2015 Little Easy Bean Network - Old Beans Should Never Die !

[baymule]

It IS better than TV! LOL

 

[PhilaGardener]

Bean there, done that

 

[the1honeycomb]

So excited when i got all my beans planted and very neatly the garden was looking good when i left for a week.
I had a friend who would watch the chickens and water the garden. Everything is fine he stated when i called.
He had let the chickens out and many of my seeds werd gone of transplanted when i gof homd i have several ckming up in strange places so i am prYing they are assorted and i will have my respective seeds. Lol one thing or another looking forward to results many beans are up and seem happy so keeping my fingers crossed

 

[VA_LongBean]

Bean Update:
Piet Special is somewhere between 6 and 7 feet tall, still growing, and has long since outrun the t-post it was trained on. Additional vines from the base and along the main vine are spreading out and trying to get a grip on the trellises nearby (Galante longbean, Hyacinth bean, Kentucky Wonder pole bean). I planted this too close to other pole beans when I thought it was a bush bean and am not willing to add twine to help it grow to another trellis. It is safe to say this is a vigorous bean.

Flowers are white, held well away from the vine in clusters on banchletts 2-3 inches long, and just began appearing in the last few days. Leaves are 9 inches across and up to 10 inches long depending on how you measure (I measured leaf tip to leaf tip, and from tip to the back of the leaves not the petiole).

The leafletts are generously round (curvaceous?) and have an undulating surface. Leaf color is . . . green; greens are not my strong suit so I'll leave describing that to the next grower. I'll try comparing the shades of green in beans across my garden later to try and get a better idea.

Solwezi, despite sprouting first indoors is only 3.5 to 4.5 feet tall, but growing and making branches. Could the presence of garlic nearby be inhibiting it? All three seedlings have survived to make very healthy looking vines and are trained to a single t-post. It is nowhere near other phaseolus vulgaris pole beans so I attached twine to the pole pea t-posts and the lima bean t-posts nearby to give it room to grow if it wants to. I look forward to seeing if it takes off in the heat of a Virginia summer.

Leaves are 10 inches wide by 10.5-11 inches long tip to base. Leaves are a bit less rounded and smooth/flat.

Flowers appear to be white, though I have only found 1 so far . . . and it was fading. Flowers are held close to the vine and seem to be hidden where it branches. I need more careful observations on both these beans and my regular ones to see how they are similar/different.

General
I will only be able to give a rough estimate of days to green pods and days to dry seed as they were started indoors in mid-April they were not planted out till early/mid-May. This could have sped up or slowed down their usually pace.
Other beans are starting to make pods so these should soon too. If production is sufficient I'll try some green pods later in summer and report on the flavor, etc.
Hoping these don't require a ridiculous length of time to full maturity of seed. If I grow them again, likely, they are getting spaced on 2' centers.

 

[teamneu]

@Bluejay77 Thanks - I am reading that thread, but haven't gotten that far yet.

 

[the1honeycomb]

I completely fenced in my garden to mostly keep dogs, chickens, and larger fun loving varmits out. I was in hospital for a week and my son thought it would be easier to weed wack if the lower 8 inches were removed he wss so proud. I am afraid it is a loosing battle lol I will win!,, one batch of plants has beautiful purple veins

 

[sea-kangaroo]

I'm taking a break from the bean network this year since I have a ton of my and other people's projects I'm growing out. But I have some outcrosses/sports that I'm really excited about that I want to show you guys. They're all flowering by now which has only increased my impatience for the harvest, haha. Mini fashion show:

This is my favorite by far; I went "oohhh!" when I opened the pods. It's from a rouge plant of Maggie's Crescent, a bush Robert Lobitz Variety. I got the Maggie's Crescent from a Seed Saver's Exchange member in Illinois (not Russ ) who has a large collection that seems to always be full of outcrosses. I'm calling it Blossom Valley after my neighborhood (which was named back when this area was apricot orchards instead of tech offices), and I really hope some of them come true!

These two are descendants of Skunk/Flagg/Chester, which I got seed for from that same Illinois SSE member. When I grew Skunk the first year it made a couple of oddities, one of which was the type in the left photo-- very round and fat with lots of white. Those I called Hooded Skunk (after a species with more white and less striping than our usual skunk), and when I planted them some came true and some were bush plants with a pattern like in the right photo. Those I'm calling Inkblot since they remind me of a rorschach test. It looks like the pattern is a combo of Skunk's stripyness + a Soldier/Monstance-like "figure," which I hadn't seen before.

On the left is an outcross of Trionfo Violetto and possibly Taos Red, and on the right is either a sport or an outcross of Rose, which I'm calling Rosita since it's basically a mini version of its parent. It does have a bit of pinto-like patterning under there, though, and I wonder if it isn't a cross with Kishwaukee Yellow, since they were neighbors. My plants for this have different flower colors so there's going to be some variation.

And last but not least, two descendants of Russ' Kishwaukee Yellow Wax, by way of lots of outcrossing in Neil Lash's school garden. On the right is "Pied Python" and on the left "Bluetick," both named for their respective animal patterns. Bluetick is a child of Pied Python. I had pretty bad germination with these unfortunately (older seed from a time before I stored seed properly), so fingers crossed my few plants and the seed I gave to Russ do well. These have all grown into bush plants.

Glad to hear everybody's gardens are underway and surviving the floods!

 

[PhilaGardener]

Illinois must have some busy bees! Those are beautiful seeds, sea-kangaroo !

 

[897tgigvib]

Holy Cats Sea Kangaroo! That's AMAZING!

 

[Hal]

@sea-kangaroo Blossom Valley and Pied Python are stunning.