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This year I had some P. vulgaris varieties from a swap with an Italian grower. It's really difficult to find any information about some of the varieties he sent me, and some of them didn't thrive. But the ones below are all pole beans which I really enjoyed and which did very well. I wonder...

I think my soil in England tends to bring out the white in beans quite well. I grew Pawnee this year and the seed produced has a good amount of white. I could have sent some, Russ, had I known it’s one which varies quite a lot. But actually I like the heavier speckling in your 2014 crop.

Hi from England too. I imagine like me you’re probably hoping the rain/snow stops soon. Do you have any beans you’re specially looking forward to growing?

Yes, the Czechoslovakian I grew is also a pole bean.

Your Veitch Wonder seems to be the same as one I have from Bohnen-Atlas called Nain de Veitch. I believe Nain de means dwarf or bush. Nain de Veitch is also a hybrid with Phaseous coccineus.

Interesting. Another naming mystery. Heritage Seed Library in UK has an entirely different bean named Czechoslovakian which I grew this year. It was also prolific but not Romano type.

Yes, interesting the variation of colouring in beans named Soldier. A quick google comes up with black markings and brown markings as well as your redder markings. My form of Soldier came from the Heritage Seed Library here in UK and the makings are interestingly blotchy. Photos could have been...

Yes, I think it’s pretty too. I’ll definitely give it a go this year and see what comes of it. It’s my first outcross!

Thanks. Yes, interesting, and an interesting discussion following from it. I think there is more relationship between the original and the outcross in that example though. I can’t see any of the Blooming Prairie parentage in my outcross, except perhaps size and shape of bean. The purple...

Blooming Prairie, the purple bean, is usually stable as far as I know. I grew about 12 plants and the rest were all true to type, ie. purple. I’ll look for Rio Zape, as you suggest. Thanks.

I had a very different bean in my Blooming Prairie patch this year. It seems too unlike the original to be an outcross but I don’t think it can have been a mix up because I wasn’t growing any other beans at all like it. Can outcrosses be so unlike the usual type? Photo of possible outcross then...

I grow Maria Zeller too. My seed it just a little rounder I think.

Way back on Bean Show day 1 you showed this Algarrobo bean. I was sent a bean labelled as Algarrobo which I’ve since seen called Algarrobo rote form. I’m wondering what the connection, apart from name, can be. They are totally different in appearance.

Yes, they look normal I'd say. Another good sign hopefully

Yes, thank you all three. I think your advice is very clear Russ. I will follow Artorius's advice with the magnesium sulphate and also try growing one or two seeds immediately in the rotted manure which I used quite heavily on the beds and see if that creates the same yellowing. When I get some...

Thanks, Artorius. I've been doing some googling on Magnesium sulphate. Interesting. It looks like the problem is either magnesium deficiency or mosaic virus. I hope you're right that it's a Mg problem perhaps caused by too much rotted manure when I planted them. It would be good to know how to...

Would it affect some varieties and others be fine though? There is such a marked difference between varieties

I’ve read also that I should pull up the beans but as they’re producing beans that will be quite a wrench. I have maybe 60 or 70 varieties and about a quarter are affected. Where I have the yellowing it’s whole varieties and then right next door there are healthy ones which is why I think it...

Yes, I’m beginning to think I have some varieties infected with mosaic virus. Frustrating, as I think it probably means I shouldn’t keep the seed and shouldn’t send Ernie’s Big Eye seed back to you, Russ.