2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[Zeedman]

for those with a local library, it can be interesting to check out their electronic resources to see if you have access to research papers and other useful websites that you'd otherwise have to pay for.

today i've found a few papers and books:


if you like Adzuki beans this will likely be a fun read:

History of azuki beans worldwide (300 BCE to 2021): extensively annotated bibliography and sourcebook / compiled by William Shurtleff & Akiko Aoyagi
ISBN 194843654X, 9781948436540

it's only 668 pages and pretty current. not sure i can get it yet, but i may put it on my reading list eventually.


this next one is historical enough it may not be current, but i also grabbed it for the references:

Phylogeographic analysis of the chloroplast DNA variation
in wild common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) in the Americas
M. I. Chacón S. 1 , B. Pickersgill 2 , D. G. Debouck 3 , and J. Salvador Arias 4


this one looks really interesting and is more recent:

Genomic history of the origin and domestication of common bean unveils its closest sister species (a lot of authors starting with Rendón-Anaya, Martha and Alfonso Delgado-Salinas):

Source: Genome biology. 2017 18(1):60-60.

There is a very knowledgeable poster on another forum who has stated that common beans have 2 different centers of origin, and that crossing is minimal between the two. Oversimplified, it roughly translated to small elongated beans vs. larger, more rounded beans. Wish I could quote the reference, but I lost all of that in a previous computer crash. Perhaps one of your bean references @flowerbug will either explain or refute that. I've used that concept as strategy when planning my bean grow outs, and try not to plant two beans of the same type adjacent to each other. While my crosses have been few, I don't know if that is a contributing factor, since beans have such a low incidence of crossing anyway.

I've saved those references for some future date, as I don't get to the library often. I'll also reach out to the forum member I mentioned, to see if he can quote his references.

 

[flowerbug]

There is a very knowledgeable poster on another forum who has stated that common beans have 2 different centers of origin, and that crossing is minimal between the two. Oversimplified, it roughly translated to small elongated beans vs. larger, more rounded beans. ...

I've saved those references for some future date, as I don't get to the library often. I'll also reach out to the forum member I mentioned, to see if he can quote his references.

that is ok, i've seen references to that already. since i've not studied it in depth i have no real opinion. knowing how things can go in both science and nature i'll hold my judgements on this...

i may find other things sometime, but for today i'm done with searching and that will keep me busy reading what i've got now. at least a few terms i learned recently will get pounded into my head...

 

[Zeedman]

all i can say is the website says to be patient and orders are filled in order so ... if you were able to place an order to begin with i think you'll be ok.

at least i hope so...

I literally kept an open tab, checked it daily, and ordered as soon as the website opened... so I shouldn't be too far from the front of the line. It is just frustrating, because I can't complete my garden planning until I either have all seeds in hand, or confirmed shipping. Other than Moringa (which must be mailed when temps are above freezing) this is the only order I am still waiting on.

None of which has anything to do with beans (other than peanuts were part of the order) so I'll reserve any future comments on this for the Catalog thread.

 

[meadow]

There is a very knowledgeable poster on another forum who has stated that common beans have 2 different centers of origin, and that crossing is minimal between the two. Oversimplified, it roughly translated to small elongated beans vs. larger, more rounded beans. Wish I could quote the reference, but I lost all of that in a previous computer crash. Perhaps one of your bean references @flowerbug will either explain or refute that. I've used that concept as strategy when planning my bean grow outs, and try not to plant two beans of the same type adjacent to each other. While my crosses have been few, I don't know if that is a contributing factor, since beans have such a low incidence of crossing anyway.

I found a similar comment in this article when researching Rancho Gordo beans:

The Hunt for Mexico's Heirloom Beans

Not sure if Andean vs Mesoamerican is what you were thinking of. The article says in part,

[...] Sando’s chief counterpart in this debate is Paul Gepts, a professor of plant sciences at Davis. Gepts is a small Belgian man of seemingly indeterminate age (he is sixty-four), with a bottlebrush mustache and bespectacled eyes that glint with suppressed humor. Physically, he’s a smaller, paler version of Sando—the navy bean to the other man’s lima. When I asked Gepts if beans were his primary focus, he smiled and murmured, “I am Mr. Bean.” The following week, he gave the keynote address at the International Bean Conference in Brazil.

Gepts takes a fatherly pride in his subjects. On the bookcase in his office, jars of beans sit side by side with pictures of his son. He keeps an eye on Rancho Gordo’s Web site, he told me, to see which beans are selling and to intervene in the forums sometimes, to correct an especially wrongheaded post. But he doesn’t segregate beans as Sando does—into heirloom and industrial, authentic and engineered varieties. To Gepts, their entire history is a genetic experiment. His research has shown that beans were domesticated twice: in Mesoamerica, where their wild forebears evolved, and in the Andes. Mesoamerican beans are smaller and rounder, Andean beans more kidney-shaped. Mesoamerican varieties tend be more prolific, Andean varieties more colorful. Pinto, navy, and black beans are Mesoamerican. Cranberry, cannellini, and large lima beans are Andean. “I can see just by looking at them which ones are which,” Gepts said.

To a bean breeder, the difference is more than academic. Mesoamerican and Andean beans have different yields and tolerances; they get different diseases and thrive in different climates. Crossbreed them one way and you can consolidate their best traits in a single bean; crossbreed them in another way and you may get a “lethal line” that withers on the vine. (Mesoamerican and Andean beans tend not to cross well.) Building better beans is more than just a commercial enterprise, Gepts says. It’s essential to feeding the world. In some African countries, beans represent almost half of the protein that people eat, and they’re sometimes smuggled across borders to meet demand.

 

[meadow]

Any cowpea recommendations for the PNW?

Would they be difficult to grow here?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Any cowpea recommendations for the PNW?

Would they be difficult to grow here?

I'll leave specific suggestions to others. But you should have no problem with cowpeas in the PNW. There are plenty of types that are short day enough that I can get them to grow here in NY, so the latitude should be no problem.

I'm a little concerned about your level of moisture up there. Cowpeas are pretty good at taking drought, so a lot of types might rot in very moist weather. But I'm sure there are moisture tolerant ones as well. After all, there are some pretty rainy chunks of Africa as well!

 

[meadow]

Cowpeas are pretty good at taking drought, so a lot of types might rot in very moist weather.

Our garden beds are mounded above the surrounding ground, and the soil dries out very quickly. It probably helps that there are also some drain tiles and a nearby ditch that carry excess water away from our property. Hopefully that will help for growing cowpeas!

 

[flowerbug]

cowpeas did ok here growing as we do have pretty warm summers, but the end of the season seed drying was not that great and i've not grown them again. if you want them for the green vegetable stage they'll probably be ok.

 

[Zeedman]

Any cowpea recommendations for the PNW?

Would they be difficult to grow here?

If the garden is located in the part of Washington which gets cool ocean breezes in summer, cowpeas could be tough. They need heat; days above 70 F. (80 degrees is better), night temperatures consistently above 60 F. degrees (and only briefly down to 50 F.). If you have at least 60 days like that, the shortest DTM cowpeas might make it.

MN 13 and MN 150 (both developed in Minnesota) would be the best candidates for dry beans. Both are true bush, so they don't waste time & energy putting out vines. They have a DTM of 65 days here to first dry, probably a week or so longer there. Yancheng Bush is another true bush variety, but bred for its crisp 12-15" immature pods (which are the same quality as climbing Asian yardlong beans). That has a DTM of 50 days for pods, and about 2 weeks longer for dry seed.

I would recommend planting them in a sunny location where they are sheltered from cold winds, preferably against a South-facing wall. If you'd like to try any of those above, shoot me a PM.

 

[meadow]

If the garden is located in the part of Washington which gets cool ocean breezes in summer, cowpeas could be tough. They need heat; days above 70 F. (80 degrees is better), night temperatures consistently above 60 F. degrees (and only briefly down to 50 F.). If you have at least 60 days like that, the shortest DTM cowpeas might make it.

MN 13 and MN 150 (both developed in Minnesota) would be the best candidates for dry beans. Both are true bush, so they don't waste time & energy putting out vines. They have a DTM of 65 days here to first dry, probably a week or so longer there. Yancheng Bush is another true bush variety, but bred for its crisp 12-15" immature pods (which are the same quality as climbing Asian yardlong beans). That has a DTM of 50 days for pods, and about 2 weeks longer for dry seed.

I would recommend planting them in a sunny location where they are sheltered from cold winds, preferably against a South-facing wall. If you'd like to try any of those above, shoot me a PM.

Thank you, the information is much appreciated.

No ocean breezes here. I'm having a bit of trouble finding historical weather data for my location, but I think it could be a bit dicey. I think I'll skip it for this season and go with something more guaranteed of success (I'm feeling the need for food security).