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

[journey11]

Tell me about it. I was expecting a package of books today that did not show up I checked the tracking and it says the package is sitting in Jersey City......and has been there for about three weeks!

our local PO adds another layer of obfuscation on. They seem to have taken the view that all mail can sit around until they "feel" like delivering it (which they never do) Months can go by when the only mail we get is the presorted junk that requires no input from the post office.

And then of course there are the special headaches that come from buying things from outside the country. I have resigned myself to the fact that such things can take forever. what frustrates me is that even though I get (and usually pay extra for) tracking so I can have a clue when it is showing up (a lot of them are registered, and so need someone to sign for them, and the local PO has this nasty tendency of deciding that, if you aren't there when the package is delivered, you can NEVER get a second chance; the package vanishes into the bowels of the PO system again never to be seen.) it doesn't;t usually do any good since no one bother to scan the package until it's time to deliver it. A few days ago, I bought a book on ebay from the Ukraine. That usually takes 4-12 weeks to get here. I have had the tracking info for a week now but I fully expect that the first time I ever get any idea of where it is the day it shows up at my door needing a signature. That's sort of why for my Japanese book purchases, I use a service that ships everything FedEx. It's expensive as hell, but at least I have some idea of when the stuff is coming!

Good grief. I had a time sensitive letter sent by certified mail to the county this summer, two weeks to spare until it was due. When no one was there to sign for it the day it arrived, they bounced it back to the hub in Charleston and didn't attempt to redeliver for another week! Thank goodness they go by the postmark for the due date. They are just driving the nail in the coffin with this kind of thing. I should have just driven the 20 minutes down the road and hand delivered it myself for free.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

My favorite was the time a package of mine disappeared for a month while they claimed they had delivered it. Turned out they had.......to the house three doors over from mine (whose tenants were on vacation) and to top it all off, they said it was my fault... for not living in an area where the house numbers were sequential1 (houses on my close were numbered based on when they were built, so if you are going around the circle, it's 1, 3, 8 ( don't ask) 4 and 2 (us)

Personally I think a lot of the delay is now intentional. They make parcel post and media mail as slow as possible, to try and strongarm everyone into using Priority. Of course, the moment everyone does, they crap that up to force everyone to use Overnight Express......

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi @teamneu,

Well your package arrived today. Ho Ho the Postal Service finally came through ! The seeds look very good. The Zambezi were a little rougher but I'm sure we won't have any truoble getting them to grow. I also had you down for Red Speckled Sugar #24. Did you have trouble with that one or did it not grow? Certainly want you back again next year. Thank you so much for a wonderful job you did with these beans.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I lost the rest. The Lohrey's Special and Zambezi #3 are totally gone. I still have one Star 2000 plant still alive but it is only about 2" high and setting no pods. I'll leave it until frost kills it but I really have no hope. These were supposedly the last seeds you had of these varieties. And they looked so promising in early summer.

I looked into the seed inventory to see if I could find anymore Zambezi #3. Couldn't find any. I've been hoping to increase these seeds enough so I could split up samples by 2 or 3 so in case someone had a failure it wouldn't be likely that everyone growing that variety would fail. The original samples were so small. Too bad the original sender didn't send bigger samples. I think you probably got the original packet of Zambezi #3.

 

[teamneu]

@Bluejay77,
Thank goodness! I sure thought it would be there Friday. Everyone is right about the delivery times being slower.
The Red Speckled Sugar #24 didn't sprout.
The Zambezi just didn't take off at all. It was slow going, then there were lots of little beans, then there weren't many. Nothing ate them, and the plants had less rust than other varieties, so I guessed they didn't like the heat.
It's kind of a let down to be past the growing season (for the most part), so I'll be eager to start again next year.

 

[Hal]

All the beans that I planted around my house matured earlier than those I planted out in the open in my offsite bean patch in previous years. Could be what @Hal said about the light reflecting off my light colored house when he saw the photos of my tomato plants near my house last year. It gave the plants an increase in the amount of light they have to grow. I planted "Ganymede" a pole lima which matures it's dry pods normally about two weeks before our mid October frost. I was already harvesting some dry Ganymede pods in late August, and I had harvested all it's pods already about two weeks ago. Some of the bush beans had already produced all their dry pods about a month ago. My green seeded Fort Portal Jade had already produced all it's pods near the beginning of September and now some of the plants are producing a smaller second flush of dry pods. I also planted Kabarovsk that SeedO sent me last year, and it's pods from those plants were all harvested out about three weeks ago.

You'd correct about it helping as you'd be getting extra heat and light so things like Lima beans would love it and so would the tomatoes.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Piet Special #8 pole bean and Solwezi #64 pole bean are in the mail and should get back to you mid week Russ. Ultimately both produced a large enough amount of seed to send you double the requested amount and keep a lot to try growing for snaps next year. These beans survived a semi-flooded garden a couple of times this summer as well as 2 periods of significant dry weather so they are tough plants.

I still have a couple original seeds from Piet and Solwezi (saved to help confirm identity). I wish I'd been as conservative when starting Admire Shnitbonen and Mammoth Golden Cluster; a lesson for the future. Let me know when the seeds arrive and if they are what you need.

Is it too soon to sign up for 2016?

Hi @VA_LongBean,

The Solwezi #2-#64 and the Piet Special #8 arrived in the mail today. Very nice seeds thanks for the great job on them, and the 50 seeds on each of those. I never realized from the original seed that the Solwezi was such a pretty seed. Sure surprised me. The color is patterned like a bush one I have called Mrociumere which is also from Africa. I will eventually be taking photos of all the seed returns and add them to the LEBN pages on the website.

There were 28 seed samples send out this year. 5 have returned. 5 of them will not be coming back. Sounds like a war doesn't it. A real battle with age and the weather.

 

[VA_LongBean]

You're welcome @Bluejay77

These were very, VERY, productive plants and I'm looking forward to growing out 1/2 row of each next year for eating. Now to plan for the hurricane.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@teamneu,

Do you remember or did you keep a record of what the growth habit was for Zambezi #2? I still have a question mark for it's growth habit on my spread sheet for the variety. I'm trying to get the unknown growth habit filled in for some of the varieties.

Did Zabezi #2 climb on anything? Was it a true bush or did it throw off runners?

 

[aftermidnight]

@Bluejay77, I just received in the mail this morning those 'Prizewinner' runner beans you were looking for, it's nice to have friends in the UK . Yes they are the ones with a pink/mauve background/black speckles and streaks. Now, do you want me to try sending them now or wait until spring? I'll keep some as a backup in case the first ones don't get to you, it's always a gamble but so far so good, fingers crossed.

Annette