The Little Easy Bean Network - Get New Beans Varieties Nearly Free

[897tgigvib]

Powder Star with the pink tip pod. Small first pod of the plant.

I opened it to see the seed. Couldn't stop myself. I'll have a photo of the seed later today.

 

[897tgigvib]

 

[the1honeycomb]

LOL I sent my beans to Bluejay77 and had hoped to hear that he got them! I waited. Went to visit my daughter and she asked me what the seeds were for. I hadn't sent her seeds! I do on occasion send her things. I guess she was on my mind when I sent Bluejay his seeds because there on her counter were the Coco black beans I thought I had sent to Blue Jay!!! sorry I will get them in the mail today!!

 

[journey11]

That is a pretty bean, Marshall. Is it a young pod?

I am still waiting on the Top Crop to mature. They are heavily loaded with beans. I think they will make a really good canning bean for me next year. They set later than the Appaloosa and are still green on the vine. I'm having a lot of trouble with the Appaloosa though. In most of the yellowed or dry brown pods I've brought in so far the beans are not looking so good. I have a few that look normal, just a little wrinkly. But I am finding that most of the beans that beared early in my garden this year have very wrinkled seeds in the pod, small, or some even rotting/molded. The Sno Caps (from another trade) I was growing out for seed looked great on the vine, but when I opened the pods, most were shriveled and rotten inside! The beans grown in the lower section of my garden seem to be the worst of it, which was where I planted most of them. I suspect the excessive rain may have given them wet feet...or perhaps it is a disease? The peppers in the row next to the beans did great and went bonkers. The 2 eggplants in the same row died.

The Rio Zape I traded you for, Russ, are just now blooming. They have the prettiest pale purple bloom. I'm hoping now that it has finally dried off some here that the later pods set will form good beans. I've never had this problem before. I am really bummed out and I hope I can get at least 50 good seeds out of that Appaloosa.

 

[canesisters]

Marshall... is that a picture of the beans you've harveted this year??????? That's a LOT of beans!!!!!!!

 

[897tgigvib]

Lol, those are piles of road gravel, but yep, getting a good harvest for the most part. Probably the best ever so far.

I picked some of the Wide Podded White greasy selection that came out of the sallee-dunnahoo white greasies an hour ago. So far they are a really awesome bean. The Nickell bean I got from Journey have not yet ripened.

Journey's Ora's Speckled are most definitely superior in every way to Greasy Grit. I think Ora's and Greasy Grit are the same variety, but that Ora's Speckled is a much better selected strain.

I do not yet know if Nickel and Wide pod white greasy are the same variety or not.

 

[journey11]

My pole beans in the top of the garden have done well this year, although I have found a couple shrunken seeded pods on the Nickell as well, but not many. My Nickell came on a few days before the other 2 (Ora's Speckled and Hill Family Greasy). I'm glad you liked the Ora's Speckled, Marshall. I've had a pretty good harvest off of them, but not as abundant as the Nickell. I imagine though, as stuffed as those beans are in the pods for Ora's Speckled, a lot of energy goes into that by them, probably meaning less beans overall. We had a big pot of the Ora's Speckled for dinner. DH said he thinks he likes them even better. I've been a nervous wreck waiting on the bush beans, especially Russ's beans. I wish now I had put them in the upper half of the garden too, although it wouldn't have made sense by the height, E to W. (sigh)

 

[Mackay]

Hi Bluejay, I've been going through your website. What dedication!!

I have a very short growing season of 60 days about guaranteed, 70 to 80 with luck some luck. I'm at 6,000 feet.

Can you recommend a bean for me? and can beans be started inside? (although I'd rather not- so many other things require it here)

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi Mackay !


Glad you enjoyed the website. I enjoyed putting it together.

6,000 feet sounds like Rocky Mountain High. Well that's going to leave out all the pole bean varieties for you. Amy Hawk of Calhan, Colorado who I've gotten a number of bush varieties of beans from gardens at 6,700 foot elevation, and judging by her list of beans. She seems to be able to grow about any bush variety I grow here. You can google her website I think by typing in Simply Beans or E5 Ranch to see all the beans she grows. I would leave out also any semi-runner types also. They seem to take a bit longer to mature. You could try any true bush types. Maybe a couple of exceptions in that department also. Two of them that come to my mind right away. I've seen Bird Egg Blue mature most it's seed crop just before a frost killed them off. This year I'm growing one called Bird Egg #2 that still has green pods on it, and has not given me one single dry pod yet. I gave that bean a talking too and told it to hurry up. The frost will be on the pumpkin before you know it. This variety just started to blossom around the begining of August. Most of my bush varieties are in bloom by about the 6th of July here. The earliest bean I've grown this year is one called Uncle Willies. It's seed went into the ground on June 4th and picked it's first dry pod on August 18th. I think I had all of the rest of it's dry pods picked by about the end of the first week of September. Maria Zeller seems early. You could try Goose Cranberry, Pawnee, Kenearly. Earliest dry bean last year was Coco Rubico, and it too dried it's pods quickly. One of the earliest snap beans to grow in Bountiful.

You could start beans in small peat pots in the house in a potting mix two weeks before your last frost date. After the seedlings emerge they need plenty of direct sunlight so they don't become thin and spindly. Then plant them pot and all a few days after your last frost. I would set them about 8 inches apart.

Next year you can try some beans and see how it goes.

 

[Mackay]

Thanks Bluejay. I will do the search you suggested.

Before I moved up here I purchased a number of varieties of bean seed. My first two years nothing really took off. This year I planted a yellow wax bean and I actually harvested yesterday. I had no idea if I was planting bush or pole and I put up a trellis for naught, as they turned out to be bush. A nice bean pod with not strings.. Bakercreek Heirloom seed Co. if I recall correctly.

Hardly any of my bean packets tell me if they are bush or pole! so its a guessing game... but is sure is good to know that pole beans are not to be trusted around here.

You say that when pods are dry that is when to harvest the actual seed beans.. Im mostly interested in having a bean pod I can eat at this point. So are all the beans that are used for cooking a pot of beans edible earlier on? say like pintos? by edible I mean enjoyable. I guess some are stringly so thats why you dont hear of eating them. I dont think I have room enough to grow enough beans to cook up a pot of ranch beans.. at least not yet... but that is my intent as time goes by. To be sustainable at this altitude it is a prime protien source other than meat, if you can grow'em

You may be interested to know that about 30 years ago I was given some second generation white bean seed from what was grown at a university. Just a few seeds really. The original seed was found in an ancient Anasazi dwelling in the southwest. I was too stupid to keep hold of them at the time but it taught me something... a bean seed can last for a very very very long time if it is well cared for.