The 2014 Little Easy Bean Network - Get New Beans On The Cheap

[897tgigvib]

Next field notes will be the bed of first planting african varieties and the bed of mostly pole beans first planting. Either today or tomorrow.

 

[897tgigvib]

Field notes, Bed #9

PALOMINO
CLASSIC BUSH FORM. SOME LEAVES ARE ROUNDED.
STARTING TO SHOW BUDS.

FALCON OUTCROSS
TALL AND VIGOROUS SPREADING POLE.
NO BUDS YET.

PAWNEE
GOOD CLASSIC BUSH.
NO BUDS YET.

HANNA HANK
TALL, RAPID GROWING VERTICAL POLE, SINGLE RUNNER.
NO BUDS YET.

LESLIE TENDERPOD
SPREADING POLE.
NO BUDS YET.

BOSNIAN POLE
VIGOROUS AND SPREADING MULTI RUNNER POLE.
NO BUDS YET.

LONG TOM
VIGOROUS HEAVY POLE.
NO BUDS YET.

LAMBADA
STRONG DOUBLE RUNNER POLE.
NO BUDS YET.

NOVA STAR MAIN
STRONG VIGOROUS POLE.
NO BUDS YET.

RINGWOOD
HEALTHY POLE, SLOWER STARTER.
NO BUDS YET.

LYNNFIELD
HEAVY BASED PLANTS, POLE.
NO BUDS YET.

NICKELL
SPREADING POLE. WILL BE TALL FOR A HALF RUNNER.
NO BUDS YET.

GEORGE'S BEAN
SPREADING POLE.
NO BUDS YET.

VOLGA GERMAN SIBERIAN
VERY SPREADING POLE.
NO BUDS YET.

SNOW STAR
DARK LEAVES, HEALTHY PLANTS, SPREADING POLE.
NO BUDS YET.

TENNESSEE WONDER
STRONG VIGOROUS POLE.
NO BUDS YET.

BLACK TURKEY
LEANING AND SPREADING POLE.
NO BUDS YET.

BADDA DI POLIZZI DARK EYE
HEAVY AND SPREADING, VIGOROUS MULTI RUNNER POLE.
NO BUDS YET.

CHESTER
VERY FAST, HEAVY AND VIGOROUS MULTI RUNNER POLE.
NO BUDS YET.

PRAIRIE PATCH
FASTEST AND MOST VIGOROUS PHASEOLUS POLE THIS YEAR.
NO BUDS YET.

POWDER STAR
SLOW STARTER, PRETTY PLANTS, MULTI RUNNER.
NO BUDS YET.

WEAVER
FAST AND HEAVY VIGOROUS POLE.
NO BUDS YET.

BUXTON BUCKSHOT
SMALLISH PLANTS, MAY BE A HALF RUNNER, BUT 30 INCHES TALL SO FAR.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

I transplanted the Prescott's Family Heirloom beans a few days ago and made an interesting observation - their roots systems were twice to three times as large than the other beans that I had transplanted (I had planted the other beans the same day as the Prescott's).
I'm lucky that I use the larger flats to start beans.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Alright that's very neat about the Precott's Family Heirloom bean. I'm sure some of these beans are not going to grow. I think some of them are on the old side.

I got all my bush beans planted here in Illinois as of the 26th of May. We had about two inches of rain, earlier in the week and once the soil dries out a bit. I'm going to plant the pole beans included will be the Armenian Black Giant.

I don't think that the brown spots were genetic, probably due to the age of the bean or maybe some type of pathogen.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Wow Marshall ! Love all the garden photos. Everything looks so lush an healthy. So many different textures to your garden. Cages and strings for beans to climb on.

Like all your notes on the beans too. I think the last time I grew Minnesota 1940's in 2012. I believe the plants eventually developed some runners. Will have to see what they do at your place. There is another plant structure called "Prostrate". Not a pole bean or semi runner and doesn't stand erect like a bush type. Just grows on the ground and is rather sprawling on the ground in nature. I have another purple eyed type like Purple Face I name Purple Jester. I had bought Orca from someone on Ebay three years ago, and all the seeds have a black splotch around the eye, but when it came time to harvest seeds I thought I was looking a a dark purple splotch around the eye. After harvesting all the seeds I used a strong flashlight to look at the coloring of the seeds and sure enough I could seperate a small number of seeds that had a true jet black splotch around the eye, but everything else had a dark purple splotch. So I named the purple ones "Purple Jester". Grew them out in 2012 and they just sprawled on the ground. The Orca planting from the summer before were semi-runners and would climb on supports.

Finally got all my beans planted. Bush beans May 25 and 26. Pole beans May 31. Seed O's Armenian Black Giant is among them.

I planted almost 40 foot row section of Shortwave Sunshine on the south side of my house. Going to check it out for snap quality pods. This bean is also planted in my offsite garden for seed.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I think last year when I grew Buxton Buckshot. When it had finally dried pods the plants had clocked out for the season at about 48 inches tall. I bet I could grow that bean on the ground like a semi-runner bush variety.

 

[897tgigvib]

Field notes for Bed #8, the bed with the African varieties, and also has the Peas. The Peas were planted a month or so earlier on March 11th. The Peas are just taller than their 6 foot pole/cages and are setting and maturing their pods right now. In another month or two the peas will be carefully removed to give more space for the Beans.

RED RAJMA
LARGE LEANING BUSH.
POSSIBLE BUDS SHOWING.

MPUMALANGA BOONTJIS
MEDIUM TO TALL BUSH.
MANY FLOWERS BEGINNING TO OPEN TODAY.

RED SPECKLED
CLASSIC BUSH.
NO BUDS YET.

ANNEY'S AFRICAN
TENDER THIN VINED POLE, WITH SMALL LEAVES.
NO BUDS YET.

HALF WHITE SUGAR
SPREADING MULTISTEMMED POLE.
POSSIBLE BUDS SHOWING.

WITSA
STRONG AND FAST GROWING POLE, GROWING RIGHT UP THE STEMS OF THE MATURE AND TALL PEA PLANTS.
NO BUDS YET.

BIZANA
SMALLISH STOUT AND PRETTY BUSH.
ALMOST OPEN FLOWERS.

NYIMO
DEFINITELY A DIFFERENT GENUS. STILL SMALL, AVERAGING ABOUT 3 TO 4 INCHES TALL BY 4 TO 6 INCHES WIDE. NO CENTRAL STEM. GROWS ESSENTIALLY AS A ROSETTE, AT LEAST SO FAR.
NO BUDS YET.

MARICO
DEVELOPING MULTIPLE HEAVY, POINTED, (INDETERMINATE LOOKING), SHORT RUNNERS. STOUT, SPREADING, AND SLIGHTLY LEANING PLANTS.
I THINK THESE MAY BECOME A TRUE 4 FOOT TALL HALF RUNNER POLE. PLANTS ARE NICE AND HEALTHY AND STOUT. COMMERCIAL HALF RUNNER TYPE.
POSSIBLE BUDS SHOWING.

IMBALI
CLASSIC BUSH.
POSSIBLE BUDS SHOWING.

WHITE COCO
GOOD SMALL PLANTS WITH SMALL LEAVES THAT SEEMS TO BE A TRUE VINEY BUSH.
POSSIBLE BUDS.

FEIJAO PRETO BRASILEITO
CLASSIC BUSH.
NO BUDS YET.

This bed had the seeds to soil first in my garden, but several things are different about how they were planted. It was the first bed I made with the antigopher caging, and was sort of a prototype. I made this cage go all the way down into the base soil, and also made it go above the soil level almost a foot. Both too deep and too high for what is needed. On the other hand, that means this bed could have easily been covered had there been a late frost. So it's a good bed for earliest plantings.
With the plastic rising almost a foot up more reflected light hits the plants while direct light misses some of them in it early and late in the day.
Also, the Beans were planted in patches of 3, in triangular formation, and a good number of them I did not know their pattern of growth.
It's working out well so far, but for uniformity and comparisons it is hard to tell.

I have another planting of the African varieties in Bed #5, and those are planted in my more uniform method, rows of 3, 9" X 12". Those should be ready for pre flowering field notes in a week or two as bed 5 was planted later.

Next field notes should be the Lima Bean bed in the next few days.

 

[aftermidnight]

I thought I'd chime in with the varieties of beans I have planned for the garden this year, although I don't grow many plants of each variety I'm hoping to get a decent amount of seed from them.

The ones either already planted out or will be in the next few days...
POLE BEANS
Andean/Equador
Black Jungle Butter Beans
Barksdale
Berta Talaska
Chinese Red Noodle
Emilia's Italian Pole
Flamingo
Grandma Robert's Purple Pole
Grandpa Gerono's
John's Polish Purple Pole
Little White Ice (Pole)
Major Cook's
Mr. Tungs
Mrs. Fortune's
North Carolina Long Greasy Cutshort
Poletschka
Purple Italian Marconi Stringless
Royal City Cannery
Ryder's Best
Selma Star
Selma Zebra
Taiwan Pole
Tennessee Cutshort
Tennessee Greasy Mix
White Hull Pink Tips

BUSH BEANS
Comtesse de Chambord
Comtesse de Chambord SSE 226
Crystal Wax/Ice
Dutchesse de Chambord
Little White Ice (Half Runner?)
Little White Rice
Woods Mountain Crazy Beans

I'm only growing samples of some of these for comparison but hoping to get enough seed to store in the freezer as it will be a few years before I grow them again, so many more in my stash I haven't grown yet and I'm worried about keeping the seed viable.

Annette

 

[journey11]

I've got one Molley's Zebra up so far, just today. The others should be along shortly. That was a 3 seed sample, so after hearing others having some trouble with germination, I've been sweating bullets here. I did the papertowel thing first to "wake" them up before planting.

 

[897tgigvib]

That's a good idea on waking the seeds up Journey!

Welcome Annette! Looks like you have a great collection there!