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

[Blue-Jay]

Here are 15 dealers in Canada who sell my snap bean discovery of 1977 called "Blue Jay". Some of these seed dealers don't always have Blue Jay listed every season. The bean comes and goes from the catalog lists from time to time. Probably depends on the weather how it affected their crop of this variety.

1. A'bunadh Seeds
2. Annapolis Seeds
3. Hope Seeds & Perennials
4. Cottage Gardener
5. Heritage Harvest Seeds
6. Greta's Organic Gardens
7. Mandy's Green House - Go to her website and read a little about Blue Jay
8. Prairie Garden Seeds
9. Salt Spring Seeds
10. Two Wings Farm
11. Urban Harvest
12. Les Jardins de Nathalie
13. Mountain Seed Company
14. Pumpkin Moon Farm
15. Unfettered Wood

Also there is one dealer here in the U.S. that now sells Blue Jay. They are called "Secret Seed Cartel". Located in Ohio.

The first Canadian seed company ever to sell Blue Jay was Upper Canada Seeds. I don't see it listed now in their offerings. The owner Dave Ackerman had been a member of Seed Savers Exchange as far back as 1982.

Two websites you might find a little interesting in regards to Blue Jay

http://blog.seedsavers.org/blog/member-profile-russ-crow

http://www.thesurvivalgardener.com/tag/blue-jay/
On this site you want to click on "A Fascinating Look At A Modern Heirloom Bean"

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi @NancyJ10x,

Your seed returns came in the mail yesterday. They are just gorgeous. Thank you so much. Certainly hope you will be with this project again in 2016. Please do come back!

 

[NancyJ10x]

I'm happy to hear the seeds arrived. I enjoyed trying out the different varieties. I especially liked the Flor de Mayo and the Yeome Pastel Eye. They have a beautiful seed coloration. Thanks for letting me participate. I would definitely like to be part of the project next year!

 

[Hal]

Here are 15 dealers in Canada who sell my snap bean discovery of 1977 called "Blue Jay". Some of these seed dealers don't always have Blue Jay listed every season. The bean comes and goes from the catalog lists from time to time. Probably depends on the weather how it affected their crop of this variety.

1. A'bunadh Seeds
2. Annapolis Seeds
3. Hope Seeds & Perennials
4. Cottage Gardener
5. Heritage Harvest Seeds
6. Greta's Organic Gardens
7. Mandy's Green House - Go to her website and read a little about Blue Jay
8. Prairie Garden Seeds
9. Salt Spring Seeds
10. Two Wings Farm
11. Urban Harvest
12. Les Jardins de Nathalie
13. Mountain Seed Company
14. Pumpkin Moon Farm
15. Unfettered Wood

Also there is one dealer here in the U.S. that now sells Blue Jay. They are called "Secret Seed Cartel". Located in Ohio.

The first Canadian seed company ever to sell Blue Jay was Upper Canada Seeds. I don't see it listed now in their offerings. The owner Dave Ackerman had been a member of Seed Savers Exchange as far back as 1982.

Two websites you might find a little interesting in regards to Blue Jay

http://blog.seedsavers.org/blog/member-profile-russ-crow

http://www.thesurvivalgardener.com/tag/blue-jay/
On this site you want to click on "A Fascinating Look At A Modern Heirloom Bean"

It would be nice for more places to offer it within the US as it is an excellent bean, dual purpose and a great early one.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Okay the last seed is harvested and dried so I can FINALLY do the year end wrap up. Here is my yield for the year (yes this is ALL of it, I told you it was a bad year)

Top Row (Mottled Grey)

Furthest to the left is a little bit of the "mother seed" I originally planted (basically they were those seeds from the original planting that failed to imbibe and since I had so many that HAD imbibed, when I removed them I put them back to try again another time (with scarification). It's a little hard to tell from this distance but all of the seeds in the top row have the standard Mottling pattern that is common to Mottled grey, a kind of Pebblestone pattern of black and medium tan (at least on seed that old)

The next two pictures are of the seed I got back last year, for comparison purposes. Each pile is one pod (I THINK both of the pods came from the same plant but cannot actually remember)

Third pile (the single seed) is the one mature seed that showed up before I brought the pot inside. Kind of dinky, but at this point any seed that makes it through gets it shot at being replanted. Since this is fresh seed from this year, it still is the fresh seed colors for Mottled Grey (where the tan is white and the black bright purple)

Finally the pile on the far right (three seeds) is from the pod I took the photo of a few weeks ago. The extra time I gave it must have worked, because this is magnificent seed (as you can see it's quite a bit bigger than the original seed) This is definitely going back into the growing pool. Though I suppose the positives of the super size seeds, extra vigor, and extra pod nodes is sort of offset by the extreme long season/ day length sensitivity. Maybe when I plant it, I'll try and cross it with the plants in pile 2 and hope I can get it's earliness into 4 without losing any of 4's other qualities.

Middle Row (For Portal Violet)

Left, Fort Portal Violet standard. Looks more or less as it did last year, all purple (the color variations are due to a lot of the pods getting caught in a drought and withering when they were not really done. Under better conditions ALL would have been the same shade of purple.

Right, Fort Portal Violet Supreme. THIS year, I managed to keep the seed of this one discrete. As you can see, bigger seed (also greater number of seed nodes per pod and more pods). I think I'll focus on this line from now on (though again, the extra fecundity comes at a cost of a longer season.)

Bottom Row

A volunteer that showed up on my mulch pile. Short plant, white flowers (the above two have purple/pink flowers) This plant also got caught in the drought, so it is entirely possible that this is not the normal color the seeds would be under ideal condtions (most of the beans I threw away were kidney red, so I assume that is what it would have been

And Finally a quick pic of the Mottle Grey box, showing next years planting cadidates. EVERYTHING in the middle row (the black ones) is going in (the seed in the upper left is the same seed in the upper left in the first photo, so you can compare.)

 

[897tgigvib]

@buckabucka and @Bluejay77 In the outcross mix I sent to Bucka, many were from the several definitely outcrossed Shoshone, and that was one. I can tell. I'm pretty sure Shoshone, at least those I grew, are a complex outcross, probably cross pollinated 2 generations in a row.

So, as far as Shoshone goes, I vote for continuing them AS A MIX VARIETY. I don't think most of them will stabilize into a single look, but they do make a nice productive variety all mixed as they are. They grow well on 3 foot stakes.

Bucka, I suggest with your true red cranberry outcross, that you keep each of those separate, and name or number each of them, and then grow at least 5 of each next year, super well labeled, and try to keep each plant in each group separate too. Reason is, there will probably be some more years of "segregating" for each, means, each plant will probably be different. Oooh! Those tricolored ones are beauties! But my instinct says those will probably not breed true, but it'd sure be nice if they do!

I'm especially glad "By God" did so well! And especially glad they bred true! They grew as Pole, right? And their pods were nicely marked? And their pods had a nice meatiness, looked very edible, and not very stringy? Pass those around with that name. I think they deserve to be widely grown.

I'm so happy that Buxton Buckshot found a good home not far from their origination!

Sweet looking canelinni outcross! Grow them. You'll be naming your very own bean varieties now!!! The better you keep each separate and super well labeled, the sooner you'll have stable varieties.

Your number 4. is Chickasaw outcross, 3rd generation, from the smaller initial outcross beans. Looks like it's getting closer to stabilizing! 1 or 2 more seasons will stabilize these.

Your number 1. is hardest for me to recognize... small dark tricolor.. I THINK that was one of the JUNIN OUTCROSS, each of which was different.



You did REALLY WELL!

 

[buckabucka]

Thanks @marshallsmyth , for all the background information and advice on the cranberry outcross.
It looks like I will have plenty of bean experiments for next year!

I still have a lot of seeds from the mix you sent me too. There was a "#5" experiment, but it did not germinate.
And yes, By God was as you described, with nicely marked pods and nice meatiness. Very nice bean!

 

[baymule]

@Bluejay77 my garden was a total bust. I lost everything. I lost all the beans, no seed at all. I lost everything I planted, didn't even get seed to save from anything. First we had floods and never ending rain, then when it stopped, it really stopped. No rain for months. Nature's assault continued in the form of Pharaoh's plague of grasshoppers, stinkbugs, aphids, followed by rabbit marauders that murdered everything left standing. (which wasn't much) The rabbits chewed through the mesh fence I put up to keep the dogs from trampling the garden. I planted corn, tomatoes, okra, eggplant, peppers, cantaloupe, green beans, squash, peas, turnips, mustard, beets and of course, your beans. I got nothing. The worst of it is, that we have had to resort to buying food from the grocery store.

The garden now has a permanent wire fence of non climb horse wire 2"x4" x 48" and is skirted on one side with chicken wire. I am putting chicken wire 2' up the side of the garden fence and 2' laid on the ground to keep the stinkers from digging in. Because of the sandy soil, think beach without the ocean, we hauled seven 8-yard loads of pine shavings horse-stall-clean-out from a horse event center and spread them 6" to 8" deep in the garden. There are now 3 pigs in the garden, rooting up weed roots and spreading their poo. We'll take them to slaughter in the early spring. Have dumped in a dozen bags of leaves so far and will "go bagging" this weekend, as the rains have stopped and the sun came out.

The garden is 100'x70'. Once the pigs come out, I'm going to make some hugel culture trenches and drop some dead oak logs in and cover them up to slow water drainage and conserve moisture. I made one the length of the garden on the outside of the fence and will plant grapes on the fence. This space will be a no till garden, deeply mulched to improve the soil. Marhsall sent me some bean seeds last year that I haven't planted yet--good thing. I'll plant some of them in the spring to see how it goes. I am so sorry about the bean failure. I even had a few that I was nursing along, they had pods and the rabbits ate them. I am glad that I didn't have the last known bean variety seeds in the known world and killed them.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@baymule, Ok Then. What else can I say. Stuff happens. I'll scratch that variety off the list. Wasn't the best growing year here either for gardeners. Farmers here had nice corn and soybeans, but their crops are alot tougher.

Let me know if you want any beans from me for next year right now. You are one of a couple of growers that can plant earlier because of your longer growing seasnon.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

here's hoping next year will be much better for all of us! even in my area we had a much wetter summer than usual.
http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/RainyDaysReport.aspx you can pull the report between a 125 day period of time.