2018 Little Easy Bean Network - Join Us In Saving Amazing Heirloom Beans

[Decoy1]

This article was faintly encouraging but probably a rather one-sided view.
https://blog.helmerinc.com/auto-defrost-freezers

Also I wonder about likely storage times in both fridge and freezer. How many years are considered reasonably safe in either place, all other factors being carefully managed?

 

[Ridgerunner]

You sound as cynical as I am. Interesting article. One-sided, possibly, but that does not mean it is wrong. A salesman's job is to point out advantages their product has. Since that study was on vaccines how relevant was it to bean seeds? Probably in the greater scheme of things it doesn't noticeably matter. Moisture fluctuation is probably more important.

I have no idea how much refrigerating or freezing bean seeds extend viability. Most charts I see say that beans seeds last about 3 years stored in relatively cool places. Maybe @Bluejay77 can tell us what criteria he uses to determine a seed needs to be renewed.

 

[Decoy1]

Tamila
I was given the plain pink seed as Tamila - not true to type. It had been marked as such by the Heritage Seed Library here in U.K.
This year I got some Tamila from Russ to compare and they are clearly very different.
I’m wondering what might have happened to create my not-Tamila and whether it’s worth growing on. It came much later than true Tamila and the plants are slightly more vigorous. I guess it depends on yield and taste as to whether it’s worth preserving. Then would I name it and attempt to distribute it?! What happens at that stage? True Tamila has been quite productive of beans on rather weak-growing plants.
It’s too early yet to compare them more thoroughly but I’ll try to when not-Tamila has finished drying.
The speckled pink ones are the true Tamila from Russ.

 

[aftermidnight]

I now keep all my seed in a little chest freezer bought just for this purpose. Only the ones I plan on growing the next season are kept in zip locks in a tote in a cool room. Making sure your newly harvested seed is thoroughly dry before storing is very important, mine are dried in little baskets open to the air and not put away until the end of the year. I only keep enough seed of any one variety to grow again and a few extra as a back up. I'm a seed spreader around so usually share most of what I grow when the seed is dry enough to send out. I don't have a big garden so I find this type of little bottle is big enough for the smaller bean seed I keep.

Bigger bottles for larger seed. Variety names are on the bottles and a number on lid. A list is kept on my computer (I also have a printed out one in a sleeve taped to the freezer), variety name on bottle but more important the number I have given it and the type of bottle it's in, so easy to find this way.

I've kept seed in double bagged zip locks in the fridge for several years with good luck and in totes in a cool room but I've had failures with older seed kept this way, so now they get put in the freezer. The one thing you have to remember if stored in the freezer do NOT open any jar until it has thawed completely or your seed will be toast, I leave mine a couple of days.

I thought I'd mention, since I have a small garden and in the past have grown up to 3 dozen varieties in a given year some in containers I bag a few flowers on all that I will be saving seed from just in case of a cross, I only grow one runner each year because it's a given they will cross. You can make your own but I find these little wedding favor bags ideal for this, tack the collar down and you can snug them right up close to the stems, just remember to remove once the bean starts to form or you'll never get them out without ripping the bag. These bags can be used time and time again.

When removed I tie a piece of that stretchy green tape, it's to be left for seed.

Annette

 

[aftermidnight]

I also keep a master list on the computer with the following info like...

BERTA TALASKA 2010 fr. Hawthorne L.Grown 2014 FR. #06
P/V/SN/SH/D/ P/pole, V/vulgaris, SN/snap, SH/shelly, D/dry

Each year I check out what I want to grow or more important what I should be growing.

Annette

 

[Decoy1]

Thanks. What’s your criterion for deciding which ones you ‘should’ be growing? Is it a set number of years?
Jan

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi @Decoy1,

Nice to have you here now !

So I will tell you a little about my operation here. it will be a little bit of a mouthful to digest.

You have heard from some of our other growers here and they have told you about freezing seed for longevity. Yes that is correct. Beans can stay viable in a freezer for at least 25 years frozen. It slows down the oxidization process which is what ages seed. Seeds germinate through an amino acid process. After the seed has reached the right temperature range and imbibed enough water the amino acids are activated to get the little embroyo plant inside the seed to grow Stored at room temperture these amino acids oxidize and slowly become less and less until there isn't a large enough amount to awaken the embroyo plant. Oxidization also darkens the seed coat overtime. Frozen seed will hardly darken with time. Freezing really puts a stop to a lot of the oxidization. When extracting seed to send to someone or for growing. I have learned a long time ago that you allow the container of seed to naturally warm to the temperature of the enviornment in which you are going to open the seed in. That probably is a temperature at which you live at from day to day.

Room temperature stored seed should probably be renewed after about 5 or 6 years. I have grown some seed that would still germinate although at a lower rate when the seed reached sometimes nearly 10 years or more. I think seed longevity varies with variety also.

I have talked about seed storage with the seed tech people at Seed Savers Exchange which I am a member of in Decorah, Iowa. They all tell me that a frostless freezer because of the constant up and down in temperature is not the best for seed storage and longevity in the long run. A constant temperature environment is actually the best for frozen stored seed. Chest freezers are the best because all the cold air stays inside when you open the freezer door at the top. I think they are also the most economical to operate.

I have purchased small jars for freezer storage but they take up more room. I have also found that little ziploc baggies are suitable for storing seed frozen. I decided to use a four mil baggie. The thicker baggie seems to have a better closure. You will see the four mil baggie when I send you network seed next year. I will enclose the approximately 7 x 10 cm or 3 inch x 4 inch baggie with printed return labels sized and trimed to fit inside the baggie. That way when you return seed and if there is still enough room temperture stored seed to disseminate. I can take your return baggie record it and place it in frozen storage right away.

I also have purchased from Uline in Chicago boxes that will fit my 3 x 4 inch baggies in height when filled with seed and allows me to make two rows of baggies with seed inside the box. When I fill the baggie with seed I sqeeze out the air with one hand and close the closure with my other hand. This allows me to flatten the baggie of seed out instead of having all the seed drop to the bottom of the baggie. This makes the baggie narrower and I use all the space in the height of the box allowing me to place a maxium number of baggies of seed inside the boxes. I print labels on copy paper using my old microsoft word text editor and then trim the labels with a paper trimer that I bought at a hobby store.

The boxes are labeled with numbers and the name of the variety on the label of every packet of seed inside each box is recorded on my word processor software file.

I also use a approximately 5 x 7 cm or 2 x 3 inch ziploc baggie for hand picking out top quality seed for future regrowing. I call that my foundation seed. That seed never gets sold or dealt out to anyone unless I've grown out a newer top quality crop.

Seed that I'm going to store in my freezer is usually all hand shelled out by middle of October. I continue to allow it to lay open air on styro picnic plates usually until about mid November at which time I'm sure it's very dry enough to freeze. Then put it in ziploc baggies. Usually by then the humidity in the air has dropped off from our summer levels.

I have two computers. An old one so I can still run windows XP and use old software from the 1990's that I have become very familiar and comfortable with. Plus a newer computer that I use only to get on the internet with. Actually my internet computer has windows 7 on it and is already 8 years old. I suppose in about 2 more years I will be purchasing a new internet computer. I don't keep any data on either computer. I save everything to flash drives. Sometimes called memory sticks or whatever term used. If a hard drive crashes I still have all my saved data.

The seed collection is all recorded on my Excel spreadsheet which I purchased in 1997 with Office 97. There is a column for number of entry, a column for name of variety which also has info as to whether I have seed in frozen storage of that variety or not. Next column I record the year the variety was grown. Those are short entires a comma and two digit year such as ,13 for the variety grown in 2013. Next column will be info about who I obtained the variety from and maybe sometimes any special info about the bean I want to make note of. Next column is the date I obtained the variety. Next column is the beans growth habit. Next column Days to first dry pods. I have another column with blossom color. A column for pod size. And a column for plant height. That is most for bush beans.

There is currently 1,018 entries for beans on my spreadsheet. The network beans get the persons name recorded when that variety is sent out to them and the text color changed to red until the new seed is returned. At which time the text color then is changed back to black. That way I can keep track of the beans that are coming and going all the time. The year they are grown out is also recorded and an entry as to whether there is a sample in frozen storage. In addition I try not to collect anymore varieties, but Oh my God it's hard to say no sometimes when I see some new pretties.

In addition to that I grew 160 varieties this year. Try to decide what I wanted grown out. Soil prepared. Seed hand planted. Hand weeded, all rows mulched with grass clippings that I gather with my bagger lawn mower. Seed hand harvested, and hand shelled. Then I will photo a sample of seed of every variety grown each year and save all the photos. I also try to photo a couple good representative dry pods of every variety. All that data is saved to a flash drive every year. Saving all the photos helps especially working with outcrosses to see what they looked like originally and how they looked harvested each year.

Bean collectors website I hand coded and maintain. I'm retired 10 years from my day job. So now this is my occupation. "Bean Guy". My neighbors call me Mr. Bean. It's a fair amount of work, but it's fun. I enjoy it thoroughly.

Once I get all the beans I grew this year shelled. I'll take their picture and then post them here. It will be my annual bean show.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi @Decoy1,

Did you grow any seed of Tamila that looked like the original you got from me? If not I'll send you some more next year when you get your Network beans from me.

 

[aftermidnight]

Thanks. What’s your criterion for deciding which ones you ‘should’ be growing? Is it a set number of years?
Jan

The rarer or more harder to find get first choice, or ones that I have shared a few more than I should have and my stash is real low. If there's lots in circulation I bypass them for that new one I just had to have . The confessions of a bean addict .

Annette

 

[Decoy1]

Hi @Decoy1,

Did you grow any seed of Tamila that looked like the original you got from me? If not I'll send you some more next year when you get your Network beans from me.

Hi Russ. The real Tamila pictured above is what I grew from your seed.