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

Blue-Jay

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It was almost as good as Candy! I was super impressed with it, as it was my first time trying it out. Was a semi-runner.

It was almost as good as Candy! I was super impressed with it, as it was my first time trying it out. Was a semi-runner.
So the two beans are very different in productivity and growth habit. Doesn't seem like they would be related varieties.
 

Zeedman

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Have you tried 'Candy' as a shelly bean? My gosh that bean is HUGE and I can't believe how productive it is. I mean it is REALLY productive, I think I grew 3 or 4 plants and filled half a lg. Bick's Pickle jar!
Haven't tried it, but the fact that it has large seeds & does well in your climate is a strong testimonial. It looks & sounds very much like Brockton Horticultural (there's that word again) which I grew about 15 years ago. That bean too had short vines, a short DTM, and fairly large, elongated seeds that were good as shellies. I just looked, and still have seed; but no longer maintain it, and that seed is probably dead.

I may get around to trying Candy; but because I have so many beans in need of renewal due to the two lost years, it won't be for awhile. :( "Bird Egg #3", my largest-seeded bean & favorite shelly, is due for renewal next year.
My original photo was lost when a previous computer crashed, this is all I could salvage... pardon the poor quality:

 

Blue-Jay

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Hard to tell with no scale... are those fairly large beans? And is this perhaps the same bean being offered by SSE as "Stevenson's Black"? The Yearbook description seems to match.
This bean is actually dark bluish purple when aged a bit. It has shorter seed than Stevenson's Black Eye. Ralph originally listed the two beans in the SSE yearbook as different and there are differences. This bean is just slightly larger than yellow eye bean.
 

Blue-Jay

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Bluejay77's Big Bean Show
Day 29- The Beans I Grew This Summer

Uncle Willies- Bush Dry

85 days to first dry pods. Plants grow upright without runners. Purchased from Annapolis Seeds Nova Scotia in 2011.


Utah Yellow Eye - Bush Dry

This was the third year in a row that grew this bean. Just couldn't get a good grow out until this year. I had grown this bean in the early 1980's. Sent to me by someone in Seed Savers Exchange but I never kept very good records back then as to who I got beans from. Looking through older issues of the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook Ralph Stevenson stated in his 1988 listing of this bean that it had come from Steven Kendall in Utah about 1978. Perhaps that is my original source of this bean.

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Uncle Willies.......................................................................Utah Yellow Eye


Vermont Appaloosa - Bush - Dry - Snap

Can be used as snap beans when picked young. Cultivated in New Mexico and popular in the southwest.


Veitch Wonder - Bush Dry

This is a bean I've grown 3 years in a row that people request it from my website so frequently. A beautiful old European bean sourced from Guy Dirix in Belgium. Hybrid of common bean(Phaseolus Vulgaris x a runner bean Phaseolus Coccineus) from the James Veitch Nurseries of Chelsea-UK 1900-1910. Found in 2015 by the Belgian Seedhunter Lieven Decrick in a Colombian Genebank.



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Vermont Appaloosa


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Veitch Wonder
 

Zeedman

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2021 soybeans, part 1:
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An,dunscaja, from the USDA 2007; collected in China, but originally from the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry (USSR). Very tall plants (about 40") that will likely bend over - but not break - without support. A heavy yielder with a high protein content (46% dry weight)... and very attractive seeds, brown w/glossy black saddle. The 2015 seed did very well, direct seeded in the rural garden, 20 ounces of seed.

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Bei Liang 11, from SSE member Robert Lobitz 2006, originally collected by the USDA in China. 2016 seed germinated well. An early variety, but tall plants (30-36") and a good yield for such an early variety. I gave them support because of their height, but the plants were very sturdy, and only a few tipped over. Long, narrow leaves. All-yellow seed with few culls, protein content 43% dry weight. 28 ounces of seed.

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DV 2371, from the USDA 2007, collected in Russia. Fairly tall but stout plants, 28". 2012 seed failed germination testing so was started in pots; only one of about 200 seeds germinated. :( That single plant was grown in a large pot, under chicken wire... but wind broke off the largest branch as pods were developing. That plant still produced a fair quantity of seed (3 ounces) . One of the most beautiful soybeans I grow, stripes of black & shades of dark brown and reddish brown. Of the few deeply striped soybeans, this is the only one which will mature in my climate. A high-yielding variety with a high protein content (46% dry weight). I will try to do a further seed increase in 2022.
 

heirloomgal

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🤩 @Zeedman my goodness that first soybean and the 3rd one are so unique! I've never seen any others like them. I have Agate and Grand Forks (I got a few plants to survive this year) but the saddles are dark brown not black like those, and that last one reminds of that really unique fava bean; can't recall it's name but it's got that swirly mottled colouring too in greens and browns I think. Do you grow Gaia?
 

Pulsegleaner

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🤩 @Zeedman my goodness that first soybean and the 3rd one are so unique! I've never seen any others like them. I have Agate and Grand Forks (I got a few plants to survive this year) but the saddles are dark brown not black like those, and that last one reminds of that really unique fava bean; can't recall it's name but it's got that swirly mottled colouring too in greens and browns I think. Do you grow Gaia?
The TYPE of Fava is called a fingerprint fava, the specific variety you are thinking of may be Ojo de Dios.

I occasionally find striped soys in my hunting (though not as much now)

Soys also seem to have the ability to be mottled/speckled (usually red or yellow on a black base) or have a seed coat pattern resembling wood grain.

And once I found a soy with an actual eye (like a black eyed pea) (unfortunately, I lost it to Pythium)
 

Zeedman

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🤩 @Zeedman my goodness that first soybean and the 3rd one are so unique! I've never seen any others like them. I have Agate and Grand Forks (I got a few plants to survive this year) but the saddles are dark brown not black like those, and that last one reminds of that really unique fava bean; can't recall it's name but it's got that swirly mottled colouring too in greens and browns I think. Do you grow Gaia?
Saddled soybeans are fairly common (I will be posting photos of a few more soon) but An,dunscaja is one of the more attractive soybeans (as is DV 2371). The reason I acquired them though, is their high nutritional output. There is generally an inverse relationship in soybeans between high protein (and/or earliness) and high productivity. What makes both An,dunscaja and DV 2371 special - aside from their appearance - is that they both have high protein and high productivity. Probably not well suited for edamame (I didn't try either this year) but very nutrient dense for processing. In contrast, most commercially-sold edamame soybeans are only about 40% protein dry weight.

Agate is a good short-season soybean; I acquired it once, but the seed died before I could plant it. I passed on re-acquiring it because it is widely sold commercially, and in no danger. Grand Forks is the only soybean currently on my want list, I hope to acquire it from Great Lakes Staple Seeds, if they have it in stock. Given that I've been trying to find it since 2005, it appears to be endangered. Great Lakes has other interesting soybeans as well... including one that looks very similar to DV 2371.

I have seed for Gaia (and Sumo, Lanco, and Peking Black) sent to me by a source since lost. I once grew Lanco, but it did not mature, so won't try it again. I have yet to grow Gaia, but hope to fit it into my schedule for 2022, given that I don't know how old the seed is & its a fairly small sample. It looks similar to Sakamotowase, which I grew this year.

In my searches, I can find no info on either Sumo or Peking Black.
 

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