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

[Blue-Jay]

Hey Marshall

A package of beans went out to you today. Should be there about Thursday or Friday. 98 samples. It's a box that says, Hey Buzz your bean collection is not yet done growing, and the pedal is not even half way to the metal.

I took all your beans today and tranferred them to little ziploc bags with labels on them. The Keeny's Pink. Does that bean have anything to do with Calvin Keeney the father of the stringless bean? It was interesting how the Dalmatian and Chickasaw outcrosses had the same color and patterned seed. I liked the Dalmatian outcross that had the larger seed. Were you able to trace the vine down to a plant that was actually rooted in the place where the Dalmatian's were growing. Just curious. So you will have a lot of new outcrosses to work with next summer. I have already chosen names for some of them. It's no telling how all these beans could wind up segregating even more.

 

[897tgigvib]

Russ, there are subtle color differences in the beans that grew with the Chickasaws than those that grew with the dalmatians.

Those with the chickasaws have a bluish silvery tint to the lighter shades, and those that were in the dalmatians have a brownish tint.

I followed the vinings best I could, but it is possible I was mistaken. I was late noticing the chickasaws were definitely running like pole beans, what I sometimes call tender pole rather than the heavy vine growth of a true pole or a true half runner. (Rio Zape also has that kind of "tender pole" growth, but seems entirely unrelated, even perhaps a different sub species.)

I truly think Rio Zape and my Black Coco are in the same sub species of P. vulgaris.

I think those PXBT beans I got from you are most amazing genetically. I believe they are the result of crosses between several sub species. Their growth was similar to Little Brown Cat, yet their flowers, slightly differently shaded on each plant, showed the shape and texture of some of the purple podded beans, the leaves dense and leathery, and also puckered.

I chatted some with Joseph Simcox on facebook the other day, and plan to do some bean trading with him, but I still have to figure which. Do you have any thoughts on that? Seems to be an amazing personality, similar to but stronger and more fulfilled to a few people I have known, and with a good sense of humor.

Oh Boy! 98 new varieties!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That'll take awhile to fully sink in!

I worry about my gopher problem. They made their way in toward the end of the season 2013.

I am devising, in my mind only so far, anti gopher cages to grow the beans in this year.

You know I try super hard to make sure I get at least some crop from each variety by making a main patch for each variety, and also a smaller patch for each variety, and then also an emergency spare couple plants of each variety in the north bed with the bramble berries.

Gophers! It is all out total war on them. These are the same kind of Pocket Gophers that virtually ruined Luther Burbank's development of Gladiolus varieties 100 years ago. Out of 5 acres of his Gladiolus he'd been breeding and growing for years, finally doing a full growout to select from, the Gophers invaded, and only 17 random individual Gladiolus plants survived. Many modern Gladiolus varieties are descended from those 17 random plants instead of from highly selected and chosen ones, all because of Pocket Gophers! And these Gophers here are the same kind, same species. Probably even descended from the same varmints! Gophers. They do the army and warfare thing, like Napoleon. Well, Napoleon finally met his at Waterloo. It took a coalition of armies to beat his. I got to out strategy the gophers!

 

[897tgigvib]

At first I thought when I got the mrs. keeney's pink beans that they spelled it Mrs. Kenealy's pink, and when I talked to them they did not correct my pronunciation, and said they thought it was a lady from Oregon.

 

[Hal]

Marshall what was pink about it?

 

[897tgigvib]

It's a good productive variety Hal, and I have more. Bush, for Dry, but those nice pods look edible. The seed is colored a blending of white to cream white, with pink in random patterns. The amount of pink on each seed seems partially true to each plant. A seed with more pink on it will tend to grow a plant that makes seeds also with more pink. One year I planted the pinkest ones and got pinker seeds, and last year I planted the less pink ones and got less pink seeds.

Looking at Russ' site there are some similar looking seeds. Not as boldly colored as his Early Warwick. Oh. Much like his new Conserva variety.

 

[Hal]

It's a good productive variety Hal, and I have more. Bush, for Dry, but those nice pods look edible. The seed is colored a blending of white to cream white, with pink in random patterns. The amount of pink on each seed seems partially true to each plant. A seed with more pink on it will tend to grow a plant that makes seeds also with more pink. One year I planted the pinkest ones and got pinker seeds, and last year I planted the less pink ones and got less pink seeds.

Looking at Russ' site there are some similar looking seeds. Not as boldly colored as his Early Warwick. Oh. Much like his new Conserva variety.

Thank you Marshall that gives me a good picture of what it looks like.
Interesting about the colors, are you selecting for increased pink color?

 

[897tgigvib]

That first year I grew them I wanted to select for more pink, and they did. But the second year I selected the least pink ones to plant, lol, and those did too. But I then put them all back in their own mix. That's the way they came. They are selectable, but I thought, the name should be PINKS in the plural. It's the character of them.

 

[Hal]

That first year I grew them I wanted to select for more pink, and they did. But the second year I selected the least pink ones to plant, lol, and those did too. But I then put them all back in their own mix. That's the way they came. They are selectable, but I thought, the name should be PINKS in the plural. It's the character of them.

Yeah I'd want to keep the mix too, though a little selection work on the side never hurts. Were the pods the same for both colors?

 

[Blue-Jay]

Anyway Marshall !

You will enjoy going through the box of beans when it arrives. Very easy to browse through everything is labeled and in little clear ziploc bags. Just like looking into a little window at the beans.

Josesph Simcox was here at my house on the last sunday of November. Seems like a very personable and neat guy. We sat in front of my computer and brought up my website and he went window shopping and picked out all the beans he wanted to acquire from me. His girl friend acted as secretary and she made a list for me. I didn't know what I wanted of his. Just told him to pick out some interesting looking beans that he had so he sent me about 28 samples the next week. I don't know what to tell you about trading beans with him. He grows all his beans in a mass plot like we do so there is always a possiblity of discovering some outcrosses in his selections. It would be neat if he had photos of all his beans and wrote up some histories of them whatever he knew of them, but I suppose he's pretty busy in his endevors. I don't even know the full extent of what he might have. I'm sure you will enjoy bean trading with him.

He wanted me to display my collection at the Heirloom Seed Expo this coming September 9,10 and 11th in Santa Rosa. I think Baker Creek seeds is heavily involved in this event. His girl friend emailed me about it as she's is some sort of organizer for the event this year. I declined for now not knowing what is all involved it putting in a display. I don't know if you have to build something. I have no idea what their display format might be. I don't know if they build displays on the floor and could be time consuming and expensive. This comes just about the beginning of my peak seed harvesting time. Do they display things on folding tables. I told her I might fly out there this year and just have a look see for myself. Since declining the seed expo for now I haven't heard a thing from him or her in over a month. Perhaps he is disappointed in me, but I'm one of those that's got to know in advance completely how I want to prepare for something. I like to eliminate as many surprises as possible.

 

[897tgigvib]

Yep, virtually identical with the mrs. Keeney's, a nice green.