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

[frijolymoly]

Freckles (2025)(Network Bean)

I harvested some dry beans. Been struggling with growing this bean. My original sample is from 2013. Didn't get great germination and the plant that grew isn't making many beans, so not enough to send in returns. I am going to try to plant some more seeds now that I've harvested some seeds and hopefully with be able to get more seeds in the next round.

Also, relating back to the article I just mentioned, the temps have been 85⁰F/69⁰F (29⁰C/20⁰C) here and the seeds are showing a high amount of color vs white.

Picture and description from Blue-Jay's website for comparison

 

[Branching Out]

Annelino Giallo is my guess.

Brilliant Heirloomgal-- that could well be it. It's Italian for 'Little Yellow Ring.' Thank you!

Pole Bean, Anellino Giallo | The Heirloom Seed Store

www.theheirloomseedstore.com

 

[Triffid]

An elderly Italian gardener gave me seeds of a small crescent-shaped yellow pole snap bean. She told me that they're really good-- but she didn't know the name of the variety. Has anyone grown something similar to this? It would be helpful to identify them.

Wonderful bean. Do you grow them along some kind of horizontal frame?

 

[heirloomgal]

Brilliant Heirloomgal-- that could well be it. Thank you!

Pole Bean, Anellino Giallo | The Heirloom Seed Store

www.theheirloomseedstore.com

That's a great bean, I love it.

 

[flowerbug]

Twice now I've found a bunch of bulgy pods that my elderly mom picked because 'they were getting too big.' If this continues I won't be able to harvest much seed. I may have to pin a note on the bean poles saying 'Please Don't Pick!'

i was laughing about the bean addict part of that and not the part about picking of pods by Mom... i hope you can get some seeds.

 

[flowerbug]

While looking for more information on seed coat patterns and bean genetics, I found this bean research article and I thought it was really interesting and a bit easier for me to understand. The pictures, charts, and tables really helped.


"Seed color patterns in domesticated common bean are
regulated by MYB-bHLH-WD40 transcription factors and
temperature"

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/tpj.16947

interesting, will take some time to digest.

I saw that the UC Davis seeds are also on the priority list and this article is by Travis Parker et al (and others), so many of the beans included in the study are the UC Davis beans.

other beans in that study too which i've grown and seen outcrosses and chaos (aka life goes on ) so it is like seeing old friends gathering and chattering together.

i'm trying to get the known UCD beans growing here but this has been a challenging year, i'm not sure what my success rate is going to be.

 

[Branching Out]

Wonderful bean. Do you grow them along some kind of horizontal frame?

Sort of. I quickly realized that my bamboo poles were far too short for this cultivar, so I ran a line of baling twine horizontally to where I could attach it to a tomato pole about 15'(4.5m) away. It worked really well, and looks kind of like a clothesline for beans.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Also, relating back to the article I just mentioned, the temps have been 85⁰F/69⁰F (29⁰C/20⁰C) here and the seeds are showing a high amount of color vs white.

Yes this is true with some beans that have this Jacob's patterned seed coat. Warmer summers and the seed is mostly colored without very much white or none at all. However I have some beans where they are not affected by higher temperatures and display their normal colored to white ratio when they produce their new seed. Jacob's Cattle Amish is one of these beans. Higher temperatures don't affect it.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Bigarradda Gris Negre! Such a great bean! I'll be curious how it produces for you, that is the highest yielding bean I think I've ever grown.

I have picked Bigarradda pods for just a short amount of time and I can already tell that it's a high production bean. I can't find anything negative to say about the bean. It produces beautiful formed and uniform seed. The color is wonderful to look at, all the while it has gone through a very warm and dry summer. It really cuts through the crap. Some other beans in this same season have some malformed and small seed in much smaller quantities. Thank you heirloomgal for sending me this bean. It is a pleasure to grow. If all my other beans had the genetic qualities of this bean I would be buried up to my neck in beans.