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

[897tgigvib]

The Chocolate ladies series:

The first one was labeled "Chocolate", so for organizing purposes, I called these "Chocolate Main", not that this is their name, but just for my mind's organizing: All the plants in the entire chocolate series made at least a few runners for me. Most were to 3 or 4 feet. The one exception was the one survivor plant of 2013 segregation #4, which grew 2 runners to over 8 feet.

First photo is of what is left in the packet I received from Russ.

Chocolate Main had 4 plants, and each had subtle differences.

Chocolate Main plant #1 I called "Chocolate Soldiers". She was early and gave continuous production. All the Chocolate Main plants gave excellent production, so well in fact that I had sufficient quantity of all of them to be able to remove the plants around 1 September in order for lesser plants to have room and moisture to produce better.
Chocolate Soldiers:

Next was a plant that made similar beans, but the soldier mark was slightly smaller, so I called them, "Little Chocolate Soldiers".

The third of the chocolate main family does not yet have a name, but she has a solid eye splotch, plus there are dots.

The fourth in this family also has no name yet, but she is similar to chocolate soldier but with more markings on one end.

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The next family in the chocolate clan was labeled chocolate 2013 segregation, as were the following 2 families, so for my organizing I numbered them.

This is a photo of what is left in the packet I received from Russ. Not sure if it is visible, but these are tricolored, white, medium brown, and light brown or beige. Very pretty!

I mixed up only the photo shoot sequence here, not to worry at all, so the first one here is #2, "Little Herringbone Soldier". She is lightly tricolored on her small soldier mark

Next is #3. Similar to 2 above, but not tricolored. Her plant suffered some extra shading but still, performed alright.

Next is #1. She has a larger herringbone area, so I was calling these "Herringbone Soldier"

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The third family of ladies in the chocolate clan, for organizing, I called chocolate 2013 segregation #3.

Number one of this family were a beautiful TRICOLOR CHOCOLATE SPLASH.
...guess i reached a photo limit, so photo number 5021 will begin the next post...

 

[897tgigvib]

Continued
#1 plant of Chocolate 2013 segregation #3 is what I called, Tricolored Chocolate Splash

#2 of these I called BICOLOR CHOCOLATE SPLASH

(My uploader insert image thing is not showing the whole thing for some reason, so I'll do the descriptions then press the insert every image button. I figured it out now. I think this is why sometimes I get multiple images.)

 

[897tgigvib]

The above post is sort of messed up.

I got 2 images of bicolor chocolate splash.

the image after those is a smaller chocolate soldier.

The thumbnail image is #4 of this family, and she has a bigger chocolate soldier.

 

[897tgigvib]

Chocolate 2013 that I organized as Chocolate 2013 segregation #4 only had one survivor plant, but it grew to over 8 feet. One of her pods was on top of my garden netting which is 8 feet up. first photo is the packet received, second photo are most of the few seeds I got from her.

 

[897tgigvib]

mumbles to self...I'm going to do the even more complicated set of the FLAMBOYANT girls better.

After I have some more brain enhancing coffee!

Some of the Flamboyant beans are extremely beautiful!

Also, I'll transfer the blue aspen photos from fb to here soon. I really liked what blue aspen did. A tricolor pinto, if it breeds true, would be great!

 

[897tgigvib]

The above is Blue Aspen, what is left of the packet I got from Russ. I definitely will be planting the rest of these seeds next year! Also will be planting at least a few each of the new segregations I got from these this year.

I planted 6 seeds and got 6 segregations. I knew I probably would! Number one here is a deeply hued dark pinto type which also will probably segregate. Notice, these are TRICOLOR, or even QUADRACOLOR!

Blue Aspen segregation 2014 #2 is a light lavender, a type somewhere between a kidney and a bolitas.

Blue Aspen 2014 segregation #3 is a deep satin blue. Above.

more blue aspen segregations in next post

 

[897tgigvib]

Blue Aspen 2014 segregation #4 is a midnight blue to gloss black.

Blue Aspen 2014 segregation #5 are a glossy deep lavender.

Blue Aspen 2014 segregation #6 are a TRICOLOR bright and glossy pinto. Mainly glossy beige, patches of white background, and black pinto markings.

 

[journey11]

Blue Aspen 2014 segregation #4 is a midnight blue to gloss black.

Blue Aspen 2014 segregation #5 are a glossy deep lavender.

Blue Aspen 2014 segregation #6 are a TRICOLOR bright and glossy pinto. Mainly glossy beige, patches of white background, and black pinto markings.

Those Blue Aspen segregations are stunning, especially the tri/quad-colored ones. Are those their colors after drying down?

 

[897tgigvib]

FLAMBOYANT 2012
This series was the most complex sets of bean outcrosses I grew. These photos are of the 2012 segregation that I received from Russell Crow. There are also 4 2013 segregations, each also with around 3 or 4 2014 segregations that I grew this year.

Notice the variations in these! They come from 4 separate plants, all planted from seeds in the packet shown in this set. The midnight blue to black seeds in the last photo of this set grew in pods that turned a beautiful deep purple. All the pods in the entire flamboyant series are small to medium sized, nice and fat, and usually with 2 to 4 seeds in each pod, but most of Flamboyant's seeds are large and rounded, and look to have a nice soupy texture that'd probably work with a lima bean soup recipe, or else go for a 3 bean salad recipe from dry beans or from shelly beans. Almost all the Flamboyants are really pretty.

I'll be growing more of these next year, and hoping very much that some of these STABILIZE into set varieties, meaning to breed true. Even if some never breed true, and that sometimes happens, some of these will make real nice MIX VARIETIES.

 

[897tgigvib]

All of the Flamboyants made runners in my garden. I think they are true half runners to an average of 4 and a half feet. A five foot tall system would be perfect for them. Any that grow a bit taller would drape down nicely from the top.

I'll do the next can of flamboyants next. Those will be the Flamboyant 2013 segregation #1 which I received from @Bluejay77 early this year. 3 of her plants survived to produce at least some seed. This group, 2013 #1, had the hardest time of the heat this summer. They were in one of the hottest parts of my garden.

Give me a few minutes to load the photos.