2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[Blue-Jay]

That looks identical to SSE's pole lima "1880's Butterbean".

I've seen other limas with this same color and pattern. Would be interesting to make a list of them. The very first lima I ever saw that had these colors and patterned was one I got from an SSE member in the early 1980's called Dale Two Toned Lima.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Bluejay77, can you tell what the difference is to Vulkan/Volcano?

I think I can. Peinsipps Zwefarbige is a smaller seed and it's colored area is less extensive. However I wouldn't want to be held to a contest of can you seperate the seeds correctly if we mixed up a bunch. Simply because seed size can vary amongst any variety and the colored area on a bean can shift a bit on some of it's seeds. I didn't realize how close those two were until you mentioned it. It would be intersting to compare the two in a grow out and see if there were differences there. Seed colors and patterns are repeatable even in different varieties.

 

[Blue-Jay]

There are also 60 nice Potawatomi Lima seeds waiting in my fridge. I see on the website that you still have not received your return from the grower.

The grower that got the Potawatomi limas two years ago sent back seeds that looked like these immature seedlets you find still undeveloped when you open pods sometimes. So there won't be any Potowatomi lima seeds coming back. I can probably get more Potawatomi lima seed from Seed Saver Exchange members.

I'm curious when you grew the Bubblegum bean. Did you get any of the bright pink pods the color of Bubblegum? The grower that named them the first time the beans were grown in 2016 got these bright solidly colored pink pods. I grew them one year an nothing that looked like the color of Bubblegum.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Bluejay77
as compensation, I can send other beans that were on this year's renewal list. I planted them from my own seeds, just in case.

I wouldn't refuse any seeds you want to send. I had Tuvagliedda Rossa from a fellow in Italy and sent them to a fellow in Iowa two years ago to grow. He sent back nice samples of most of the seeds he got from me but his Tuvagliedda Rossa grow out was totally destroyed by a 120 MPH (193 KMH) wind storm that ripped through Iowa during the summer.

Love all your beautiful photos of your beans.

 

[flowerbug]

Blue Jay's 2022 Bean Show - Day 25​

Skunk River Trout - Bush Dry - 2022

One of the Robert Lobitz legacy beans I've worked with since 2015. I believe this bean has stablalized last year in 2021. It grew yet again this summer without any off types. Oddly this bean displayed more white grown in a heavier clay type top soil in 2020 that it did in a loam soil this summer of 2022.

that has (so far) been a general trait with many beans i've grown here.

 

[meadow]

Blue Jay's 2022 Bean Show - Day 24​

Seneca Cornstalk -Pole Dry - 2022

An authentic native American variety acquired in 2014. This year was my third grow out of the bean. Grown in the same plot where other pole beans were not doing so well. Seneca Cornstalk had it's best year with me so far. I may have had 6 to 8 plants that produced 14.90 ounces of beans (422.40 gm). Small seeded beans of good quality.

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Seneca Cornstalk - Pole Dry

Have you ever done a comparison in growth habit between Seneca Cornstalk and Amish Knuttle/Mayflower?

 

[heirloomgal]

I've shelled all the pods, so I can do a little network recap now.

Again, I won't be able to return Pink Tip Greasy, Fox Family Greasy, Mother Earth, and the other 30 Jack In The Beanstalk seeds. These beans were grown in a place that was exposed to the scorching sun and heat up to 35 C all day. Many flowers and small pods have fallen. In those pods that appeared after cooling, at the end of summer, the seeds did not grow to the right size before the first frost.

I won't send back Caramel Delight either. All four plants were probably destroyed by ants. It was this year's plague. Moles were no longer as annoying as last year. Throughout the year, 17 of them were caught in various traps.

Beans that grew in a theoretically worse place, where the sun was only in the morning and afternoon, fared much better. During the hottest hours of the day, the plants were shaded by a row of spruce trees.
I already packed 60 seeds:

Mountain Pima Plum - pole. I had 4 plants. 2 of them were outcrosses with brown seeds. I will send back plum-colored seeds only.

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Bubblegum - pole

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Long Eye Black Eye - bush wax. This variety also didn't grow very well. I will send back 40 of the prettiest seeds.

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Ooooh, gorgeous beans as usual @Artorius. That Long Eye Black Eye is super stunning.
The white is SO white!

 

[Triffid]

Skunk Bean -Pole Dry - 2022

Comes from the Pine Mountain area of Harlan county Kentucky. I've been told this bean might be the same as a bean called Grey Eyed Greasy. I acquired the bean at Bill Best's Sustainable Mountain Agriculture seed swap in 2018. I've also been told that Skunk Bean might also be a greasy bean. I didn't observe that this past summer but will do a very small grow out of this bean again in 2023 to see what characteristics it pods have. The bean is a prolific bearer of pods and produced a large amount of seed this past summer. Total seed for 8 plants was 30.40 ounces (861.82 gm)

I grew Grey Eyed Greasy in 2021 and didn't notice any remarkable shine to the pods. So if it is the same as Skunk then I don't believe it would be uncharacteristic for you not to have observed any greasy pods.
Sometimes I'm left a little baffled as to why some beans are titled 'greasy' and others are not; I'm really trying to tune my eye to the nuances but often fail to distinguish unless the shine is undeniable or they feel particularly smooth/waxy to the touch. Sometimes it is easier for me to notice the shine when the pods are completely full. A friend posited once that over time 'greasy' became synonymous with quality tender-podded beans in the region, with less emphasis on how the pods actually looked. I can see this happening... but, the vast majority of popular beans in Appalachia are tender anyway, so perhaps not?

 

[Blue-Jay]

Have you ever done a comparison in growth habit between Seneca Cornstalk and Amish Knuttle/Mayflower?

I have not done a comparison grow out of SC and AK/Mayflower.

I was told by a native American the Mayflower bean is only a made up story. This bean was already here being grown by the native people in North America. Somewhere I read something about the food carried by the Mayflower ship and it said the beans on the Mayflower were mostly pulses from India. Also those arrivals on the Mayflower would have starved to death and were kept alive by the food given to them by the native people. I would suspect that any food the Mayflower arrivals had including any garden beans would have been totally eaten if they were indeed going to starve to death.

Since I was told this by this native American who supplied me with a sample of the Seneca Cornstalk. I have then not collected the bean called Mayflower.

 

[flowerbug]

... A friend posited once that over time 'greasy' became synonymous with quality tender-podded beans in the region, with less emphasis on how the pods actually looked. I can see this happening... but, the vast majority of popular beans in Appalachia are tender anyway, so perhaps not?

i would consider it likely that the term has widened (similar to how mission creep happens in other arenas) to cover many more beans than what some would consider fitting. i've largely not been collecting those beans as many seem to be too late for here (besides them also being pole beans).