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

[aftermidnight]

@Bluejay77 , that was quick, that small lot permit works well or maybe they just didn't want to fight their way through all the tape .

Annette

 

[Blue-Jay]

@aftermidnight,

Is the Candy bean with the reverse seed coat a true bush or does it throw off some runners? How long have you known this bean to be this way? Have you grown it out at all? Today I'm putting up on my BIg Bean Show the bean that is the seed mother of Candy. I reaquired it from Seed Savers Exchange. I didn't get much seed from it so I'm going to grow it out again next year to see if it will do better in a different location.

 

[Blue-Jay]

The Big Bean Show - Day #6​

This bean is Called "Big Light Red Trout" The seed is indeed larger than Jacob's Cattle. I had once obtained the bean from John Withee's Wanigan Associates around 1980. The bean had been donated to Withee by Ernest B. Dana of Etna, New Hampshire. Ernie really liked the Jacob's Cattle pattern on bean seed coats and it just seemed his bean gardens were a factory for turning more variations of that pattern. In the course of my big bean show I'll be putting up several more original beans that have the Jacob's Cattle pattern that came out of Ernies gardens in the late 1970's and early 1980's.

I had reacquired "Big Light Red Trout" this year from Seed Savers Exchange. SSE had acquired just about all the varieties of the Wanigan collection in 1981 as a donation from John Withee.

I believe I had grown "Big Light Red Trout" for the third time in 1983 and that's when... as I was opening one of the pods of BLRT in my garden there to my surprise was this really different looking bean and it sort of reminded me a bit of a piece of peppermint candy with the red streaks and speckles. I think it took me about 20 seconds and I thought I'm going to be call this bean "Candy". So "Big Light Red Trout" is the seed mother of Candy, and I'm really glad to have this bean back again. BLRT is a true bush plant not a semi runner like Candy.

Big LIght Red Trout

Big Light Red Trout & Jacob's Cattle for size comparison.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I turn 40 next year too. So that I'll remember.

Spring through July we had lots of rain, very consistently, such that I never had to water the garden. August and September were very hot and dry, topping out around 90 most days. That worked out well for ripening most of the bean pods this summer.

We've not had a frost yet and may not get it until early November judging by the current forecast. This was sheer luck for me, as most of my limas are coming in late and were planted a bit late.

@Ridgerunner -- Wow, what a variety you got! My seed samples were small, so I had less going on than you did. Only 2 segregations each on #47 and #48. #49 was only one plant, so no surprises there. Your Karachaganak is quite a handsome bean!

I had to water a few times this past year but not nearly as much as I normally do. Grass never did dry out like it normally does and the garden weeds did great. I did have a lot of those mists, not enough to wet the ground but enough to wet the vegetation. I had a lot of problems with that orange stuff on the beans that indicates rot. Russ showed some pictures earlier in this thread showing that discoloration. I threw out a lot of beans because of that discoloration, especially when "pits" had developed around it. I can't call it a great bean growing year, it was a little too wet when they should have been drying. I think my total rainfall for the year is actually a little below normal, but I had a dry late/winter/spring and the rainfall I did get was spread out. We were up in the 90's a lot but it just wasn't as hot as normal either.

I did get a few where the beans looked the same from different plants but a lot of plants produced their own variations, many of them tremendous variations. Some of those beans are really striking but I can't take any credit for that, the person that originally crossed the beans did that. I just grew them.

I purposely avoided the ones you so bravely grew. The previous year I'd had some that did not grow so that variety was lost forever. Russ mentioned he had limited numbers of those so I decided to let someone else try them. I don't blaim myself for them not growing the previous year, it was probably just old or weak seeds, but it's still not a good feeling to lose a variety. I've glad you had success with those. You've renewed those seeds and saved whatever was there.

 

[aftermidnight]

@aftermidnight,

Is the Candy bean with the reverse seed coat a true bush or does it throw off some runners? How long have you known this bean to be this way? Have you grown it out at all? Today I'm putting up on my BIg Bean Show the bean that is the seed mother of Candy. I required it from Seed Savers Exchange. I didn't get much seed from it so I'm going to grow it out again next year to see if it will do better in a different location.

Someone had given me a sample of Candy (3 seeds) I had them for quite awhile and thought I'd better grow them out as the seed was getting old. Last year I grew the 3 seeds in a 5 gal. tub. They grew as a true bush, no runners. I only got a handful of seeds out of these plants, This year I planted 4 seeds from the ones harvested last year in a raised bed and they all had runners (approx. 6ft.) and produce well, could be the original seed was just weak so didn't produce runners. I ended up after harvest with 132 seeds including the 11 reversed colored ones I sent you.

These reversed color seed came from 3 pods on one vine, the the rest of the seed from this vine was normal. I've had this reversed color show up several times in other varieties I've grown but when these have been planted they've all reverted back to their normal color. I suspect the ones I sent you will do the same.

I just edited this post and changed how long the vines grew, when my brain kicked in gear I realized I had given the wrong length these vines grew.
Annette

 

[journey11]

I had to water a few times this past year but not nearly as much as I normally do. Grass never did dry out like it normally does and the garden weeds did great. I did have a lot of those mists, not enough to wet the ground but enough to wet the vegetation. I had a lot of problems with that orange stuff on the beans that indicates rot. Russ showed some pictures earlier in this thread showing that discoloration. I threw out a lot of beans because of that discoloration, especially when "pits" had developed around it. I can't call it a great bean growing year, it was a little too wet when they should have been drying. I think my total rainfall for the year is actually a little below normal, but I had a dry late/winter/spring and the rainfall I did get was spread out. We were up in the 90's a lot but it just wasn't as hot as normal either.

I did get a few where the beans looked the same from different plants but a lot of plants produced their own variations, many of them tremendous variations. Some of those beans are really striking but I can't take any credit for that, the person that originally crossed the beans did that. I just grew them.

I purposely avoided the ones you so bravely grew. The previous year I'd had some that did not grow so that variety was lost forever. Russ mentioned he had limited numbers of those so I decided to let someone else try them. I don't blaim myself for them not growing the previous year, it was probably just old or weak seeds, but it's still not a good feeling to lose a variety. I've glad you had success with those. You've renewed those seeds and saved whatever was there.

Mine really bottlenecked with such small seed samples so there was little variation. #49 was a 2 seed sample and only one sprouted!

Did anyone else have to fight the gray marmorated stink bugs this year? They'll usually go for my tomatoes, but I found most of them on my pole beans, primarily up toward the top. They suck the juice from the pods and stunt the seed. Hardly saw any Mexican bean beetles this summer, thankfully.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Did anyone else have to fight the gray marmorated stink bugs this year? They'll usually go for my tomatoes, but I found most of them on my pole beans, primarily up toward the top. They suck the juice from the pods and stunt the seed. Hardly saw any Mexican bean beetles this summer, thankfully.

Didn't really have much stink bug problem with my beans (at least, no more than is normal in a year) but I did have an unusual amount of attack by blue/hairstreak butterfly caterpillars. This is not a particularly hard problem to take care of (provided you are wearing gloves, to protect you from each caterpillar's massive number of ant "guards") but it's always one that leaves me feeling a little bad. I want my beans, but I also like seeing the butterflies around, so there is a temptation to just let them have their fun (especially if they are beans I have a decent number of). I have the same sort of moral ambiguity about tomato/tobacco hornworms. I hate what they can do to my plants with a passion, but I still think that the hawkmoths they grow up into are pretty neat.

 

[Blue-Jay]

The Big Bean Show - Day #7​

In 2013 I found an outcross in Magpie and I named it Billingsgate. I had rented a nice big piece of ground from someone in a rural area and not far down the way was a road that lead into a small rural housing development called Billingsgate Lane. So when Billingsgate was grown in 2014 it put out 7 more segregations. This year the bean put out one segregation, but the seed shape of Billingsgate seems a but flatter and shorter. The seed is small and the bean does seem like it could be a snap bean.

Billingsgate

A red Segregation found this year in Billingsgate.

 

[aftermidnight]

@Bluejay77 very nice, are these bush or pole?

Annette

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi @aftermidnight,

Billingsgate remained bush like the seed mother "Magpie". Not a real tall bush either. Short about 14 inches. I think Magpie is somewhere between 23 to 26 inches tall.