2016 Little Easy Bean Network - Gardeners Keeping Heirloom Beans From Extinction

[baymule]

Russ, you sent me 3 different beans and I am here to report! You sent me 8 Duilius and not a single one came up. You sent me 4 Botsani Cyclops and only one came up, but it is growing really well. It put out runners and it is climbing a trellis. It is blooming and has a few beans on it already!

The beans were planted on April 25, and the one came up on May 6. It is now June 17 and it has a few beans on it, and is covered with blooms.

You sent me 9 Globula and all of them came up. They are blooming and have beans on them! They are a bush bean. These were also planted April 25 and came up on May 6, but only 8 came up. The 9th one came up a week later.

This is my second year for my new garden. I won't harvest a lot, but I will get something for my efforts. About a thousand times better than last year, when I got a big fat nothing! I am real happy that the beans are doing so well and I will have some nice seed to send back to you!

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi Bay !

Well you just never know about some of this seed I send out, and in fact I don't what some it might do myself. I think the seed of those I sent you came from Joseph Simcox (The Botanical Explorer). Anyone can look Joe up on the internet if you would like to know more about him. Joseph travels the world collecting seeds and sometimes live plants and brings them back to the U.S. He is involved in the Rare Seed And Vegetable Consortium. Other than Duilius we will have seed of the other ones. That's great news. By the looks of your ground doesn't look like you are swimming in flood waters which is a good thing. By what I see on the news you are lucky and so are those surviving beans.

Sounds like the Botsani Cyclops is a pole bean. I'll also change the record on the website to reflect the growth habit of the Globula also.

I can tell from everyone's reports who have participated and taken seeds to grow. That they really have a loving caring feeling for all the beans they have grown. That is so wonderful. You are all Bean Angels!

 

[aftermidnight]

So far so good with #49 although I'm beginning to think one or two of them may be bush beans not pole, each plant is numbered and I have a picture of the seed it came from. Some are already flowering. Witsa is looking good but no flowers yet.
Annette

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have another fun one, what I'm calling 39A. It's the light red from the 39's. I have three plants, all bush. Two have white blooms, one has pink blooms. Are separate bloom colors enough to say it's a separate variety? I have them marked so I'll know which beans come from which plants when I send them in. It will be interesting to see what the beans look like too.

Annette, some of my beans from Russ are pole when they are supposed to be bush, some are bush when they should be pole. I had three different colors/patterns of the 39's I mentioned above so I planted them by color/pattern. They came from pole beans. One of them is bush, two are pole. My 32's are split like that too, some bush as they should be but one is a pole. I'm trying to keep track of bloom colors too. Some of those are interesting. Be prepared to get about anything with those babies. I think my end of season report to Russ is going to be kind of long and maybe confusing.

 

[baymule]

Russ's beans are like a box of chocolates....

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi @Ridgerunner,

The difference in blossom color is enough for a different variety. Like you say it will be interesting to see what the seeds do also.

I had the same thing happen last year when I planted some of the WB-PKT beans. Some of the growth habits changed when they were grown out.

Did you get pretty good germination on your seeds?

 

[Tricia77]

I've been away on a cruise for 8 days and I can't wait to go visit my garden plot to see my beans! I will post pictures later.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi @Ridgerunner,

Did you get pretty good germination on your seeds?

Some did great, some were OK, some were stressful and I'm just hanging on by a thread. I have at least one healthy plant from all my different colors/patterns. My 39's are a good example. I had three different colors/patterns from them.

What I call 39A, a fairly solid light red bean, has three plants, all bush and all healthy but with two different colored blooms, two with white, one with pink. My 39B, a patterned bean, is a pole. I don't know how many I have of these, I have them in two different locations with four or five plants in each location. I noticed last night that I have two pods already, with purple markings. 39C, a dark red fairly solid bean, has only one healthy plant, a pole. That's the one by a thread, but it looks really healthy.

I did not see any obvious segregations in the 27's or 38's. I have lots of plants of both of those in two different locations. I'm really curious as to what these beans look like when I harvest. Will any segregations show up? Could be like opening a box of chocolates as Bay said.

I split the 32's into four different groups but for one of those the difference was kind of subtle. It's a pattern bean. In most the lighter pattern was more reddish but in two it was more tan. The difference stood out pretty clearly in sunlight but there is some variation in all of those ligher colors in that pattern. I don't know if it was just a natural difference due to age or such but I planted those two beans separately and both immediately sprouted and are doing great. They did not act like the other 32's in that at all, I had stress with all the others. But I have healthy plants of the other three 32's also. I should be returning a lot of different packets of beans this fall, nine of these if they all make it.

 

[Tricia77]

Here are my bean pictures! They are all growing well!
The first is of #34 pole beans
Untitled by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr
Solwezi #2 (starting to vine)
Solwezi #2 by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr
Brown Star Gold Band
Brown Star Gold Band by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr
Kilham Goose (first row on the left)
Bush Beans by Tricia Rosamilia, on Flickr

 

[baymule]

@Tricia77 your garden is so neat and tidy. Beautiful! And you've been away for 8 days? It looks so nice!