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

[Blue-Jay]

Did a little bit of research on this Zonos App and its use. Yikes! Looks very complicated. Whoever owns Zonos is going to make a fortune herding everybody through this app to get anything into the US. You might want to check on your end what tarriffs apply @Blue-Jay , I think Canada put in some retaliatory tarriffs in response. I'm not 100% sure, but from what I've seen there is.

You will still be able to wrap your package in brown paper with all the seams sealed in tape? Or would you like me to make up a Package inventory list and and send you the image to print out plus the image of the Green/Yellow label and the address label of the the New Jersey inspection station.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@heirloomgal I don't know if there will be tariffs on parcels from you. Whatever it is I will pay it and I'm sure it won't be very much.

 

[Blue-Jay]

This year I grew it more intentionally, but only about 6 plants or so. I've noticed that even though all the seed I planted were identical small black beans, the plants are showing a LOT of variation in traits. There are at least three different pod colors, and two different flower colors.

I think your Cornplanter Purple has been crossed with another bean. If you know what your Cornplanter Purple pods and supposed to look like and the seed color and shape you can keep selecting for those traits and possibly get your Cornplanter Purple straightened out eventually.

 

[Blue-Jay]

My 2025 bean show that I like to do here every year will probably actually take place starting sometime in January 2026. About a month and half from now I will be traveling to Florida for a month and a half. In my 2025 bean show I will tell you about a bean I had to keep selecting to get it back again.

 

[ruralmamma]

The purple-podded George Washington Fall bean. Still a week or two from harvest.

 

[heirloomgal]

You will still be able to wrap your package in brown paper with all the seams sealed in tape? Or would you like me to make up a Package inventory list and and send you the image to print out plus the image of the Green/Yellow label and the address label of the the New Jersey inspection station.

Yes, I still plan to send it that way, wrapped in paper. I think it's a better shot at success than the other way. I just thought you should know for any international growers you have like me, that none of us will be able to just go to the post office and simply mail a package to you anymore. We have to deal first with the Zonos app, and register the parcel there. I think they need a photo of the parcel. Anyone not in the US thinking they can just send back your beans like usual this year will be told the same thing, they have to go through Zonos.

 

[Oxford]

Very beautiful quality looking beans. So very nice.

Not all seeds are of this quality. When I have a lot of seeds, I select them strictly and examine each one individually.

This year, I particularly have a problem with the early North American varieties such as Amish Nuttle, Purple Kingsessing, Flagg/Skunk/Chester, and True Red Cranberry. First, it was dry and hot for six weeks, and they set pods early, and then there were four weeks of cold and rain. The pods were then unable to ripen fully, but still turned brown and "dry", and when they started to turn black due to fungal infestation, I had to harvest them. While Purple Kingsessing contains many (healthy) brown-black seeds and Amish Nuttle and Flagg/Skunk/Chester simply have smaller seeds, the color of Red Cranberry seeds is extremely noticeable.

However, in my experience, they are still fully germinable.

I have also noticed this with other plants, that in bad weather conditions they accelerate the ripening of the seeds and form some kind of “emergency seeds" that matures quickly but not normally regarding size, color, and so on.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Anyone not in the US thinking they can just send back your beans like usual this year will be told the same thing, they have to go through Zonos.

However those overseas growers that have the documentation to send their return seeds directly to the USDA inspection station in Linden, New Jersey with the yellow/green label attached and the documentation inside their package still need to do so.

 

[Blue-Jay]

This year, I particularly have a problem with the early North American varieties such as Amish Nuttle, Purple Kingsessing, Flagg/Skunk/Chester, and True Red Cranberry. First, it was dry and hot for six weeks, and they set pods early, and then there were four weeks of cold and rain. The pods were then unable to ripen fully, but still turned brown and "dry", and when they started to turn black due to fungal infestation, I had to harvest them. While Purple Kingsessing contains many (healthy) brown-black seeds and Amish Nuttle and Flagg/Skunk/Chester simply have smaller seeds, the color of Red Cranberry seeds is extremely noticeable.

However, in my experience, they are still fully germinable.

I'm having also this same kind of seed quality with some varieties. However seed that is not totally filled out that are very wrinkled or have places that are deeply sunken into the seed may not germinate at all. I had tested these kind of seeds for germination a few years ago when I noticed a bean with poorly formed seed. My germination rate was only 10 per cent.