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

[Ridgerunner]

@Ridgerunner,

Also have you gotten any of your Blue Jay beans to grow as true bush plants? Did you find in those plants and pods to lack a little uniformity?

Oh, the Bluejay saga, a worth story and yet unfinished. First I saved seeds from last year, purposely selecting seeds with a color/pattern I considered true Bluejay and planted those as my early bush beans. They worked great for that. Now that my Blue Lake Pole are producing I've let the Blue Jay go to seed for next year. I have not paid any attention to pod color (I need to do that), but as to everything else they have been pretty uniform. Last year's seeds did have a fair variety in pattern but I put that down to natural differences, with the exception of the solid ones. That's the next paragraph.

When saving seeds last year I noticed some were solid, no pattern at all. I saved those and have three of those growing. All of them are pole beans, not bush at all. The first two are over 12 feet tall, the third was planted later and is staked on a shorter stake but is pretty vigorous. I had a fourth but a rabbit took care of that one. They all have the same color blossoms as the normal Bluejay. None of the pods have dried so I have no idea what the seeds will look like. I tried a pod from one last night as a green bean. It's stringless but the bean is way too fibrous to be a green bean. I was disappointed in that. So far all three seem to be growing very similarly. Time will tell. My code name for them is RBJ (Reverse BlueJay) but I think I'll be coming up with at least one new name for them. The photo below is the pods of RBJ #2. You can sort of see a blurry blossom for general color.

You mentioned in another post that you had a few BlueJay that were sending up runners but the foilage were very sparse. I had one like that in my regular Bluejay. I cut the regular Bluejay back to give it room to grow and staked it. It's extremely slow to do anything but has finally started to get ready to bloom. I don't know what color blossoms it will have or how well it will produce if at all. This is a pretty poor photo of it but it has very little vigor. I'm still hoping to get seeds.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My Scarlet Runner wall is blooming well but the beans won't set on. Is there anything I can do to help them? Are they missing something special? I know they make a spray for tomatoes to set...

I had extremely poor luck the one year I tried Scarlet Runners. The blossoms were pretty but I just could not get any significant number of beans to set on. I just think I was too hot and maybe dry even though I watered. They are extremely popular in England, now what is England's climate like compared to mine?

One thing you might try. Bean flowers are perfect flowers, they have both male and female parts. They don't need insects to transfer pollen, but they do need the blossom shaken to get the pollen where it needs to go. Flying pollinators can shake them or even a good wind. You might try shaking them yourself to see if they are just not getting pollinated. I think that helps my production beans keep producing, I shake them up pretty well when picking beans.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Ridgerunner,

I think your Miss T beans pattern reminds me a bit of Osborne & Clyde and a little bit of Chester. I hope you get a good supply of seed from them this season. I will try to grow some next year and see what they do.

Your Blue Jay pole bean that was stringless. Did you try cooking it for a while?

 

[Blue-Jay]

I think summers in England tend to be cooler than what we experince here. Probably what I would consider late spring here. More frequent rain than here. However I was there in July 2004 and it was pretty warm and sunny. Most of the hotels don't even have air conditioning.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I spent a year in England many decades ago. 80 Fahrenheit was a really warm day. And yes, they get a fair amount of rain. I think scarlet runner is best in relatively cool damp climates.

Russ, the way I test a bean to see if it makes a green bean is to not break it but leave it whole and cook it with a mess of green beans we are having for supper. Since it is long I can easily identify it. That bean boiled for about 10 minutes.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Ah, Not stringless, but also not tender.

 

[LocoYokel]

Scarlet Runner beans often will not set pods after blooming because the weather is to warm for them. A little cooler weather might get them going.

Thinking back over past years the later blooms do produce better.
Thanks for the input @Bluejay77 and @Ridgerunner, makes more sense to me now.
The Scarlet Runner is actually from Central America where it was used as a food bean: root, snap and dried. Early explorers took it back to Europe/England where it was commonly used as an ornamental. English settlers then brought it back to North America where it regained it's use as a food source. Thomas Jefferson helped in making it popular here, his Monticello Farms still sells the bean.
(I really got into researching this bean when I first got it.)
What I find the most interesting is @aftermidnight's post about Sadie's Horse beans. Some of those are the beans my Scarlet's are producing after just seven years. IMO Sadie's beans are a long term inbred Scarlet. Not that I know diddly but I sure am interested!
Sorry about the history lesson, just really wanted to say Thank You!

 

[Blue-Jay]

@LocoYokel,

We like the history lessons. This thread is anything, and everything about beans.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Ah, Not stringless, but also not tender.

Nope, stringless (which raised my hopes) but not tender.

 

[aftermidnight]

I think I've mentioned before I grew up eating scarlet runners in fact it was the only fresh beans we ever had, all the rest came out of a can. Most scarlet runners have to be picked when quite young and the only way we ate then was after they had been 'frenched'.
The exception is a new one bred by a fellow in Wales, not only is it tender but also stringless and has a sweetness other runners don't have. This bean's pod is a deep purple which like other purple beans turns green when cooked. This bean is NOT sold commercially and the breeder doesn't want it to be, just kept in the hands of amateur gardeners. I think I sent @Bluejay77 some in the last packet of seed I sent him.
Gwilym, the man who bred this bean is still working on them as the odd greenie still pops up but he has a friend who has been growing some for him in total isolation in Devon and has not had a greenie in the last couple of years. This is the only runner I grow now and the last couple of years I haven't had a greenie in the bunch, but if someone in the neighborhood is growing another variety of runner there's a chance of crossing, runners are so promiscuous. You can read up on them here...

http://aeronvale-allotments.org.uk/aeronpurplestar/

Gwilym runs out of seed quite early on so you have to get your orders in early, like now, for next season's growing. I think he has sent seed all over the world by now, a real globe trotter this runner is getting to be.

Yes heat does slow down the setting of pods and if no bumble bees about I've had some success by hitting the flowers with a burst from the hose, helps with pollination.

Annette