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

[jbosmith]

Hi again! I dug out the seed packet for those pseudo-runner beans and some of them do indeed have a little bit of white on them. They're also more brown than purple in the packet. Now I want to replant them next year and see if the all-purple bean stays true to form!

 

[Michael Lusk]

I've been silent on the forum this year, but I've popped in from time to time to get some inspiration. I had limited space this year and only grew four network varieties. I'm happy to say that I'll be returning seed for all four this year and will be back at it in 2022. The pole limas both did really well and I'm still collecting beans - the plants are actually still low-key flowering today. Here are the 2021 beans:

Thebodeau Comte Beauce (bush)
These plants had a singular bean with inverted seed coats...I may try with these next year. The production was on the low side.

Preston's Old Family Heirloom (bush)

Flossie Powell (pole Lima) - VERY productive and very cool bean!

Pressley (Pole Lima) - VERY productive as well and really well defined seed coats...this is one super cool bean!

 

[Decoy1]

This year I had some P. vulgaris varieties from a swap with an Italian grower. It's really difficult to find any information about some of the varieties he sent me, and some of them didn't thrive. But the ones below are all pole beans which I really enjoyed and which did very well.

I wonder whether anyone has come across any of these names - or similar beans - or can shed any light on them.

 

[Decoy1]

And another one: Mascherina del Cadore

 

[flowerbug]

Hi again! I dug out the seed packet for those pseudo-runner beans and some of them do indeed have a little bit of white on them. They're also more brown than purple in the packet. Now I want to replant them next year and see if the all-purple bean stays true to form!

View attachment 44362

i had mixed purples to browns if i recall correctly... i still liked them as they were, but if i were selecting to plant i'd be picking the purples and purples with white bits on them. i sure don't need any more brown beans...

 

[jbosmith]

Beautiful pictures, @Decoy1 - I especially like that last one, though Rosecoco are clearly #1 based on this:

 

[flowerbug]

I've been silent on the forum this year, but I've popped in from time to time to get some inspiration. I had limited space this year and only grew four network varieties. I'm happy to say that I'll be returning seed for all four this year and will be back at it in 2022. The pole limas both did really well and I'm still collecting beans - the plants are actually still low-key flowering today. Here are the 2021 beans:
...

glad to see you back posting again. also glad to see that your network beans did well.

 

[jbosmith]

@Michael Lusk those limas are unreal!!

 

[Zeedman]

I got the seed from them last year, but the germ test date isn't listed so I'm not sure when it was grown out. The lighter lavender seeds in that pic are shellies and the dry seeds are even darker in person than they look in the picture. They're indeed all solid purple. They still have it listed as a runner bean in the Exchange but it isn't listed for the upcoming yearbook. I'll reiterate the species point when I fill out the eval.

Well I'll be... SSE did indeed slip Olteanu's Romanian Yellow back into the 2020 Yearbook under 'Runner beans'... in spite of describing it as a 'wax bean'. Apparently they caught their mistake (or it was pointed out to them) because it is listed under the 'wax pole' heading in the 2021 Yearbook. Mistakes happen; and to SSE's credit, they seem to be doing a better job of correcting them than in years past. They've really cleaned up the 'unsorted' categories.

 

[Artorius]

On Saturday I finished the 2021 season. I took the last varieties of beans to the barn to dry: Succotash, True Red Cranberry and Tarahumara Dark Purple. I also pulled up all the tomato bushes. Now I will have more time to shell the pods, segregate the seeds and take photos.

Of the fifteen network beans, I will be able to return ten. Seeds of one variety (Luthers Family Greasy Cornfield) did not sprout. Four others grew in a row that had been completely dug by moles. Some plants were thrown up together with their roots to the surface of the earth. I put them back on, but after a while they started to dry out. The root system was probably too damaged. I won't have a single Fox Family Greasy and Pink Tip Greasy seed. Fortunately, I didn't sow all the seeds from the samples I received so I will be able to repeat them next year. The other two, Jack In The Beanstalk and Mother Earth, gave me only a few good seeds. It is similar with other beans that grew there, such as Schwarze Witwe, Darzineles from Lithuania, and two old Polish pole waxes: Goliat and Tytan.
Yes, moles can really be annoying.