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

[Blue-Jay]

@Ridgerunner,

Sounds like you are having a very interesting year growing your named beans from 2016. It's amazing what these beans can do. Pods going from tough to stringless. Who would have known. Another example of segregation.

I planted some Blue Jay this year based on a single plant that did not succumb to BCMV about 4 years ago when all the other Blue Jays got it and died. Not a single plant looks like a Blue Jay as they are sending out a long stem but don't seem to want to climb. Very open looking plants with not a lot of foliage. Very easy to see through the plant. They just don't look right. I'll let them grow to see what the seeds look like.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It's always an interesting year with these outcrosses Russ. It's like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates you just don't know what you will get. I've been having trouble getting beans to germinate this year, even beans I grew last year, even planted late in the season. I never expected that. And I took another rabbit out of the garden yesterday that was chewing on the beans. I'm seriously considering rabbit-proofing the garden this winter. The fence part would be easy but the gates will require some thought, especially the big one.

I noticed I have a semi or half runner in the Bluejay I planted for production this year. I've marked it and will let it go to seed. None of the rest of my production Bluejay are exhibiting anything close to something that will climb. Since my Blue Lake Pole Beans have started producing I'm letting all the Bluejay go to seed.

I have three I planted from those solid Bluejay seeds I saved last year. Two of those are over 12 feet high, the third was planted later and is certainly climbing. I'll see how high it gets. I go the original Bluejay seeds from Cottage Gardener in Canada, they are obviously still sorting themselves out. I'm OK with that, it adds interest to life.

 

[reedy]

I wonder how many generations it takes till a new bean is completely stabilized as a new variety. I have bunches of crossed up beans in my collection but never really applied the time and effort necessary to answer that question.

I have a mix of types from an Ideal Market x KY Wonder cross and this year I planted two beans that both looked like the original KY Wonder but they are very different. Both have huge vines but one has long straight purple pods and the other a somewhat flat curved bean.

My beautiful purple (beans not pods) that I found in my Brown Greasy beans in 2015 all look the same so far, I'm excited abut them cause I love greasy beans.

I didn't plant any of my common x runner crosses this year but next year I'm gonna follow the practice of some folks here and just plant a few of several kinds somewhat isolated from my main bean patches.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If I remember right it takes three years of the bean being consistent for it to be considered a new variety. Last year was my first year of growing outcrosses and I'm still shooting for one year of consistency in any of the outcrosses. I'm sure I'll miss some but some of the traits I look for are growth habit, leaf size and color, pod size, shape, and color, flower colors, stringed or stringless, and bean size, shape, color, and pattern.

The recessive genes can be pretty hard to eliminate, they can be hiding under dominate genes for a few generations before they pair up. I think in that third year I'd plant several to test the recessives. The more you plant the more likely it is to show up.

I grew and named one Miss T last year, I got over 500 beans from that one plant. I have a few Miss T's planted this year. Only two are in my first planting and currently making pods. One is over 12 feet tall and has round tight solid green pods maybe 5" to 6" long. The other is a bush with solid green 3" to 4" pods but they are wide, flat, and lumpy where the bean is. The pole has pink and white flowers but the bush has some pink and white flowers and some yellow flowers. With that much variation between two plants grown from beans off the same plant I don't have much hope they are anywhere close to finished segregating.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@reedy,

The amount of time it takes to stablize a cross varies with the cross. I've seen some stablize right away. I have one cross that just keeps churning out segregations. Some might take a few years. I read about a cross that a seed company did with a snap bean and the company devoted 12 years to stablize the bean.

A professor Elwyn Meader from the University of New Hamphire once told John Withee (who once had a bean organization called "Wanigan Associates") that if you can grow a cross for three seasons without any changes in it. Then it can be considered a new variety.

 

[lcertuche]

Very interesting thread. My Kentucky Wonders finally have a single bean pod but lots of blooms so maybe I'll have some green beans soon. The pintos I believe are a half runner type.

 

[Ridgerunner]

@lcertuche

Linda if you want to swing by tomorrow or Friday I can give you a mess of Blue Lake Pole beans. It's only a couple of hours drive up here, maybe. Not sure exactly where you are.

 

[reedy]

I'm waiting on the last of Crystal Wax to dry down but other than that my network beans are about done. I prefer to save seed from nice clean pods which wasn't a problem for the rest but Crystal Wax did not do especially good in my garden. I do have some later pods that look nicer so I'll wait till they dry down to pack up my seeds. Here is what they looked like last night.

Burgundy Bolitas and Refugee are pretty much finished except for an off-type in Refugee. It is later, has a larger vine and larger straighter pods.

Here is what they looked like as I worked on them last night. They Crystal Wax off-type did much much better in my garden with a single vine out producing all the rest. You can't tell in the photo but the Refugee off-type has grey mottling while the CW is jet black. I'm calling them Escapee and Crystal Black.

I was watching Antiques Road Show last night (wile shelling out seed) where people bring in stuff to get it appraised. A fellow came had a collection of cans found under an old house in Arizona. He said they were dated 1876, the appraiser said that was also the year when colorful paper labels were first used on cans. I paused the TV and took this picture.

Last is a shot of my Little Brown Greasy beans, a favorite of ours. Always reliable and productive as well as tasty both as snaps and dry. You can see there on the bottom ones the hot dry weather is affecting the younger pods. Hate to see that but there are plenty anyway.

 

[lcertuche]

Ridge thanks for the offer of beans. I would love to travel up northwards. Maybe one of these days. DH and kids have been wanting to go to Fayetteville for awhile now.

 

[ducks4you]

Thoroughly enjoying this thread!
I am experimenting with growing lima beans this year. I have my first patch up and several are climbing the fence. I think my cabbages are taking the hit for them bc they are covered with bug bites, but the beans have none. It is SO NICE to see something that I planted growing the fence, instead of bindweed!