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

[Lori B]

Hi Lori B,

Welcome and glad you found us. This is the place where some of the bean monsters meet. I don't want to give your identity away, but I'll figure out who you are eventually by sifting through my records of everyone I've sold beans to. I know I'm nuts, but it's a healthy sort of disease. Hope you will post things about your bean growings. Photos of your bean gardens and seeds. More fun the bigger the party gets.

Hey is this Russ? You also gave me some advise on planting pole beans so they would be less likely to cross. I tried it last year and it worked out great for growing. well see if any crossed next year. I must say, my favorite is the Graines de Café. they are so pretty and really did well for me. Not enough to eat on their own yet (i only planted 3 seeds), but i threw some into a pot of ham and beans. Volga German Siberian did well also.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi Lori B,

This is Russ. Those Graines de Cafe are very productive. I planted 8 seeds of them in 2014 and harvested over 2 pounds of the beautiful brown round beans.

What advise did I give you about making pole beans less likely to cross? Also if you get a bean cross it will be the second season before you know you had gotten a cross. Yep the Volga German Siberian beans are very productive too.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Russ what are your plans for 2016? Are you starting a new thread? I still have lots of time but am waiting to see what you say about 2016 before I get serious at looking at beans for this year.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi Ridge,

Will start a new bean thread a little after the 1st of April. Hope we get back some of the growers that droped off the radar screen this past year, and hope we will pick up some new growers.

We got all the African collection of beans grown out this past summer one time through. Some of the beans in the network are from Joseph Simcox, and Marshall also sent me samples of most or possibly all of his beans. Hope we can keep all his beans alive as he tries to get settled again.

I just recently sent about 25 of the network varieties to a fellow in Guthrie, Kentucky. I don't know if he will post anything on the Little Easy Bean Network thread, but he definitely wanted to help out with the grow outs. He is a first year college student this year, and wants to be a bean breeder.

Lori B,

You can also look through the higher pages of Fruits and Vegetables for the 2013, and 2014 Little Easy Bean Network threads. They are easy to spot with my two beans Avatar. You might have fun going through the previous two seasons of this thread.

 

[Lori B]

Hi Lori B,

This is Russ. Those Graines de Cafe are very productive. I planted 8 seeds of them in 2014 and harvested over 2 pounds of the beautiful brown round beans.

What advise did I give you about making pole beans less likely to cross? Also if you get a bean cross it will be the second season before you know you had gotten a cross. Yep the Volga German Siberian beans are very productive too.

Yes, i can't wait to plant them again. the advise you gave me was to plant them on a single pole about 3 feet apart. I used to grow them along a fence and just bumped one up against the next one.

 

[PhilaGardener]

You can also look through the higher pages of Fruits and Vegetables for the 2013, and 2014 Little Easy Bean Network threads. They are easy to spot with my two beans Avatar. You might have fun going through the previous two seasons of this thread.

To make your fun winter reading easier to find
The 2013 thread is here
The 2014 thread is here

 

[baymule]

Welcome @Lori B !!!!!!! Glad to have you join us, we love new people, especially bean collectors.

 

[Lori B]

Wow, reading the 2013 forum now. Such good information about genetics. reminded my of my high school genetic classes and crossing fruit flies.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi again @Lori B !

Planting pole beans on single poles 3 feet apart is a nice way to grow the beans, but I don't think it will keep the different varieties from crossing. I would space the poles 5 feet apart and plant some zinnias in that extra space and I would put in an entire alternate row of zinnias between rows of pole beans. Bees would be a bit more attracted to the zinnias and also when they went back to a bean blossom again they would be full of zinnia pollen which would of course not polinate the beans. Lots of Zinna seed could get expensive so I grow my own seed. I save lots of mature dry flower heads every season. Bees are highly attracted to zinnia blossoms. It might not stop beans from crossing 100%, but I think it would cut down on most of the crossing.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi @aftermidnight !

Did I get those Witsa beans off to you? I can't quite remember. I happened to get busy about that time with a bunch of people requesting beans around Christmastime.