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

[journey11]

Journey, if those black seeded greasy cutshorts breed true I think you'll really be on to something. Not too sure if there are any black seeded truly greasy truly cutshort varieties out there.

That's what I am thinking...certainly none that I've ever heard of. That would be so cool!

 

[Blue-Jay]

Marshall !

Speaking of white pole beans. Mark Christensen of the Central Tree Crop And Research of New Zealand sent me an outcross of Turkey Craw. Looks very similar in color pattern but in black and white. It threw of a nice white bean this year that I'm hoping will prove to be a very productive white seeded pole stewing bean type. This Turkey Craw outcross which I've been refering to as Black Turkey really cranked out the seed this year. Just a bit smaller seed size that Turkey Craw but lots of quantity.

We definitely have the beans to grow. I'm going to try to take pictures of all those nearly 100 bean varieties the guy from South Africa sent me and post them here perhaps early next week. I think those beans should be the basis for the choices on the Little Easy Bean Network next year. What do you think? Just about everything I have doesn't need growing out, but maybe a couple. I'll sift through my varieties next March and see which one of mine I could put on the bean network list. Not many of them I'm sure.

 

[897tgigvib]

Russ, I kind of think that the new outcrosses would need growing out for "macro" reasons, in other words, to increase their population in the world and be disseminated to other places growing and reproducing. That reduces their risk of extinction and continues the genetic diversity of Phaseolus vulgaris both as it is and as it increases. We seem to be enjoying a period right now of vulgaris' rapid variety increase while simultaneously humans are becoming more vulnerable to sudden food crop loss because of emerging disease and other issues.

To me, it means Great Spirit is gifting us with new varieties that hardly any of us could actually do the surgery to create ourselves, by way of our Bumblebee friends. We ought to help to make sure these new varieties spread to different geographic places, even if it's 5 seeds here, 10 seeds there.

What I'm saying is I hope the outcrosses will be on the list too.

Ya know, I was reading a scientific american article from about a year ago that mentioned a genetic testing machine being developed which will be very inexpensive. Maybe even cheap enough that college and public libraries might have them in the near future. Those things can analyze population groups, and that would be especially interesting for P. vulgaris to compare the theory that they are in 5 subspecies that can cross between but with different limitations such as certain ones have to be the female parent in a cross with certain other subspecies.

PXBT does to me really seem to be a subspecies cross! Growth pattern similar to the subspecies that little brown cat is part of, but with the stem and leaf coloration partially of the subspecies that some of the purple podded varieties belong to.

And then there is the subspecies of the vining Rio Zape. I really think it is the same subspecies as the kind of Black Coco I have which I'll send to you. Might want to keep them separate from your Black Coco. I think they may be very different varieties but given the same name because of the similarity of the Bean seed. If they are different, my accession or variety should probably have the word Native added to its name.

Subspecies outcrosses will really help vulgaris' diversity and should be spread to different locations. Just my thoughts Russ.

 

[Hal]

Would you like to see photos of all those beans I got from the bean grower in South Africa? I can put all those in the Little Easy Bean network next year. There is another fellow from Australia that ran into my website and he's going to be sending me an assortment of Australian varieties. These guys want someone in America to keep them all alive.

I'm the Australian, Bluejay77 was nice enough to bring this nice place to my attention.
I grow as many bean varieties as I can get my hands on as I love snaps, shellies and dry ones all equally.
I'm hoping to help put back into circulation some of the older Australian varieties that have disappeared and almost gone extinct.
A lot of the Australian breeding work for beans was done a few blocks from my house at the agricultural college, which my grandfather ran the experimental farm for.
Which helped lead to my interest.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi Hal !

It's so nice to see you here with the rest of us bean people.

Hey Everyone ! We could put on our best dirty gardening clothes and have a little welcoming party for Hal. So go right ahead and make a little noise and rattle those seeds in your bean pods for Hal if you will. Once again Hal it is truely so lovely to see you here. I'm sure I'm going to learn some things about new bean varieties I never knew about before.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum, Hal.

This has been a fun project, taking a few seeds, getting them to germinate, trying to keep the varmints from killing the ones that germinate, and getting enough seeds to send back to Russ. There is some stress involved when 13 seeds become only 3 plants, but if you dont have the opportunity to fail you really dont appreciate the success you do have.

Im one of many on here that plan to participate again. Ive got more interest in those African beans since Ive worked on that continent but never had the pleasure of visiting yours. Im confident your beans will be popular too. And once again,

 

[897tgigvib]

G'day mate!

My girlfriend lives down under where it's "5 hours ago tomorrow" with the time zones to just west of Sydney.

This coming season I'm growing only bean varieties new to me. It's official. I'm a bean collector too. I'm gonna grow like 50 new varieties from Russ' collection, hopefully a lot of his new and old outcrosses, and mostly bush this year.

He has some from Africa I want to grow too. And now some Aussie varieties. Yes!!!

I am putting together a good sized package to send to Russ of packets of all my varieties and segregations. I have some outcrosses too.

Looking forward to next year's bean collection increase! All my garden is, is beans and one row of assorted bramble berries.

 

[897tgigvib]

So many new varieties this coming up season that it may only be about 5 or 10 plants of each. Maybe even 200 new varieties! Getting excited about this 2014 season!

How's the growing season going down under for you Hal?

to the forum!

 

[MontyJ]

Hello Hal, and welcome!

Like many others here, I grew a couple of varieties for Russ. I plan to devote a little space for a couple more varieties in the spring. I'm sure I could find a bit of room for a couple more if you have need of it.

And Marshall, I didn't forget about you! Work has been a nightmare lately. You'll have them for Christmas

 

[so lucky]

Hi Hal! Glad you could join us. We hardly have any folks from anywhere but the US. Nice to get perspective from the other side of the world. Gosh, that sounds so far away! (Guess it is, huh?)