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

aftermidnight

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@Bluejay77 I grew a sample of Gila River in 2012, my seed looks a little different than yours, mine were more speckled, probably different growing conditions.
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Happy Thanksgiving.
Annette
 
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Blue-Jay

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@aftermidnight,

Soil conditions can also influence seed coat expression a lot. Page 56 shows what happened to Ernie's Big Eye grown in England and mine grown this summer. Could be temperature too. I think you mentioned you have slightly cooler but longer summers than I do. The colored area on your beans look the same shade, just more white in relation to the maroon.
 

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The Big Bean Show - Day #42


This bean that I grew this summer is "Gill's Delicious Giant" also known simply as "Delicious Giant". Introduced by the Gill Brothers Seed Comany of Portland, Oregon in 1925. It is a pole snap variety. Gill Brother's crossed Oregon Giant and Kentucky Wonder to produce the Delicious Giant. It was an improvement in productivity over Oregon Giant and earlier.

Gill's Delicious Giant.jpg

"Gill's Delicious Giant"
 

Blue-Jay

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Hi @journey11,

It certainly has a name that would sell on name only. I have so many snap beans to try. I have not tried this one yet but hope to sometime. I have no idea how productive it might be. However this is what I found on the bean on the U.S. National Germ Plasm System website.

Twice as productive as Oregon Giant, of better quality. Pod produced in clusters of 4 to 6, the stems of which protrude outside of foliage. Pods are green, faintly striped with red lines which disappear when cooked, often 10" long. Very meaty, mild and stringless; ideal for canning/freezing.

Perhaps someone here on this thread would like some seeds and grow them out and report back on them next year. I'll send the seeds.
 
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journey11

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It does sound impressive. I must be becoming a lazy housewife...can really appreciate a stringless bean. :thumbsup
 

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The Big Bean Show - Day #43


This is an outcross I found in my bean garden about three years ago. The seed mother is an outcross that I found in "Goose Cranberry" which is a red cranberry type. So this gold looking bean is a segregation of that outcross. This gold colored bean I've been calling it "Golden Pond" (left photo). It's a bush dry bean like it's seed mother. I have a feeling it's going to stablize fairly quickly. It' has only produced one other segregation that is white seeded (right photo). If I wanted to grow out the white seeded bean it might be stable right away. White seededness is a recessive trait. Recessive traits are easy to select for as they usually become settled down quickly once genes for those recessive traits are paired up. I would like to see the Golden Pond growing in a fairly good number in a good growing season to see how productive it is and how well the pods dry.

Golden Pond.jpg Golden Pond Seg #1.jpg
"Golden Pond"---------------------------------------------------Unnamed Golden Pond Segregation
 
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The Big Bean Show - Day #44

This bean is new seed also from 2016. It is the bean that came out of the outcross of "Goose Cranberrry", and I have given this bean a working title of "Goose Cranberry Cross" (left photo). This is the bean that produced "Golden Pond". However this year it produced only a smaller sized white bean (right photo).

Goose Cranberry Cross.jpg Goose Cranberry Cross Seg #1.jpg
"Goose Cranberry Cross"............................."Goose Cranberry Cross Segregation #1 - 2016"
 

Blue-Jay

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Hey @aftermidnight,

I got the Vermont Bean Seed Company catalog in the mail yesterday and it was pretty neat what I read about a bean they carry called "Lazy Housewife". Their copy says.

We've carried a variety called "Lazy Housewife" in the past but had to drop it due to variablity in the seed.
We have now located a source for the original round seeded strain and are excited to pass on the findings to you.

I wonder who was their source?
 
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