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

[flowerweaver]

I grew up in Mountain View before high tech really got started, playing in Stevens Creek. I'm not sure I would recognize the place anymore, just like I no longer recognize Austin, Texas.

 

[sea-kangaroo]

I'm a transplant here (grew up in Illinois), but my partner and his mom are locals. She has stories from Valley of Heart's Delight days of walking to school past miles of orchards and picking cherries as a breakfast-on-the-go. And on satellite imagery from 1948 the spot where our house is now is nothing but a grid of trees, for miles around. Must have really been something to see during spring!

 

[flowerweaver]

Yes, it was beautiful!--we lived in house in a cherry orchard. I used to get in trouble for climbing those trees because the sap was hard to get out of my clothes! My father and I would walk to town through farmland, talking to farmers as we went. I played in fields of California poppies. I remember how 'mod' it was when Slater elementary got a geodesic dome that was half library, half auditorium. In the summer we'd put out the kiddie pool and watch the Blue Angels practice out of Moffet Field.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hello & Welcome @flowerweaver, and @sea-kangaroo.

I hope everyone is wearing their best and brightest bean pods for your welcome today. Great to have you aboard. The Little Easy Bean Network is getting more fun all the time. Hope you will love this group as much as you love your gardens.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

A fair question and simply put I'd rather a lighter purple than a dark purple or I would have used Anderson's Wonder which is a large Aubergine purple seed, plus Blooming Prairie and the others have purple pods which is another trait that would be nice.
I want to see how the color is inherited because I've only seen that type of purple in that group of beans and also seeing how it turns out might give me more information for other possible crosses.

Interestingly under my conditions the seed coats on Blooming Prairie are quite a vivid purple.
I'll try taking a photo during the day.

That makes sense. I'm merely pointing out that, since the purple in BP looks like that because of the pattern as opposed to the pigment (it's probably the technically the exact same shade of aubergine as any other purple bean, it just that being in little itty bitty speckles spread out makes it a lot lighter) trying to get it to transfer may not work. You may get a JC pattern bean with lavender replacing the maroon. There certainly are beans that are very much like that, like New Mexico Cave (basically JC with brown instead of maroon) or any or the orcas or calypso's (once you set aside the different bean shape, their actual seed coat patterns are certainly similar). But it seems to me that what you are more likely to get is a JC maroon on white pattern with the BP purple wash OVER it. Pretty certainly, but not exactly what it sounds like you are looking for.

 

[flowerweaver]

Good to be here--thanks for the invite! I'm already looking forward to next season while I still have late season beans to harvest!

 

[journey11]

Welcome, @sea-kangaroo ! Glad to see you have joined in. It was great meeting you in person and trading. You can see a pic of Molley's Zebra and full description on pg. 48 of this thread, post #478. It is 56 days to snap bean and 85 days to dry pod.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of the others once summer hit full swing. Gold of Bacau is a pole bean and has beautiful, wide, flat, 10" long wax pods that are ready to pick around 59 days from planting. Super tender, doesn't need cooked long. A very heavy yielding plant too. Blooms are white.

Missouri Wonder is also a pole/snap bean. It was slow to take off for me, but did make good yields once it did. Blooms are white and pods are 8-9", flat, wide, sweet and tender and do have strings. 68 days to snap bean stage.

I think the other you got was Capirame, right? Marshall's packet labeled them as pole/sometimes bush. 2 of the 3 I planted were bush and the other one climbed a little. They had very heavy yields. The bloom is lavender and the pod is 7" long, plump and wide with a pink splash. I neglected to record days to dry pod on these...

I can't wait to try the tepary beans and hope they'll do well in one of my raised beds. We can get waterlogged here sometimes. (Thanks for that tip, Marshall.)


@marshallsmyth , Thank you for the Powder Stars; that is awesome and I will do that. It's a really nice bean and it needs to be carried on. We loved them as a green bean and they produced like bonkers. They just may be multipurpose with those Hutterite-looking seeds. I have enough dry to try them in some soup and still have some going on the vines now that are in shelly bean stage.

I'll look forward to trying the Buxton Buckshot next year too. I am loving all of the bean pics you've posted. Your camera takes great close-up shots!


@flowerweaver , I got those Willow Leaf limas from Sea Kangaroo. If you'd like them for next year, she might be able to trade you now. If not, I hope they'll do as well here as the other lima I grew and I'll be glad to share for the following year.

 

[flowerweaver]

@sea-kangaroo if you have more of the colored Willow Leaf Lima's I'd love to trade you something of mine. PM me if interested and I can get you a list of what I have.

 

[897tgigvib]

Another photo of By God, this one after they've dried. They keep the dark ring around the hilum. Also, they generally darken some.

 

[sea-kangaroo]

@flowerweaver PM sent (I think).

@journey11 Thanks for the detailed descriptions! The fourth one I got from you was the Sally/Dunahoo. I got Capirame from NS/S this year but haven't grown it yet so your description was interesting. A lot of the southwestern beans I've grown turn out to be sort of sprawlers/semi-bushes/apathetic poles.