complete maturity; in colour they somewhat resemble those of the Mont d'Or, being of a golden yellow tinted with rose, but marked at intervals with emerald green. The flesh is very thick, juicy, and tender, and the flavour particularly delicate. It is very prolific, and an almost perpetual bearer, producing uninterruptedly from summer until late in the autumn, and is of such a hardy nature that even under unfavourable atmospheric conditions it may be depended upon to produce a good crop.

I'll see if I can get some photos of the pods here, which are still fleshy. I won't be saving seeds from them as they have a virus which has stunted their growth somewhat.
 

heirloomgal

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So many interesting variations to observe this year.
I grew Blue Shaxamaxon pole beans in two different gardens, one with warmer (south facing location), sandier type soil and some in the richer, loamy soil. The beans on the left were in the loamy soil, the right in the sandier more quickly draining soil. Pod form - purple, with pods dried tight to beans though easily shelled - was the same. It's striking how differently the beans formed, one almost square on the ends and somewhat smaller.
20210921_200432.jpg


Close pic of beans on right I took some time ago -
20210911_175114.jpg


All the other beans grown along that wall were smooth, like the beans on the left. Veense, Sacre Blue, Landfrauen, were on that wall -
20210921_202607.jpg

20210824_220159.jpg

20210824_223447.jpg


I wonder if some varieties are more moisture/soil sensitive? Or perhaps something else accounts for the difference?

I also found this on the same bean tree planted with Blue Shaxamaxon in the loamy soil - differences in colour is just lighting -
20210921_195735.jpg

20210921_195954.jpg


Last bit of surprises; every pod I've shelled from C. Di Sicili (which is a lot) looks like this -
20210921_201411.jpg

20210913_215940.jpg


Every single one!? Could it be a soil reaction? The patterns is so consistent on the different plants?

Also @Bluejay77 that Coral been we discussed here earlier in the year, I think you are correct that it may not be totally stable yet. I planted all pink beans, but all I've harvested thus far is rust coloured.
 
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Artorius

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@Triffid I thought I had a picture that was a close up of Kaiser Friedrich, but this is all I have. KF is the 5 plants on the right of the trellis; I think they were pure green judging by the few pods I can see in the foliage.

View attachment 43905

This is the dry pods, with significant purple mottling so maybe they developed a purple overlay in the final stage of pod development -
View attachment 43906
View attachment 43907

@Artorius do you recall the pod colour?

My 'Gout' beans were identical in pod form to KF. The beans, though, I think were generally a more grayish lavender. There was some variation pod to pod.
View attachment 43908
View attachment 43909

@heirloomgal
My Gout... pods were the same as yours. Some of the fresh ones had a strong red bloom, but I think that was the effect of the soil in which they grew. The seeds are also the same. I have looked at some internet sites with photos of the seeds of this bean and everywhere you see this lavender color to a greater or lesser extent.
In my opinion, the Gout... and Kaiser Friedrich pods are different from each other. Look at their endings and the shape and thickness of the spike.
 

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