2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[meadow]

Speaking of Yellow Eyes, @Bluejay77, can you shed any light on the 'correct' spelling of Kenearly vs Ken Early? I know from your description on A Bean Collector's Window that it was bred at Kentville Nova Scotia Research Center, but I haven't been able to find any documentation for it (and I'm getting the impression that it may be known as Ken Early in Canada).

eta: the one US supplier (or at least the one that I've noticed) that lists it as Ken Early is near the Canadian border... and of the three individuals that I've seen use that spelling, they have all been Canadian.

 

[flowerbug]

Molasses Face and Vermont Yellow Eye do look similar. In a side-by-side comparison of the samples I've received, Molasses Face is plumper and has a darker, more rich-looking coloration.

darker is usually just age/storage related IMO for those. i have some ancient (well to me) YE beans that are now much darker than what they would look like if they were fresh grown.

also, size differences, varies by growouts each season, plus i am selecting for certain shape and size uniformity in my plantings which mean i have containers here of various sizes of YE selections and odd balls that have show up over the years that i do not want to plant, but i also do not want to throw away or eat. it's like i hope i will find someone with a need for larger YE beans and then i can send them the whole lot.

i do discard cut short beans though just out of habit. i really don't want those kind of beans showing up out of habit because when beans are crammed in the pods so tight if there is any fungal issues then it may spread to neighboring beans in the pod too easily. i do really like having that air-gap and space in the pods. and also, i just like the round plump shapes more attractive than the sharper edges of the cut shorts.

and then i have these peas that look like little plugs with really sharp edges.

Rancho Gordo's "Yellow Eye" is indistinguishable from Molasses Face. I missed the variety "Maine" from Russell's site. Perhaps I will request that as my free bean for growing the Network beans. I've not decided yet.

it's always hard to limit how many different varieties i grow each year - especially when each season gives me results that need more investigation.

Actually it was you, flowerbug, that got me onto this Yellow Eye kick in the first place! haha! Reading through back entries for the Bean Network, you'd recommended Molasses Face/Yellow Eye as one of your favorites. I found the warm coloration very appealing.

for me i was hooked the first time i grew them, i love the shape and the color, plus they are a bean that still nodulates well.

Is there a noticeable taste difference with Utah Yellow Eye? (or, "Why do you like it?")

the pattern and shape are both right in line with what i would call a yellow soldier bean. i've always liked the soldier pattern on many of the wax beans i've tried to grow and so when i see a soldier pattern in a different color i'm interested. i've not grown UYE, but i've seen that pattern come by in some of my out-crosses.

 

[Blue-Jay]

well, happy to oblige then I think I'm going to go with...

Since you are going with a number of blue or bluish beans Make sure you create a diagram on your computer or enough copies on paper if you should lose your original diagram of exactly where every variety is planted. I don't label anything in the garden. No tags on anything. I have seen enough comments by gardeners that something happened to their labels. The weather, the sun, the wind, animals removed their tags. I diagram my entire grow outs. There is a stake driven into the ground at the beginning and end of each varieties grow out. So when you harvest your seed you can harvest them seperately without mixing seeds and know with 100% certainty what seeds belong exactly to what variety you harvested. Label everything all the way from growing (garden diagram), harvesting, pod storage, shelling, and seed storage.

I had a grower this past year grow Railroad spike, Flood, and Rams's Horn. All have the same background color and markings, but slightly diffeerent shaped seed. However soil and enviornmental conditions can effect seed size and shape a bit. The Grower didn't have a very good harrvest of their grow out so they were shelling beans in their garden and putting them in their pocket. You can probably guess what happened. These three look-a-like beans got all mixed in their pocket. They wrote to me about their poor harvest and I appreciate the communication always. They said they will regrow these three beans again next growing season. How will they be certiain which variety is which. They told me I could probably separate them on their 2022 return. Oh really !!. I don't even trust myself to be 100% certain unless the whole entire process from growing to final shelling and storage was labeled every step of the way. I can tell you what is going to happen to their seed if it's returned to me. It will become part of pot of soup. Funny thing they got my last sample of Flood and nobody else had returned it.

I had another grower this past year. Plant Frost and Aunt Jeans right next to each other. Some of the plants vines grew together and the grower was not 100% sure that the seeds they had belonged to each variety. I had to assume the harvest was mixed or partially mixed. The grower returned a packet of each in the return packats that I provided. Upon return I emptied both packets in a plastic container of reject beans that I use to make soup or baked beans.

Just wanted to bring up this subject again. Not harping or scolding. That doesn't do any good. When something is done it's done. Label everything. Collection contianers (each variety has it's own sepearte collection continer or bag), Container where you store a varities pods for further drying, Container where shelled and cleaned seed is stored.

 

[flowerbug]

... Label everything. Collection contianers (each variety has it's own sepearte collection continer or bag), Container where you store a varities pods for further drying, Container where shelled and cleaned seed is stored.

100% always put similar beans in different gardens spaced by at least 5 feet (more is better for a few types). labels all over. drawings of what has been planted with markers i can measure from if needed. when harvesting each bag gets it's own garden and sometimes row tag. saves a lot of trouble later. when drying if i have to break a bag down into different flats i have to make up new labels to go with the new flats. the number of times in the past years of growing where i find myself looking at a flat and not sure what garden it came from meant i would also end up using those beans as either bulk bean grow out beans or eat them. last year i had zero unknown flats. a big improvement.

if i need to include more space i will put a well known bulk bean planting between the groups. three or four rows seems to work for me since most of my beans are bush or semi-runner types.

the troubles i have are that some grow outs are not stable yet so i have to be sure to isolate those from any other beans that aren't well known too. thank goodness i have enough space to do more bulk bean growing to provide that buffer spacing.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Bluejay77 not sure if you prefer e-mail or here, but your Networkhttps://www.abeancollectorswindow.com/network.html page has a left margin of -55%, so half of the text doesn't display. When I change it to 2.9em, it seems to be centered. Your other pages display correctly. Hope it isn't just me.

I like emails the best. I have a seed request folder on my email server and can then keep all seed request messages in one place. You can put your mailing address at the end of your message the first time. Then I will make an address label on software I use to make labels.

Sometimes depending on which browser you use. You might have to adjust the zoon level to put the pages structure in it's correct place. I think my website is best viewed with Google Chrome. I have about a 28 inch destop screen and my zoom level on Chrome is +175. I've never learned to write any computer languages like java script to force those little buggy things in place.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Bean seeds are mailed to Canada through U.S. Postal system. Customs declaration is marked as Packest Of Garden Seed and the number of them in the quantity column.

 

[Blue-Jay]

thibodeau du Comte Beauce the same as what @Bluejay77 has listed with the name of Thibodeau Compte Beauce?

It's been so long since I acquired the bean from someone in SODC that I may have originally have forgotten or overlooked the Du in the beans name. I should go back and look the bean up in some older copies of their yearbook that I have.

 

[meadow]

darker is usually just age/storage related IMO for those. i have some ancient (well to me) YE beans that are now much darker than what they would look like if they were fresh grown.

This is a really good point!

PSA, for new members: in one of the older threads, someone pointed out that color can take time to develop. So it is really important not to judge the bean by the color when first shelled out! Apparently they'd known a person that threw out the entire crop thinking there had been a mix up, when it only needed some time to get it's coloration. By the way, I'm new too. Hi!

But back to the Yellow Eye beans... It turns out that my samples were grown 5 years apart, with the lighter Vermont Yellow Eye being the oldest seed. It will be interesting to compare their growth habits and characteristics.

i do discard cut short beans though just out of habit.

I do too!! LOL! Meeting Bluejay has really changed the way I look at beans. Well, all seeds really. I often catch myself critiquing whether it is quality seed or not. But, yeah, I've been culling the cut shorts too.

it's always hard to limit how many different varieties i grow each year - especially when each season gives me results that need more investigation.

I'm afraid that is where I'm heading too. I've already ordered from Sand Hill a "Michigan Yellow Eye" as well as "Red Eye" (described as "really a deep butterscotch golden hilum area"). I'd forgotten that they were in garage quarantine and now they need to come up to house temperature before opening the package.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Speaking of Yellow Eyes, @Bluejay77, can you shed any light on the 'correct' spelling of Kenearly vs Ken Early? I know from your description on A Bean Collector's Window that it was bred at Kentville Nova Scotia Research Center, but I haven't been able to find any documentation for it (and I'm getting the impression that it may be known as Ken Early in Canada).

eta: the one US supplier (or at least the one that I've noticed) that lists it as Ken Early is near the Canadian border... and of the three individuals that I've seen use that spelling, they have all been Canadian.

I had originally acquired Kenearly from the Ozark Seed Bank and that is the way they had it spelled. with Ken and early run together. I looked on their sight again under beans and they still spell the beans name the same way.

 

[meadow]

I had originally acquired Kenearly from the Ozark Seed Bank and that is the way they had it spelled. with Ken and early run together. I looked on their sight again under beans and they still spell the beans name the same way.

Thank you!

Oh, good heavens! I need to look at the beans on that website!!