2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[flowerbug]

There are some tomatoes right behind those beans. The one I posted last week was near some peppers. I think the hornworms wander a bit between snacks...

i've never seen them on any plant other than the tomatoes. i do know that at the end when they are ready to hibernate for the winter they'll head down and dig in, but i've never caught them in the process of doing that. sometimes i have dug them up when turning a garden, but not very often these days since i'm not doing that much digging.

 

[jbosmith]

I remember you saying that you didn't get a proper grow out last summer with Red Turtle. Something to do with possibly isolation. Did you get a proper grow out this year and were you satisfied with the results? Your seed looks great.

Keep offering the bean in the SSE yearbook.

Last year they were in a trial garden, all snarled up on a single trellis with a bunch of other varieties. This year I planted the rest of what you sent me in a 15' row in a garden with no other vulgaris varieties.

They didn't want to climb their trellis early on and I had to keep relocating them from the tomatoes in the next row. This lead to a bunch of vines being a little bunched up near the bottom and the beans on the lower parts of the vines have had some mold, as one might expect. Otherwise they've done quite well!

I'll definitely keep listing them.

 

[meadow]

...Gross Brothers Vermont Cranberry was in the adjacent row and was one variety over. It is the only one (in those 3 rows) with seed coat that looks remotely similar to the new one, plus it has the purple color AND is known for being a short season bean. Naturally I had to place an order.

Turns out Gross Brothers Vermont Cranberry may be the same as Johnson.

Leigh Hurley, in her quest to find the Vermont Cranberry bean her roommates cooked with in the 1970's, wrote this (in 2008):

"These were still not the beans I remembered, but a year later I did find what I was looking for, not much more than a mile away from our home in Wheelock, at one of the last dairy farms left in our town, and going by a different name – “the Johnson” bean. Pat Wiley’s mother had been growing it nearby in Barnet VT when Pat was growing up, and Pat continued to grow it here in Wheelock.

Pat didn’t know what “Johnson” referred to, just that her mother always called them “the Johnson Bean.” For years I have wondered whether Johnson was a family name, or was Johnson VT, but I recently came across this seed listing from Victory Seeds which makes me strongly suspect that Pat’s beans had to do with Johnson VT, about 40 miles west of us. Here’s Victory’s catalog description for “Gross Brothers Cranberry” bean:

65 to 85 days — An heirloom variety that was sent to us several years back by a gardening friend. She rescued it from an older gardener who has since passed away but who had grown it for many years in the short gardening season of the Cold Hollow Mountain region near Enosburgh, Vermont. Introduced commercial by us in 2007. We have been growing out limited quantities and are making them available to home gardeners. The seeds are buff and heavily mottled with cranberry coloring. They are used as green beans when young or dried. There are four to five seeds per five inch pod. The plants are upright and do not require support.

Victory’s bean photo for “Gross Brother’s Cranberry” looks exactly like “the Johnson”, the plant description matches, and Johnson VT is just a few miles from Enosburg. Best of all, “the Johnson” is the bean I remember from the 70s in Lyndonville (as “Vermont Cranberry”). Sorry I don’t have photos of the plants themselves. They’re scheduled for grow-out this next season, and I’ll be doing more thorough photo documentation at that time."

from her blog post, Will the real Vermont Cranberry bean please stand up?

(her photo of Johnson looks very much like the VT Yellow Eye child, probably due to the base color having darkened to a caramel color)

 

[jbosmith]

Turns out Gross Brothers Vermont Cranberry may be the same as Johnson.

Leigh Hurley, in her quest to find the Vermont Cranberry bean her roommates cooked with in the 1970's, wrote this (in 2008):

"These were still not the beans I remembered, but a year later I did find what I was looking for, not much more than a mile away from our home in Wheelock, at one of the last dairy farms left in our town, and going by a different name – “the Johnson” bean. Pat Wiley’s mother had been growing it nearby in Barnet VT when Pat was growing up, and Pat continued to grow it here in Wheelock.

Pat didn’t know what “Johnson” referred to, just that her mother always called them “the Johnson Bean.” For years I have wondered whether Johnson was a family name, or was Johnson VT, but I recently came across this seed listing from Victory Seeds which makes me strongly suspect that Pat’s beans had to do with Johnson VT, about 40 miles west of us. Here’s Victory’s catalog description for “Gross Brothers Cranberry” bean:

Victory’s bean photo for “Gross Brother’s Cranberry” looks exactly like “the Johnson”, the plant description matches, and Johnson VT is just a few miles from Enosburg. Best of all, “the Johnson” is the bean I remember from the 70s in Lyndonville (as “Vermont Cranberry”). Sorry I don’t have photos of the plants themselves. They’re scheduled for grow-out this next season, and I’ll be doing more thorough photo documentation at that time."

from her blog post, Will the real Vermont Cranberry bean please stand up?

(her photo of Johnson looks very much like the VT Yellow Eye child, probably due to the base color having darkened to a caramel color)

I've been to many, many seed saving events with Leigh, and I can send you some of her Johnson beans if you want to do a side by side trial with Gross Brothers. I believe Gross Brothers is at network bean too. Leigh has fallen off the seed saving radar in the last few years, but I grow her Johnson, Littleton, and Smith's Vermont Cranberry on a rotation, and Dolloff sometimes. Dolloff is a nice bean but enough other people grow it that I don't always give it space in my own gardens.

 

[ducks4you]

I'm gonna post this picture aGAIN, bc I would like to know what to do with this--which I discovered on my cow pea/asparagus bean plant yesterday. Is this a seed pod? If SO, do I leave it alone, let it dry out and harvest the seeds? Inquiring ducks minds want to know!

 

[ducks4you]

Also, I have been harvesting the seed pods LONG before I see Any seeds. Should I let them go longer (and longer, since I usually harvest at 8-10 inches long)? THIS is the first time I have seen Anything that looks like a seed pod. I am, afterall a Duck with little knowledge of any kind of beans. This is my first year growing ANY where I am getting a harvest, and green beans always look like they are growing the seeds.
And, YES, we have been having a drought since July here. The rains go north...the rains go south...once in awhile WE get a good rain. Mostly we have been snubbed.

 

[ducks4you]

ACTUALLY, I am NOT growing cow peas, I am growing Asparagus Beans. They grow like a fountain of cascading and long tendrils and do look like this, although I planted 6 of them and only one grew, so I DON'T have this many to harvest at one time:

How to Grow Asparagus Beans - 5 Tips for Growing Yardlong Beans

No matter what you call them (asparagus beans, yardlong beans, snake beans, or Chinese long beans), learn how to grow them with these 5 tips.

growinginthegarden.com

I would Like to save the seeds and plant again next year. They are really a fun crop!

 

[heirloomgal]

Just thought this would be fun to throw out there. Speaking of row spacing. Here is what my heirloom dry beans did to 40 inch wide rows two years ago in 2020.

View attachment 51893

IMHO it just seems like bean plants are one of the most beautiful vegetable plants there are. 🤩

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Yeah, it looks like you left one a little too long, and it's started to ripen. Since it seems to be an unusually short pod for a yard long (they do happen) might as well leave that one be and use it for next years seed supply.

Ironically, pods that look like that are the pods I SEARCH for when I am buying yard longs in Chinatown, since those are the ones far enough along that there is a chance the seeds in them are viable (which, when dealing with an unknown bead you want to try to grow for yourself, is important).

 

[flowerbug]

Yeah, it looks like you left one a little too long, and it's started to ripen. Since it seems to be an unusually short pod for a yard long (they do happen) might as well leave that one be and use it for next years seed supply.

Ironically, pods that look like that are the pods I SEARCH for when I am buying yard longs in Chinatown, since those are the ones far enough along that there is a chance the seeds in them are viable (which, when dealing with an unknown bead you want to try to grow for yourself, is important).

also oddly shaped pods (with just a few seeds instead of the more uniform filled out full pods) are a sign of possible cross pollinations.