2025 Little Easy Bean Network - Growers Of The Future Will Be Glad We Saved

[SusanneinHastings]

I was trying to find some information on the “Black Mandan beans” that I got at a seed swap this spring and found two results from Canada for “Black Mandan Pole Bean”. Heritage Harvest says it is an Oscar Will variety from North Dakota which makes sense. https://heritageharvestseed.com/products/mandan-black-bean-seeds
Revival says it is also known as “Hopi Black”, which the Hopi are quite a ways away from the upper Missouri and I don’t know that Oscar picked up any Southwestern beans. So I wonder what the story is. The ones I planted did not come up as far as I can tell, at least there is not anything on that trellis with purple pods,

 

[heirloomgal]

The first dry pods are starting, and I harvested some seeds of 'Cranberry Onondaga. It's quite an early bean really, and to my surprise is a bush not a pole variety. So, the seed harvest will be smaller given that I usually plant 3 or 4 beans around a pole. The bushes have a good number of pods so we'll see what I end up with.

To my delight, Juanita Smith is doing just fine in a pot this year. The initial leaves were so dainty, but as the season went along they increased in size. Next time I'll put it in the ground, but I'm happy with the number of pods on the vines.

Old Joe Clark has quite the red pods. I pulled the plants out to dry since I don't want them absorbing any more water and I need to water their neighbours. I didn't plant many thinking they were semi runners, but they didn't climb much if at all. Another quite early bean.

One of the bean beds that's doing exceptionally well compared to my main garden, only one plant in here has had vole damage and it was pretty minor. The tallest vine in here is 'Bela Puternisca' ( I think that's how it's spelled) and my goodness it must be 15 or 16 feet tall and climbing back down the pole, just huge. Not far behind it is 'Vitalis', only a few feet shorter.

Another bean that has really blown me away is 'Blue Sword' which I got from a grower in Spain. The yield is really, really good. I'm sure when the season is over this will be in the top 5 of all the beans for weight.

 

[P Suckling]

came across this looking for something else today - it's not solely related to beans, but still an interesting short read:

Hope and Practice: Robert Lobitz - SeedSavers

Longtime Exchange lister Jim Tjepkema shares the seed-saving and seed-sharing story of the late Robert Lovitz.

seedsavers.org

Flowerbug, thank you for this article. Never knew that we have to thank Mr Lobitz for the Golden Sweet pea, which I have used in my own pea crosses to good effect. And I have just podded the lovely Red Swan beans here (to bring the post back to the bean topic with a jolt). Very interesting read!

 

[P Suckling]

@heirloomgal , here is some information about the origin of Bela Putersnica. https://www.bohnen-atlas.de/drucken/2022-bela-putersnica

 

[Decoy1]

@heirloomgal , here is some information about the origin of Bela Putersnica. https://www.bohnen-atlas.de/drucken/2022-bela-putersnica

I hope you don’t mind me stepping in here but I think the link doesn’t have all the information. This one might lead to the fuller page

Bohnen-Atlas - Detailansicht

Der Bohnen-Atlas ist Nachschlagewerk für Bohnensorten. Er beinhaltet Beschreibungen, die durch Bilder und Kommentare der Nutzer erweitert werden können.

www.bohnen-atlas.de

Sorry of if I’ve created confusion though. Links are a bit chancy sometimes.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I've also grown Bela Putersnica this year and it is loaded with beautiful yellow pods. The plants are just lush looking.

 

[Neen5MI]

Has anyone documented the flower colours of the 'Rose' bean? aka Rose Family and Raccoon.

I'm growing 20 plants for the Heritage Seed Library this season; they supplied the seed. Growing fantasically thank goodness. However, there are two flower colours, some plants have white blooms and others have an unusual lilac/white bicolour pattern.

Is it usual for there to be a mix? Or is one colour 'true-to-type'?

I'm growing Rose as a network bean this year.I ran out and took these photos this morning.

 

[ruralmamma]

Harvest season has officially started. Yesterday it was the yellow-podded Ukrainian Comrades which has yellow seed instead of black like I suspected. So I'm assuming the green pods contain the black seed but they won't be ready for harvest for at least two weeks.

Blue tip and Ottis/Otis Stewart have already yielded enough pods to return at least sixty seeds to Blue-Jay and I just grabbed the dry ones near the ground as there's plenty more. Grabbed a few pods of Prinzessa which was a trial bean from last year that performed poorly. Should have enough seed to share this year.

Wren's Egg will probably be the next to harvest and the picture I took of the pods yesterday really doesn't do it justice, so I'll try again tomorrow.

All beans are in their own cardboard flat to dry completely. We decided to homeschool our daughter this year and hopefully she enjoys shelling beans as much as she did last year because it looks like we'll have lots to do.

 

[heirloomgal]

I hope you don’t mind me stepping in here but I think the link doesn’t have all the information. This one might lead to the fuller page

Bohnen-Atlas - Detailansicht

Der Bohnen-Atlas ist Nachschlagewerk für Bohnensorten. Er beinhaltet Beschreibungen, die durch Bilder und Kommentare der Nutzer erweitert werden können.

www.bohnen-atlas.de

Sorry of if I’ve created confusion though. Links are a bit chancy sometimes.

Thank you @Decoy1 @P Suckling for the info! Appreciate it!

I just got the best email from a grower in Germany, who I'll be doing a swap with in the fall. He sent me a list of accidental errors on my website related to the spelling of certain beans, mostly due to them being in another language. I so appreciate that he took the time to send me that, and also some lovely translation information in the process, because there is really no other way I would catch that sort of thing. I like to be well informed! And especially if I'm putting it out on the internet I'd like to have things as perfectly correct as I can.

 

[heirloomgal]

'Black Snake' is looking like it's getting in the 'safe' zone. I see bumps and feel like I've almost made it to home base! This is another bean that - for a bad year such as it's been for me - has done well against the odds.

I thought these pods were just the cutest, the seed bumps look like perfect circles or marbles. And the little curve in the pod shape, they're all little clones of one another. This is 'Blue & White of Bernardo' @Blue-Jay , I'm regrowing them to replace the ones I sent last year that never arrived. I'm hoping for a bumper crop!

'Oude Sloveense Boterboon' beans. This is an especially victorious moment because these failed pretty bad last year for me. I'm thrilled to finally get some to grow! Buttery goodness.

Those aggressive cutworms killed every single 'Stibitz' plant, but this one, in June. I'm not sure the bean is 100% stable yet, as there was a little bit of variation in the mature seeds last year, so I'm curious if these will get the same color at maturity.

The pods on 'Quatre au Metre' amaze me. I find at a distance they look like cowpeas. I just love this bean, it's so unusual. The leaves are huge.

If anyone ever wondered, the pods on the 'Dule' bean are yellow! I'm going to need to check in with you in the fall @Bluejay to see if these got to you last year or not. Dule was a network bean last year.

When I put these 'Pisterzo' plants in the ground in June, I remember asking myself - why am I growing this? It's an easy to obtain bean from Salt Spring Seeds, sort of un-special to me really. I don't know what possessed me to even get the seeds. Somehow I assumed it was a white dry cooking bean, but I've since realized it's for fresh eating as well. It's pretty big and impressive, I like it! Glad now I didn't let the packet sit around collecting dust!

'Big Mama' - same story as 'Pisterzo'. Didn't seem special initially. I don't know why they call it 'big', it's small really, but the yield certainly fits that description. Very high yielder, excellent raw. Got it from a lady on the seed exchange. Looks like it has quite a history, possibly from Alabama. Some suggest it might be synonymous with 'Cherokee Black'.

The 'Sakaguchi Kang Wong' runner beans have not liked the heat this summer. The later blossoms didn't seem to take and the tips of the vines are bare, the first blooms pollinated and developed beans but I guess as the heat went on they just started to fall off. But, I overplanted so hopefully there will still be plenty of seeds.