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

[heirloomgal]

@Blue-Jay I have a new respect for your dedication to growing beans. They're a difficult master to serve, and I'm on year 2 now of not having a great bean year. I'd think of giving up if I didn't enjoy growing them so much, it's amazing that you have persisted for all these years regardless of the challenges you've faced in various seasons. So many animals love to eat them as seedlings, voles easily destroy their roots, too dry is a problem, too wet is a problem. And they aren't always healthy plants. Virtually none of that is the case for tomatoes! Yet somehow, tomatoes are not nearly as satisfying to grow as heirloom beans.

I can't gripe totally, because I have had some plants do very well this year. Just not all of them, and for me, that's a problem. I like everything to do fantastically. August was so dry and hot, and now we're scheduled for - possibly - extended rain. The weather network shows 3 rain symbols for the next 3 days, so we'll see. The percentage of chance though is only 40%. I went out and picked a lot today just in case, and it did really rain hard this evening, but still I wonder if I should have harvested more or pulled out more plants by the roots. Decisions decisions.

When you harvest beans in anticipation of rain, what is it your looking for in the not yet dry pod? Today as I went through them I went mostly but feel and color. If I could feel distinct beans in the pods and the neck was a bit dry I pulled them, and if the pod color had changed like how the greens will sometimes get yellow or whitish, or really speckled pods where they weren't before. Of course I always pick what seems to have the most developed seeds, but I know you can get them quite early on and they'll still be fine, I'd rather err on the side of picking too early vs too late when it comes to moisture.

 

[Decoy1]

Annelino Giallo is my guess.

Sultan’s Gold Crescent came immediately into my mind. I was hoping I had a photo but unfortunately not. Perhaps later today.

 

[Oxford]

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.

This bean exists in many varieties in Italy, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. It is called Anellino Gialo (Italien - small yellow rings), Posthörnchen/ Posthörnli (German - a small post horn) or in Austria Kipfler (a name for curled bean pods). The color of the seeds vary per variety. My ones are dark-red with yellow speckles, other ones are purple with white speckles, or pure black or red.

 

[Decoy1]

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.

View attachment 77506

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
View attachment 77510

I also grew Freckles a couple of years ago from 2013 seed from @Blue-Jay . And had a similar or even greater contrast in seed coat colours but the other way round. I received very red seeds and produced much whiter seeds

 

[Decoy1]

Sultan’s Gold Crescent came immediately into my mind. I was hoping I had a photo but unfortunately not. Perhaps later today.

Sultan's Gold Crescent. Maybe not quite as curly as yours, @Branching Out ? So perhaps Anellino Giallo is more likely.

​

 

[Decoy1]

@Blue-Jay I have a new respect for your dedication to growing beans. They're a difficult master to serve, and I'm on year 2 now of not having a great bean year. I'd think of giving up if I didn't enjoy growing them so much, it's amazing that you have persisted for all these years regardless of the challenges you've faced in various seasons. So many animals love to eat them as seedlings, voles easily destroy their roots, too dry is a problem, too wet is a problem. And they aren't always healthy plants. Virtually none of that is the case for tomatoes! Yet somehow, tomatoes are not nearly as satisfying to grow as heirloom beans.

I can't gripe totally, because I have had some plants do very well this year. Just not all of them, and for me, that's a problem. I like everything to do fantastically. August was so dry and hot, and now we're scheduled for - possibly - extended rain. The weather network shows 3 rain symbols for the next 3 days, so we'll see. The percentage of chance though is only 40%. I went out and picked a lot today just in case, and it did really rain hard this evening, but still I wonder if I should have harvested more or pulled out more plants by the roots. Decisions decisions.

When you harvest beans in anticipation of rain, what is it your looking for in the not yet dry pod? Today as I went through them I went mostly but feel and color. If I could feel distinct beans in the pods and the neck was a bit dry I pulled them, and if the pod color had changed like how the greens will sometimes get yellow or whitish, or really speckled pods where they weren't before. Of course I always pick what seems to have the most developed seeds, but I know you can get them quite early on and they'll still be fine, I'd rather err on the side of picking too early vs too late when it comes to moisture.

I've had the same feeling this year about beans not being entirely straightforward or predictable. Not entirely the same weather patterns and less creature predation, but certainly some mysteriously reluctant to thrive.

But peculiarly addictive nevertheless - or perhaps because of some challenge.

 

[Neen5MI]

Also I had a chance to examine the purple- podded variety that popped up in the cutshort seed I gave to my mom this spring. While I feel it's likely a cross with Trionfo Violetto, the pods aren't nearly as big. They don't have the cutshort appearance either but are definitely half the size of Trionfo Violetto. Had the opportunity to examine the vines and they're definitely distinguishable as they have a purplish color and lavender flowers and stand out among the normal white flowers in that row. Unfortunately my mom harvested every pod last week and I've asked her to let a few mature for seed as I definitely want to pursue it further. Is this the sign of a bean addict?

Hey, I have a purple podded vine among the Little Red Cutshorts from you. Would you like me to send the seed when it matures?

 

[Neen5MI]

thank you!

I shelled a bunch of the Trionfo Violetto and found extensive, subtle variation in the seed coat. I thought you might be curious.

 

[oxbow farm]

So for example, for a bean seed pattern with white and a color, in cooler climates, there was a larger amount of white on the seed coat (lower amount of color/pigmentation), but in hotter climates, there was a larger amount of the colored sections on the seed coat.

That seems to have happened to me this year, on three trout/cattle pattern beans I bought from Russ's store. Some were more extreme than others. The Jacob's Cattle Amish was supposed to do this very little, and the color/white balance is still pretty good. Not as much white as what I planted, but it got really hot here for several weeks while the pods were filling.

On the Skunk River Trout, I see some beans with no white at all. The stuff I planted had lots more white than I harvested on average.

Black Trout was better than the Skunk River, but still skewed towards less white.

I'm still very happy with all these beans though.