2017 Little Easy Bean Network – Everything Beans, Post It Here & Join The Fun

[PhilaGardener]

Sounded intriguing so I did a bit of digging:

Machine translation of a bio (in German) at http://www.david-sachs-schule.bildung-lsa.de/dat/cms1001918/images/lebensdatendavidsachs.pdf

David Sachs
David Sachs was born on 20 October 1836 in Gernrode as the son of a cloth and
Schnittwarenhändler was born. He visited the humanist
Gymnasium in Quedlinburg. From his marriage with Ulrike Wolff 3
Children.
1878 became the company of the Samenzüchterei David Sachs in Quedlinburg
founded. David Sachs developed his company into a leading company
Seed companies. Besides the companies Gebr. Dippe and Mette was
This is the third largest operation of the industry in Quedlinburg.
Around 1910, the company, headed by Hugo Sachs from 1900,
Over 200 hectares of land and over 1500 hectares of land. 1917
Took over Hans Sachs' company after the death of Hugo
Sachs.
David Sachs was a member of the Jewish Council from 1885 to 1888
Municipality, from 1882 their presidents.
In 1894 he became the town councilor of the city of Quedlinburg.
As head of a district of the poor care, David Sachs 1903-
1917th
In the Second World War, the family suffered heavy reprisals, in
This time of the Holocaust lost the family's family members.
The company of the David Sachs was known for breeding
Of different vegetable varieties: peas, beans, tomatoes, lettuce,
Kohlrabi and by breeding flowers.
David Sachs died on 16 April 1918 in Quedlinburg

There is a copy of David Sachs' 1903 catalog (in English) at:
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/46326276#page/2/mode/1up
(Alas, it only lists Kohlrabi and a Dwarf Kidney Bean "Saxonia".)

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Now that time has progressed a little and there are more plants with ripening pods, I have a little more information about Night Sky. It seems there are at least two (or more accurately at least three) slightly different strains here, differing in both morphological traits and in time to maturity.

The first you already know, since it's the one I showed the pod and seeds of. This is marked by pods with pinkish purple streaks on pods that go whitish/yellowish when ripe (they also have a sort of tacky/bristly feel when not fully ripe) Of the three this seems to be the earliest and it is safe to assume that all seed I have collected so far is from this.

The second is slightly later , as demonstrated by the fact that pods are only just now getting to near ripeness. This one differs in pod appearance. Like the first this also develops purple markings at maturity. However, unlike the sharp streaks of the first type, these are somewhat darker and much much more diffuse, more closely resembling ink smears. This one's pods also seem to not yellow or white up (though it may be too early to confirm this)

The third is what was separated early on to become pot #3. In differs from the first two most obviously in having Fort Portal Violet's most distinguishing trait (EXTREME purple mottling showing up on the developing cotyledons). This one also shows a tendency towards purple stems (though as I have not looked all that close, I cannot confirm if this is unique to the two plants in that pot. This one is the latest of all three, though not the latest of all my beans (that honor belongs to the only two climbing plants in pot #2 which have yet to even make flowers*) As it has only just STARTED flowering and setting pods.

All of this data seems consistent with the theory I have that Night Sky may be a sort of "bridge" hybrid between the two major types common in the original Mottle Grey seed, the speckled one resembling Pebblestone and the solid purple one resembling Fort Portal Violet, with the variations coming from which sub-type of each one went into the original cross and which side of the family the offspring took more after

Guesses (Mother x Father)

1. Solid Purple x Short early speckled, father tendency

2 Solid Purple x Normal speckled, father tendency

3 Solid Purple x Normal speckled, mother tendency

I admit there are some bits that don't add up in this (for example, if #1 gets DNA from the short one, one would expect the vines AND the seeds to be shorter as well, and, so far they all seem normal length **) But it's the best guess I have.

Makes me sorry neither of the brown streaked tan beans last year made it. They could have provided a lot of data (since they also had purple cot mottle)

* If I am right and these two are from the five "normal" speckled beans I put in this year (the ones that did not imbibe their correct year and needed to be scarified to start) then they might not start flowering until late October and need their pot to be brought inside until January or February for any pods to ripen to maturity.

** Though of course as I have yet to see any seeds of types 2 and 3, they COULD be longer. But the Type 1's have the longish shape of the originals as opposed to the stubby pinto type shape of the current speckleds, so I'd classify them as "normal".

There also were two smaller beans with the Night Sky coat in the original material, but neither germinated healthily.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@PhilaGardener,

It's really neat you were able to find out all that info on David Sachs. I tried but couldn't come up with anything. Thanks for the post. Samenzüchterei means "Seed Nursery" so you could say that the company name interpreted into english could be called Seed Nursery Of David Sachs. So if David passed away in 1918 and Conserva was marketed in 1925 by David Sachs Quedlinburg. His company must have still been operating after his death.

So the bean being a cross between Alpha x Saxa. David Sachs's company may have bred Conserva.

Now with this information from both you and @thejenx the bean means more to me now. I last grew the bean in 2014. Will have to give it a grow next year. Have not been able to produce enough seed of it yet to offer it on my website.

 

[PhilaGardener]

So if David passed away in 1918 and Conserva was marketed in 1925 by David Sachs Quedlinburg. His company must have still been operating after his death.

So the bean being a cross between Alpha x Saxa. David Sachs's company may have bred Conserva.

Now with this information from both you and [USER=6699]@thejenx the bean means more to me now. I last grew the bean in 2014. Will have to give it a grow next year. Have not been able to produce enough seed of it yet to offer it on my website.[/USER]

A tumultuous set of decades in Germany. At the time of David Sachs' death, WWI was raging on German soil - there was a pitched battle in the North of the country on the day he died. It seems like the family and business survived, only to perish in the concentration camps in WWII. That may be part of the reason his varieties were largely lost. This makes this bean even more special in that it may be the only legacy of the family to live on . . .

 

[thejenx]

A story will bring a bean to life!

Hugo Sachs took over the company after David passed away.

The same file also states some examples of the many new vegetables the company created:
Peas: Sachs´Mai, Ideal, Übereich, Emir, Saxonia, Sensation, Goldkönig, Allerfrühste Mai
Beans: bush bean 'Saxonia', wax pole bean 'Korbfüller'
Tomato: Goliath
Lettuce: Maikönig
Kohlrabi: Delikateß (Delicatess)
And lots of new flowers.
So his company created many more new vegetables.

Korbfüller: Hard to find anything about this, what i can find I need a German speaking person to help translate the text, but what I do understand: it could be a yellow bean, would be cool to find this one!)

1118 Korbfüller - Waob» - , frtlh,
aasBerordentlioh reiohtragendf
Sehoton lang, sehr fieisohig,
von waehB gelber Farbe, sehr
empfehlen awert

In 2016 a school in Quedlinburg was re-named David Sachs school.
I Will do some more digging later.

 

[thejenx]

@Bluejay77
When you are harvesting your dry pods, how do you keep all those different kinds apart? Do you have paper bags tagged with all the names of your beans?

 

[Ridgerunner]

It will be interesting to see how Russ responds with all the numbers he has to keep up with. That's mind-boggling.

I built a drying frame out of 2x4 and window screen. I rip the 2x4 to get about an one inch strip and put a section of window screen ion between them so I have something that gets good circulation. This is mostly for the beans that I get a fair volume from. For others I use plastic coffee cans.

Under this one you can partially see another I built, maybe 2' x 4' with no partitions. I dry my production quantities of dried beans in this. One year I had 8 quarts (about 8 liters) of Black Turtle beans.

 

[PhilaGardener]

I take a permanent marker into the garden and write the name on a few of the pods (which I then keep together until shelling.) I'm not quite as organized as @Ridgerunner

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Now that time has progressed a little and there are more plants with ripening pods, I have a little more information about Night Sky. It seems there are at least two (or more accurately at least three) slightly different strains here, differing in both morphological traits and in time to maturity.

The first you already know, since it's the one I showed the pod and seeds of. This is marked by pods with pinkish purple streaks on pods that go whitish/yellowish when ripe (they also have a sort of tacky/bristly feel when not fully ripe) Of the three this seems to be the earliest and it is safe to assume that all seed I have collected so far is from this.

The second is slightly later , as demonstrated by the fact that pods are only just now getting to near ripeness. This one differs in pod appearance. Like the first this also develops purple markings at maturity. However, unlike the sharp streaks of the first type, these are somewhat darker and much much more diffuse, more closely resembling ink smears. This one's pods also seem to not yellow or white up (though it may be too early to confirm this)

The third is what was separated early on to become pot #3. In differs from the first two most obviously in having Fort Portal Violet's most distinguishing trait (EXTREME purple mottling showing up on the developing cotyledons). This one also shows a tendency towards purple stems (though as I have not looked all that close, I cannot confirm if this is unique to the two plants in that pot. This one is the latest of all three, though not the latest of all my beans (that honor belongs to the only two climbing plants in pot #2 which have yet to even make flowers*) As it has only just STARTED flowering and setting pods.

Now that I have harvested, type II's seeds seem VERY SLIGHTLY smaller than type I's. It may also have a lower max seed count (the maximum number of seeds per pod possible for the type) Type I seems to be 5-6, II may max out at 4 (though as the sample size is a little small, and pods that are TOTALLY filled to the maximum still rarer, this is always a fuzzy number.)

 

[Blue-Jay]

@thejenx,

My bean growing and harvesting has evolved a little bit over the decades. When I planted. I would plan to put into each row varieties with seed coats that looked very different from each other. Then I would harvest the entire row all together. I would immediately go and deposit the dry pods in a box in my garage with the row number written on a label on the box that matched the row I had just harvested. Then go back to the bean garden and harvest another row. I always have a diagram of my garden with row numbers and all the varieties planted in each of those rows. There were times when I could have as many as Eight varieties planted in the same row. The purpose of the open cardboard box was of course to allow the pods with beans inside to dry and cure a bit more before shelling. Sometimes I would let the drying process continue on for over a month or more before I shelled them. I hand shell all my seed so I seperate each variety according to seed coat as I shell each pod. Having as many as eight little piles of different colored beans on my shelling table.

These days not all of my growing ground is now on my own property. So the planting and harvesting process has changed a bit. I also had noticed sometimes that on occassion a bean could produce a seed coat that was so very similar to another bean planted in that same row as to make in nearly if not impossible to tell the difference between the two. I usually crack open some of the early dry pods of the season as I moved down each row near the beginning of the harvest season to get an early look of the new seed. I would discover those seed coat similarities and mark those plants for seperate harvesting. So for that reason and the slower cumbersome seperation process at shelling time with all the seed of many varieties harvest all together. I have changed my planting scheme a bit to take care of both these problems. When I plant I put in marker steaks in the rows to seperate where one variety ends and another begins.

With the haresting process I now take plastic grocery sacks with me with the row number and position in the row written with a felt tip marker pen and harvest each variety seperately. Loosely tie each sack when finished harvesting a variety and have a container to deposit the filled sacks to transport the whole harvest home. If row #1 contained 4 varieties of beans. The grocery sacks would be marked. 1.1 for the first variety in the row then 1.2 for the second variety in the row and so on for each variety in each row. I also take my planting diagram with me on a clipboard and a pen so I follow which row I'm harvesting. I also can mark on my diagram notes about a variety. Date of first dry pod harvested, blossom color etc. My diagrams are also made up on my computer. So if I need new or more copies for any reason I can print the out again. These days I also save each seasons bean planting diagrams. I also harvest with a plastic bucket and dump the bucket of pods in the plastic grocery sack. It's cumbersome and slow taking the plastic grocery down the row with me and having to open it enough each time I harvest a pod or few to put them in the bag.

Bush beans planted in a row might have anywhere from 6 to 9 feet (2 to 3 meters) of row space for each variety depending on the width of the plot. Each pole variety usually are planted around only two single standing poles with 4 beans planted around each pole. One north, one south, one east, and one west.

The drying boxes are now smaller too because each variety now has it's own box. The boxes are labeled with the row and matching position number plus variety name marked on the label. So now if I find any outcrossed seed during shelling. I know which variety was the seed mother that produced the new seed. Plus when shelling only one variety at a time I don't have to look around on the table to see which pile that particular seed goes on as I shell each pod one at a time. I can just keep shelling pod after pod which makes the shelling process go much faster.

Pehaps all this information might help someone to organize their planting and harvesting when dealing with a large number of varieties. I'm sure anyone who has been at bean growing in a big way for a bit of time has probably figured out some sort of system for themselves for planting and harvesting.