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

[Blue-Jay]

I just want anyone who got samples of the African beans this year that the number on the packet was not intended to be part of the beans name. I numbered the packets originally to keep track and get a total count on the varieties.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I went to the post office today. The estimated delivery is Monday. I recommend the Lazy Housewife Red and Mahlathini. Those are good ones.

 

[journey11]

@Bluejay77 , Molley's Zebra and Star 2054 are packed up and on their way to the post office tomorrow. I may have labeled the packet of Star as 2056...I got a little confused, but it was definitely 2054 with the pink fungicide coating in your picture in the first post.

Good Mother Stallard performed excellently for me, very loaded with plump pods and perfect dry beans. Thanks for the opportunity to try something new! I've found several productive keepers in the garden this year from quite a few new beans I tried.

I wanted to ask too, for anyone who might know the answer, what causes some beans to produce empty pods? Is it a disease or result of growing conditions? I had 1 of my 40 varieties that just failed to produce a full pod for some reason. It had lots of pods set, but only maybe 5 of them had mature dry beans inside. And one other bean variety I had that did grow had lots of dense, tiny, stunted leaves and it failed to produce any pods at all. All of its neighbors did fine. Could that be a disease as well?

 

[Hal]

@Bluejay77 , Molley's Zebra and Star 2054 are packed up and on their way to the post office tomorrow. I may have labeled the packet of Star as 2056...I got a little confused, but it was definitely 2054 with the pink fungicide coating in your picture in the first post.

Good Mother Stallard performed excellently for me, very loaded with plump pods and perfect dry beans. Thanks for the opportunity to try something new! I've found several productive keepers in the garden this year from quite a few new beans I tried.

I wanted to ask too, for anyone who might know the answer, what causes some beans to produce empty pods? Is it a disease or result of growing conditions? I had 1 of my 40 varieties that just failed to produce a full pod for some reason. It had lots of pods set, but only maybe 5 of them had mature dry beans inside. And one other bean variety I had that did grow had lots of dense, tiny, stunted leaves and it failed to produce any pods at all. All of its neighbors did fine. Could that be a disease as well?

I'd say the stunted plant was likely virus, if you get any like that in future your best to incinerate them roots and all as soon as possible just to be safe so it does not spread.

 

[journey11]

I've been looking at pics of Common Bean Mosaic Virus, but it didn't really look like that. There was no discoloration or yellowing during the growing season...so I never thought it was a disease at the time. I just thought it had the tiniest leaves of any bean I'd seen. Not sure about the curling; I'll have to look again. It's still out there; I haven't pulled it up yet. Not a single bean to be found on it, although I did see quite a few blooms on it earlier on.

No worries of contamination on Russ's beans though, if that bean does have a virus. They were in a different garden spot alone with two other healthy varieties I put priority on.

I need to study up on my bean diseases. Rust is the only one I'd previously had any knowledge of. My weather this year has been favorable for many of the diseases I've been reading about...wet and cool.

 

[Hal]

I've been looking at pics of Common Bean Mosaic Virus, but it didn't really look like that. There was no discoloration or yellowing during the growing season...so I never thought it was a disease at the time. I just thought it had the tiniest leaves of any bean I'd seen. Not sure about the curling; I'll have to look again. It's still out there; I haven't pulled it up yet. Not a single bean to be found on it, although I did see quite a few blooms on it earlier on.

No worries of contamination on Russ's beans though, if that bean does have a virus. They were in a different garden spot alone with two other healthy varieties I put priority on.

I need to study up on my bean diseases. Rust is the only one I'd previously had any knowledge of. My weather this year has been favorable for many of the diseases I've been reading about...wet and cool.

Sorry to yell virus, I'm one of those super paranoid types that exercises excessive caution
So did it look like a normal plant but just miniature? I do recall once or twice in all my years I've had the odd miniature plant in a row and could never explain it.

 

[journey11]

Sorry to yell virus, I'm one of those super paranoid types that exercises excessive caution
So did it look like a normal plant but just miniature? I do recall once or twice in all my years I've had the odd miniature plant in a row and could never explain it.

It grew to a normal size, a tall bush bean with some short runners. It has perhaps too many leaves, close together and not spaced out as usual, and they are very small. After looking over my notes, the variety was Anasazi. My notes say it did have tiny beans forming on it at that point in time. They must have aborted though. Maybe @marshallsmyth can recall if the small clusters of leaves were normal for Anasazi. First time I've grown it. I just thought it had an odd growth habit and didn't worry about it until I found no beans on it yesterday. Mutant or virus, I don't know. I don't think it will bloom again, so I'll go yank it up today and see if anything looks odd at the roots.

Nothing wrong with being cautious. I should have had better sense about it. It makes me feel a little sick to think I may have let some nasty disease carry on. I wonder too if maybe it just needs a hotter season than I have, since it sounds like it may have a South or Central American origin?

 

[897tgigvib]

Ah yes! Anasazi, the kind I have, grows with smallish leaves, and it grows matted on the ground, with bunches of runners. Some varieties do that planted at some places, and more normally at other places. I recall from last year that Anasazi was late midseason. Her runners are the thin kind. I call that growth pattern an Indian bean pattern of growth, or a tender vined quarter runner. I got a pretty good crop after all from them.

This year my Chickasaw outcross #2 are growing this way.

I'm guessing soil ph and sun hours have something to do with it besides a variety tendency.

3 african premier beige outcross in one place grew as standard half runners, and from the same packet, 3 others planted at a different place are growing like this. The normal growth ones already finished and the indian growth ones are just now producing.

If it is any kind of virus it does not seem to carry one year to the next, and it would be something they tolerate. I think though it is soil ph and sun.

Anyone else have an idea?

 

[Hal]

Ah yes! Anasazi, the kind I have, grows with smallish leaves, and it grows matted on the ground, with bunches of runners. Some varieties do that planted at some places, and more normally at other places. I recall from last year that Anasazi was late midseason. Her runners are the thin kind. I call that growth pattern an Indian bean pattern of growth, or a tender vined quarter runner. I got a pretty good crop after all from them.

This year my Chickasaw outcross #2 are growing this way.

I'm guessing soil ph and sun hours have something to do with it besides a variety tendency.

3 african premier beige outcross in one place grew as standard half runners, and from the same packet, 3 others planted at a different place are growing like this. The normal growth ones already finished and the indian growth ones are just now producing.

If it is any kind of virus it does not seem to carry one year to the next, and it would be something they tolerate. I think though it is soil ph and sun.

Anyone else have an idea?

Marshall do you think if someone were to create a book about bean cultivars that leaves, growth type, flower color and such would be just as important to include photos of as the dry seed?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

If you were trying to sort of make a "field guide" type book (one designed to help in identifying cultivars, in the same way say, and Audubon guide is used to identify species of birds) yes. In fact I can think of two more traits that should probably be there, pod size/shape, and seedling traits (like FPM/AV heavy cot mottling, or red hypocotyls). It also might give clues to ancestry of cultivars.