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

[Blue-Jay]

In our fun with old seed catalogs we jump 25 years ahead to the 1950 Burpee Seed Catalog. The cover graphics looks like catalogs are now using photos. Photos on the interior pages are black and white photos. The bean line up had changed in 25 years. How many of these beans are still around? Some of them listed in this issue I grew last year in 2017.

"Bush Snap Beans"
Burpee's Tender Pod
Burpee's Stingless Green Pod
Giant Stringless Green Pod
Stringless Black Valentine
Longreen
Plentiful
Topcrop
Bountiful
Tendergreen

"Bush Dry Beans"
Michilite
Red Kidney
Great Northern
White Marrowfat
Dwarf Horticultural
French Horticultural

"Bush Wax Snap Beans"
Surecrop
Burpee's Brittle Wax
Cherokee Wax
Puregold
Rustproof Golden Wax
Burpee's Kidney Wax
Pencil Pod Wax

"Pole Snap Beans"
Kentucky Wonder
Kentucky Wonder Rust Resistent
Kentucky Wonder Wax
Golden Cluster Wax
Horticultural
Lazy Wife
McClasan
Scarlet Runner
Yard Long

"Bush Limas"
Burpee's Fordhook
Baby Fordhook
Fordhook 242
Burpee's Improved Bush Lima
Burpee's Bush Lima
Early Market
Triumph
Henderson Bush
Peerless
Thorogreen
Wood's Prolific
Long Pod

"Pole Limas"
Burpee's Big 6
Burpee's Giant Pod
Carolina
Florida Speckled
Burpee's Best
King Of The Garden

 

[HmooseK]

@Zeedman

Well, wonders never cease. Last week, turned the water on and down to a slow drip. I guess they were thirsty. Here they come again.

 

[Zeedman]

Looking good, HMK. Your climate is really testing Sierra Madre's heat tolerance. The Philippines (where it was bred) may be tropical, but they seldom get into the triple digits. Given enough water, hopefully it will continue bearing.

 

[flowerbug]

@bluejay a lot of those names are familiar i wish the science was there where you could test samples of all the seeds to see where they varied genetically and we could get a family tree of all these bean varieties/selections.

today i was out checking the roma tomatoes for tomato worms and i had to show Mom the pretty purple beans and red stems/leaves of the Purple Dove and noticed that the Japanese Beetles really love it too. and this reminds me that it does seem that the beans that i like to eat fresh are also those the JB's also know are tasty.

some rain last night, i think this year is going pretty good so far. aside from a few issues here or there it's been quite a change from last year. a few more rains and me keeping up with the water and a few more weeks and i'll be able to start seeing how the pods are filling out on most of them.

i'm trying to not sample a few of them because i can't tell yet how they are doing on setting seeds. they have flowers, they have pods showing up, but i'm not pinching yet...

also, based upon how the Kermit's Smokey Mtn beans have done (they topped the fence weeks ago), i'm going to change my mind about transplanting potted beans, i just have to figure out which i want to do and prioritize, because i have such limited space but i can pick a few and start them early. this also applies because the early mystery bean also is about three times the size of any plants around it.

the Fordhook Lima beans are loaded with pods. the Red Lima pole beans are putting some pods on. i feel like a kid in a huge candy store... patience grasshopper...

 

[Blue-Jay]

It seems all purple podded beans, pole or bush are Japanese beetle magnets. They must give off a lot of the scent that attracts the insect to the plant. Probably something in the plants natural oils. I'm even growing a purple podded outcross I found last year in my Tendergreen growout that is really drawing the beetles to it also.

 

[Zeedman]

The JB just began moving into my area a few years ago, and their numbers are still tolerable. They seem most attracted to soybeans, Zebrina mallow, and the tops of the pole beans. Safers insecticidal soap kills them, I've been hunting for them at least once a day & thus far have been able to minimize their damage. I've yet to see one on anything else - including runner beans, limas, or yardlong beans.

 

[flowerbug]

The JB just began moving into my area a few years ago, and their numbers are still tolerable. They seem most attracted to soybeans, Zebrina mallow, and the tops of the pole beans. Safers insecticidal soap kills them, I've been hunting for them at least once a day & thus far have been able to minimize their damage. I've yet to see one on anything else - including runner beans, limas, or yardlong beans.

they have been around here quite some time, but the only major populations i have seen were where they congregated on the wild grape vines. i could go out every day and pick several hundred off and drop them into very mild soapy water to drown them and then i toss them at the end of the driveway where something keeps eating them. for some reason last year and this year the beetles have not picked on the wild grape vine as much but have been eating more of the beans. i pick off what i can see when i go through in the morning.

i don't recall ever seeing them on lima beans.

the mallow, hollyhocks and roses are other plants they seem to enjoy.

 

[Blue-Jay]

The JB population is very odd the way they move into some areas and leave other areas alone. Woodstock being northwest of Chicago we have had a fairly high JB population. Plenty of corn and soybeans growing around here. I've seen crop dusting planes working the bean fields this year. When I first noticed them in 2011. They were the worst that first year. Some of the Chicago suburbs 60 to 80 miles to the southeast of here don't have any of the JB's at all. When they moved into Decorah Iowa. Seed Saver's Heritage Farm is located about 6 to 7 miles north of town. No JB's at Heritage Farm but they have them in town.

 

[flowerbug]

they like grass roots/sod from what i've heard, no idea if that is true or not. we don't really have that much lawn left here but there is plenty of grass along the road and the field out back and along the south side... in the meantime i'll still continue to harvest, drown and try to train the birdies to eat 'em.

 

[Zeedman]

The JB's have been moving very slowly here. They first appeared 4 years ago in my subdivision... and did not appear in my rural garden (6 miles to the West) until last year. Their numbers have been gradually increasing; my neighbors (who pay to have their lawns treated) are probably slowing them down. I thought I had been doing a good job of wiping them out as they appeared, but yesterday I observed quite a few feeding in an elm tree, so I may be having less impact than I had hoped.

Maybe it will help if I convert the rest of my lawn into vegetable production... sounds like a win-win.