2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[meadow]

I've also heard that, if you want to kill your weeds with heat, clear poly is the way to go -- it's like a greenhouse and the dark soil absorbs all the sun's energy.

Lol! Key word is "heat," apparently. I had a couple of piles of excess dirt that was piled 'temporarily' on the back porch just before I broke my foot. One thing and another, it did not get tarped for a very long time. I thought to cover it with clear plastic to kill the weeds, but instead they are flourishing in the warmth! Didn't quite go as I expected. 🤣 I'm sure it would work well during the summer months though.

I love the bean name!

 

[Jack Holloway]

Well, I finally read all the 2021 thread. I have no idea how much of it stuck. I'll most likely be making random references to things I remember reading.

 

[Jack Holloway]

@meadow Finally got my order to Quail. Had to email it and then call with my CC number. They are going to change to a different shop soon. Weebly sites just don't seem to work for me. I'm not the only one who had problems, but their vendor won't listen.

@Bluejay77 Great Lakes Staple Seeds has your Blue Jay bean, but the picture is one of you and in the upper right of the picture is a small text box saying "unavailable". I did place an order with them, for some other seeds. Almost all of their beans are "unavailable."

Had a list of 16 beans from Mandy's GH, then checked, and sure enough, she's in Canada. No go on that one, for now. On her blog she mentions that there is some new disease in tomatoes and peppers that is causing problems with shipping seeds to the USA. Seems the disease is carried in the seeds.

 

[flowerbug]

Well, I finally read all the 2021 thread. I have no idea how much of it stuck. I'll most likely be making random references to things I remember reading.

i wouldn't expect anyone to memorize all of that, just that having read it you now are likely to know more than you did before you read it. how that knowledge percolates around your brain or comes out your ears i cannot predict.

same as i can't predict how reading this book on genetics is going to end up sloshing around in my own collection of noodles. what it is doing for me is giving me some new terms i've not seen before and it also gives me a few pointers to other things for more exploring. that's about what i wanted from it as an overview text anyways (Genetics for Dummies ). almost all of it is review for me on the broad scale - sprinkled here or there are things that are newer than my previous reads. it takes repetition for me to really learn a subject and so now i get to find other things to read to put on the list which will use some of these new terms and also hopefully find some good genetics bean sequences and tools for examining and playing. it's all play. it has to be.

in less play realm last night i watched the beginning of a video that i had to bookmark but it showed a guy doing a cross fertilization of a bean flower. i couldn't finish watching that (it was too late) and it didn't have a high enough magnification for me to see it as anything other than a vague bit of magical hand waving and such, but eventually i'll see or find a good close-up version so i can see how it actually is done. i may not ever do any specific crosses like that but hey it would be good to know.

p.s there's a bunch more bean threads from previous years... like The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, i'm trying to re-read them at least once a year.

 

[Jack Holloway]

Advice needed, please. @Bluejay77 mentioned that he wasn't going to send similar kinds of seed to Network growers and I completely understand why. So I'm asking for the following Network beans, but I think some of them might be too close look-a-likes. What do you folks think? Speak up, please! I think 2 & 3 might be too similar. Also 4, 5, & 6. If I need to trade a couple off the list, I was thinking of Karachaganck and Tartan, Tartan might be too similar to Up The Valley though. I thought of Jas too, but I think it is similar 4, 5, and 6 as well.

1. Etna
2. Dalmatin
3. Trevio Nun
4. Potawtomi
5. Cedar Creek
6. Davis Creek
7. Glade Springs
8. Up The Valley

Thoughts? Anyone?

And @Bluejay77 , if you can spare them, could I get a few seeds of
Draper's Glen Off Type #2 and Victoria Browneyes Outcross, the one that gave you all the segregations?

Thank you @flowerbug. I'm starting on the 2019 next. Got caught up reading other things today.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I grew 5,6,7, & 8 as part of the Will Bonsall beans Russ sent me. Cedar Creek grew as a climbing bean, Davis Creek was a bush. That doesn't mean as much as you'd think, you can still get different growth habit from them. The way I understand it climbing is the dominant trait so one that grew as a bush and did not outcross again should grow as a bush but I've had several of the climbing ones throw bush segregations.

Russ has an interesting story on Up the Valley. I can't remember the details but as I remember it some guy wanted to grow beans to help developing countries grow their own food. Please correct me where I'm wrong Russ. He tried Up the Valley and was happy with it. I have no idea if Russ got back any seeds from him.

Several of us have tried growing Karachaganak, it is pretty. The general pattern seems to hold but you can get either round or oval seeds. I've had a slightly different color, it mostly repeats but some have been more black. That might just be the differences in the soil it grows in. @Artorius and I have had it throw a bush version. Since you are looking for beans that will likely segregate, well this one does but it's being worked on.

When I grew Tartan it segregated into four different shades of brown, some dark some light. The pattern held, just different colors for the dark part. I selected the "A" one to carry on. Since we like photos I'll show those four color differences.

The last time I grew the one I'm currently calling Tartan Tan I got these two. It's the first time I got a different pattern.

I consider all these working names since they haven't stabilized. That's a warning, don't use your good names until they stabilize, but you can use them as working names. Once you mail them or share them working names become locked in even if they haven't stabilized.

I have a few of the dark ones shown above, the Tartan C, that I do not plan to plant again. I'll be glad to mail them to you if you want. They are totally yours to name as you wish if you can stabilize them. Or name any segregations you get from them. Or if you get the original from Russ I'm pretty confident you'll get some segregations to play with.

Jas stabilized for me. That second grow out in 2020 on Russ's web page should be stabile seeds I sent him, not what you are after. I like that bean though.

Russ, correct me if I'm wrong. If Jack gets these "network" beans and they segregate he doesn't need to send them back to you until he stabilizes them. You might even prefer that he not if he intends to stabilize them.

Jack, don't get too ambitious. When I started down this path I got four different packets of beans from Russ, they produced 25 segregations. I have no idea how many segregations you'll actually get from any of these but they can really multiply.

Since you don't know what any of these beans will look like when you open the pod (or even growth habit when you plant them) I suggest planting them in a way you can't mix them up with any others. You really don't know what you are going to get. More by accident than on purpose (bush and weak climbers) I've found it good to even know which specific plant they came off of during harvest. That can help you identify segregations. Keep good records and take lots of photos.

This can be frustrating and aggravating but there is a certain excitement when you open the first pod off of each individual plant. Hope you enjoy it.

 

[flowerbug]

the only one of those i know is Etna, it is a bush bean and should be stable unless crossed with something else. it has been used in agricultural quantities and they don't let those out without them being pretty stable in habit.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Bluejay77 Great Lakes Staple Seeds has your Blue Jay bean, but the picture is one of you and in the upper right of the picture is a small text box saying "unavailable". I did place an order with them, for some other seeds. Almost all of their beans are "unavailable."

Yeah Great Lakes Staple Seeds is Elenor Hucker. She used to do some Network grow outs. I had the pleasure of meeting her in person at the 2020 Central Michigan Seed Swap also attendended by Zeedman and Flowerbug. Yep she has my Blue Jay bean. Blue Jay has gotten around to many places in this world in over 40 years. I had a real good crop of Blue Jay myself this past summer. She might of had a bad growing season with her beans last year. Probably weather related most likely.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Advice needed, please. @Bluejay77 mentioned that he wasn't going to send similar kinds of seed to Network growers and I completely understand why. So I'm asking for the following Network beans, but I think some of them might be too close look-a-likes. What do you folks think? Speak up, please! I think 2 & 3 might be too similar. Also 4, 5, & 6. If I need to trade a couple off the list, I was thinking of Karachaganck and Tartan, Tartan might be too similar to Up The Valley though. I thought of Jas too, but I think it is similar 4, 5, and 6 as well.

1. Etna
2. Dalmatin
3. Trevio Nun
4. Potawtomi
5. Cedar Creek
6. Davis Creek
7. Glade Springs
8. Up The Valley

The three most look-a-like beans you have on your list are Etna, Cedar Creek and Potawatomi. Which two of those do you want to eliminate.

Thoughts? Anyone?

And @Bluejay77 , if you can spare them, could I get a few seeds of
Draper's Glen Off Type #2 and Victoria Browneyes Outcross, the one that gave you all the segregations?

The Victoria Brown eyes segregations I will have to check when I get home. I may have eliminated some them. Especially the one that looks exactly like VBE. I think I may have eaten those already. I have VBE already and it's stable. I don't need to repeat that one again.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Russ has an interesting story on Up the Valley. I can't remember the details but as I remember it some guy wanted to grow beans to help developing countries grow their own food. Please correct me where I'm wrong Russ. He tried Up the Valley and was happy with it. I have no idea if Russ got back any seeds from him.

I sent a package of beans to a company in Denmark this past year. They purchased 14 varieties that I thought were early. I had sent 4 to 5 packets of each variety. They wanted to introuduce some new dry beans into the Danish grocery market. Up the valley was not one of those beans. I mailed the beans and when they arrived in Denmark. Everyone in their company was on some sort of national holiday. Customs held their package for three days and then told the company that they returned the package to me. I never saw the package. It was probably destroyed by U.S. customs since the original customs form did state the contents was beans.

However I did send Up The Valley to my bean farmer friend in Idaho Falls this past year. He has since told me recently that the bean is susceptible to mosaic. I don't think that is a big deal as long as the virus in not around. I'm sure most of the heirloom beans we grow are also susceptible to that virus.