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

[ninnymary]

Welcome Hal! I'm not a bean grower since gardening space is prime realty here in my tiny yard. I usually grow around 6 plants of colorful beans to use in my preschoolers art projects for the year. But we eat pinto beans weekly and sure wish I has space to grow them!

Mary

 

[Hal]

Thank you for the warm welcome everyone!
Marshall my growing season is a very odd one this year, the winter was one of the warmest on record then it suddenly got cold again, then hot for a tiny bit then cold and has stayed on the cool side since.
Due to a frost risk a month later than usual, cold soil temperatures and an almost solid week of rain I had to put back planting this year till very late. I have about 50 different beans planted at present and another 50 to plant and possible another 50 to deal with.
I have two months of planting time left if I want to beat the frost.

 

[so lucky]

Hey Hal, how long is your growing season? Here in Southeast Missouri, we get our last frost around mid-to late-April, then first frost in the fall about the end of October. Your seasons are opposite ours, so would your growing season be from ---say---September to April or May?

 

[Hal]

Hey Hal, how long is your growing season? Here in Southeast Missouri, we get our last frost around mid-to late-April, then first frost in the fall about the end of October. Your seasons are opposite ours, so would your growing season be from ---say---September to April or May?

September to May, and sometimes the last half of August if it warms early.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

from the eastern side of that big continent on the other side of the Pacific, Hal! Since I just got back from plucking ducks all day I do have my dirtiest gardening/duck farmer clothes on (complete with blood spatters and a lot of down). No bean pods to shake - they've all bean shelled for the year!

I like beans too, I have a good 25 different varieties of beans in my seed collection. That's nothing compared to how many varieties Marshall and Bluejay have though! Once again, welcome! Can't wait to hear about your Australian gardening adventures!

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Bluejay, was finally able to talk to Dirty Dan (The one that I originally got the Golden Jacob's Cattle bean from. We call him that because not only is he a gardener, he's a pig farmer.) Those beans that you have are from the 2011 growing season. I also found out that he has been growing them since 2004 (He's processing his own pigs now, so couldn't get them in the ground the past two years.), he originally got them from some seed company back in 2004. After doing a little bit of online research I found out that the beans are available at several lesser known seed companies and that they are actually called "Jacob's Cattle Gold." Next time he gives me seeds I'll ask him more than what it's called. (Thought I'd put that here instead of another PM message.)

 

[Hal]

from the eastern side of that big continent on the other side of the Pacific, Hal! Since I just got back from plucking ducks all day I do have my dirtiest gardening/duck farmer clothes on (complete with blood spatters and a lot of down). No bean pods to shake - they've all bean shelled for the year!

I like beans too, I have a good 25 different varieties of beans in my seed collection. That's nothing compared to how many varieties Marshall and Bluejay have though! Once again, welcome! Can't wait to hear about your Australian gardening adventures!

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Thanks for the welcome. All shelled means nice beans to look at till planting time.
Your 25 are just as important. Some people like to have a lot and others are content with a carefully chosen selection but at the end of the day it helps keep them in circulation so that people can still find them when they want them.
I would hate for any of them to be gone for ever, even the ones we don't personally like might be a treasure to someone else.
I think the bean network is a great idea.

 

[bj taylor]

I've got beans that I really don't know if they're viable or not. they're still on vines that have been stashed in the "shed" for a couple of weeks. the weather is beautiful for the next couple of days, so I'm going to see what I've got. I'm still hoping I've got enougt to send to bluejay.

welcome hal. nice to meet ya

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Hal, I agree that preservation of all vegetable varieties is important; to our future and the ecosystems. I hope to get into heirloom preservation some day, so it all brings me one baby step closer to my goal. My 25 include runners and one garbanzo variety along with common beans. Can't wait until Bluejay puts pictures of your Australian varieties on his website, I'm excited to see them!

BJ, my guess is if there are anything to the beans at all, that they'll still be viable. Just not as vigorous as they would be harvested fully mature.
For some drought tolerant varieties try Native Seed/SEARCH. They have many heirloom Mexican/South Western bean varieties that were traditionally dry farmed and so can take the abuse that your climate can throw at them.

http://shop.nativeseeds.org/pages/seeds

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi SeedObsesser !

Thanks for pursuing the identity of the beans. I kind of thought that is probably what they were called. Nice to know for sure.

 

[897tgigvib]

BJ, just keep making sure those pods that are drying aren't getting moldy. You'd be surprised that immature seeds can have a germination percentage.