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

[Lori B]

My bean-hunting season has opened. I received this package in June, but I put it in a drawer because this year's beans were already growing in the garden. I opened it a few days ago. Sow True Seed does not ship seeds outside the United States, so a friend from Connecticut bought them for me.

View attachment 43838

I have really liked that Willowleaf butter bean. i separated the colors and grew by similar colors. They are so pretty.

 

[Lori B]

So glad i picked my beans that were dry last week as we have been inundated with rain the last 3 days.

We were threatened with a freeze so the plants that were not quite dry were stripped of half their beans and put in the garage to finish drying rather than be killed by the freeze. It then ended up only barely frosting a few plants.

Glad i left the beans that hadn't completely filled out on the vine to finish. Hopefully they will finish before next week's definite freeze (25).

Below are what i have harvested so far:

Purple Peacock
Malawi Green,
Sacre Blue,
Hopi Grey (planted only a solid color),
Snowcap
Flamingo, Woodruff,
Red Eye Fall ( 2 views)
Perigon

 

[Lori B]

Here is 3 of 6 of my grow out beans: Indian, Appaloosa, and Red Marble. I forgot to take pictures of Bird Egg #2 and Deb's Creek.

The last pictures are of what came out of the Frauenbohne seed that I planted. Very nice, but not true to type... The last two pictures may just be unripe as they are smaller and only 3-4 seeds total.Indian

Appaloosa

Red Marble

 

[heirloomgal]

I was really impressed with Red Turtle and think it's going to be a great addition to my rotation. It's productive and fun to grow but passes for mainstream enough that people won't look at me funny when I share it.

Bird Egg #3 was super cool too. I'm not sure I'll regrow it but it was fun once at least.

How about you?

I looked around online for that Bird Egg #3 but couldn't find it. It must be rare?

I had so many favourites this year that it would be hard to narrow it down! But I guess that happens when you grow a lot of news ones too. Alubias di Tolosa (sp?), Fagiola Assiago di Viola, Cerna Tanenice, Mbombo Green, Piekny Jas, Bamberger Blaue.....

 

[heirloomgal]

"Jembo Polish"; it is one of my favorite pole beans for shellies. Large seed size, good flavor, and was amazingly productive this year.

I grew "Piekny Jas" for the first time; based upon its HUGE shelly size & great flavor, it could easily become a favorite. The only problem I had with it was relatively low productivity... but unfortunately, that seems to be the norm for the large white-seeded runner beans I've grown. "Bianco de Spagna" and "Gigantes" fared not much better. Maybe if I focused on just one & grew it year-after-year, it would become better acclimated.

I believe @Artorius and @heirloomgal also grew "Piekny Jas" this year. What were your opinions on its productivity?

Is it easy to get Jembo Polish to maturity? I have been eyeing that bean! I'm really surprised that your Piekny Jas was not productive? That one was my record breaker of about 60-70 varieties; 8 plants and over 6 pounds of seed. And it was a really hot summer, lots of days over 30 degrees, which I would have assumed would make it less productive. But maybe you have much more productive plants than me generally @Zeedman. So what seems really productive for me, is not so productive for you. I think I might start keeping track of my highest producers to see if that varies season to season.

How do you prepare the shellies?

 

[heirloomgal]

So glad i picked my beans that were dry last week as we have been inundated with rain the last 3 days.

We were threatened with a freeze so the plants that were not quite dry were stripped of half their beans and put in the garage to finish drying rather than be killed by the freeze. It then ended up only barely frosting a few plants.

Glad i left the beans that hadn't completely filled out on the vine to finish. Hopefully they will finish before next week's definite freeze (25).

Below are what i have harvested so far:

View attachment 44800Purple Peacock
View attachment 44801Malawi Green,
View attachment 44802Sacre Blue,
View attachment 44803Hopi Grey (planted only a solid color),
View attachment 44804Snowcap
View attachment 44814Flamingo, View attachment 44815 Woodruff,
View attachment 44817 Red Eye Fall ( 2 views)View attachment 44816
View attachment 44818Perigon

Was the Malawi Green productive? That one really seems exceptionally coloured.

 

[jbosmith]

I looked around online for that Bird Egg #3 but couldn't find it. It must be rare?

I had so many favourites this year that it would be hard to narrow it down! But I guess that happens when you grow a lot of news ones too. Alubias di Tolosa (sp?), Fagiola Assiago di Viola, Cerna Tanenice, Mbombo Green, Piekny Jas, Bamberger Blaue.....

I can send you Bird Egg #3 though I suspect @Zeedman could do it better. I have a handful from the original packet but wouldn't trust my growout to not be crossed. I also need to freeze those as they have bugs and they aren't perfectly dry...

 

[Artorius]

Anyone grow a bean this year that turned out either to be a wonderful new favorite, or grow a variety that reminded you of why you like growing it so much?

This year I was brought to my knees by Potawatomi Lima. I have not had such a large crop of limas yet. Plants grew on a new place that I carved out of the swamp, fairly moist all the time, but not wet and they were well sheltered from the wind. And most importantly, there were no moles there. Besides, all the beans grew well there. I will extend this area in the spring.
Other beans that I am very happy with are:
- pole: Snow Cap, Brown Lazy Wife, Slut and Kroatische Stange
- bush: Dapple Grey, Elektra, Smith River Super Speckle
- half-runner: Huey, Robert Hazelwood, Nimbus project

 

[Artorius]

I grew "Piekny Jas" for the first time; based upon its HUGE shelly size & great flavor, it could easily become a favorite. The only problem I had with it was relatively low productivity... but unfortunately, that seems to be the norm for the large white-seeded runner beans I've grown. "Bianco de Spagna" and "Gigantes" fared not much better. Maybe if I focused on just one & grew it year-after-year, it would become better acclimated.

I believe @Artorius and @heirloomgal also grew "Piekny Jas" this year. What were your opinions on its productivity?

This year I didn't have a Piękny Jaś, but every time I grew it, I was very happy with the crop.
Runner beans have higher soil fertility requirements than common beans. Where it is supposed to grow, I spread potassium and phosphorus fertilizer in the fall, and in the spring an additional thick layer of compost.
This year I was growing Sadie's Horse. Each seed color grew in a different place. The differences in yield are clear, because not all places have been properly prepared. Too late, I had the idea to separate the colors. White was the best color because it grew where I planned it in the fall.

 

[Zeedman]

I looked around online for that Bird Egg #3 but couldn't find it. It must be rare?

It is relatively rare. I obtained seed from SSE, and have been sharing seed since 2007... quite a few trades over the years. Until SSE itself listed it a couple years ago, I & those I've shared with were the only sources. It has the largest shellies of any common bean I've grown, almost as large as some runner beans. A couple similar pole varieties, such as "Canon City" and "Portugal", come close. Very productive too, which is the reason I harvested 7# of dry seed from a 2017 grow out. It's due for renewal & DW loves it, so "Bird Egg #3" will almost certainly be grown in our 2022 gardens.

Is it easy to get Jembo Polish to maturity? I have been eyeing that bean! I'm really surprised that your Piekny Jas was not productive? That one was my record breaker of about 60-70 varieties; 8 plants and over 6 pounds of seed. And it was a really hot summer, lots of days over 30 degrees, which I would have assumed would make it less productive. But maybe you have much more productive plants than me generally @Zeedman. So what seems really productive for me, is not so productive for you. I think I might start keeping track of my highest producers to see if that varies season to season.

How do you prepare the shellies?

6 pounds of "Piekny Jas" seed from 8 plants is great production.

"Jembo Polish" is rather late; by my records, 75 days for snaps, and I would guess about 100 days for shellies. The vines were rampant this year & produced heavily... really the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal bean year. @Bluejay77 grows them too, and I concur with his appraisal - this variety should be more widely grown.

"Jembo Polish", the (almost) last harvest of shellies. DW was cutting down the vines today, and found a few we had missed.

For any shelly, we rinse them & soak the beans over-night, or even up to 24 hours. Then we steam them... "Jembo Polish" takes about 20 minutes. I have a bowl of softened margarine & salt ready (usually some ground Thai basil as well) and pour the beans directly into that bowl when done. Stirring the beans immediately to coat them with the margarine (or butter) prevents the skins from cracking. We generally allow the beans to sit for awhile before eating, which allows the skins to soften further.

We used the same method for "Piekny Jas", but they required 25 minutes in the steamer. DW REALLY loved those, and ate the last of them today. This was a tough year here for almost all Phaseolus beans, and the production wasn't terrible... maybe they will do better in the future. The other runner bean I grew this year, "Insuk's Wang Kong", did much worse.

It's hard to believe I almost had to twist DW's arm to get her to try shellies for the first time; now she twists my arm to grow them. I've created a monster! The only shellies which made it into the freezer this year were some of the limas.