flowerbug
Garden Master
I’m charmed by how utterly massive and “antique” the 1000 year cave bean was in my garden last year, but I was only able to get a few seeds last year, and I ended up having to bring a section of the vine indoors to dry. My short season didn't give it much time to do its thing. If I could get a massive-leaved, similarly light green, productive and more quickly maturing shelling pole bean, I’d be happy as a clam. I have visions of this growing on my fruit trees, and being able to grow it on the same trellis with my similarly attractive runner beans without fear of cross pollination. And… as much as I hate to admit it, a beautifully colored seed and pretty flowers would be a huge plus.
i'm not much into pole beans, but years ago i grew "Adam's Family Six Weeks" from @Blue-Jay 's collection of network beans and it was the earliest pole bean.
unfortunately it did not get very big growing for me and the beans are pale/tan color and i think the flowers were white (or maybe pale yellow).
the fun with doing crosses is having your selected plants blooming at the same time (which can be a challenge right there) plus if you are able to do the crosses by hand (i'm not able to do them myself as i shake too much and can't see that well so i have to hope the bees will do the crosses i want for me and then i have to replant as many seeds as i can so the crosses show up the next season(s) and then i select from those what projects i want to continue). for sure it is much easier to do your own direct crosses (don't forget to mark the flowers/pods
) and to know what seeds might have the traits you're after for replanting.
