2019 Little Easy Bean Network - Come And Reawaken The Thrill Of Discovery

[flowerbug]

this was a tough ending of the season and will continue to be so. i'm putting up the bean patches and going through them and while i did have a good harvest overall and have seeds from most of the beans i'm also finding so many rotten beans from all the recent rains that it makes me sad. yet. i do get some positive from this process too because i can note which beans seem to do better than the others and i also consider all those rotting beans as most excellent worm food.

i do find a few pods/beans here or there that are viable and not rotting but it is often just a few in each garden. i'm not really ready for winter to get here yet and wanted this season to keep going.

 

[flowerbug]

got a lot done today, all gardens inside the fence have been gone through and any pods that might be ok are harvested. two gardens in progress still inside the fence for getting put up, but i have pulled all the vines off the fence and those are ready to be buried when i get out there again. one of those gardens will be a major renovation as part of the pallet/ditch project so that may not get buried or finished for a few weeks or even possibly next spring. depends upon the weather. which is looking mixed this next week. we'll see there.

leaving just one garden outside the fence remaining that i have to finish picking through and then i can put that one up. hope to have that done this week (will take me about two hours to do when i can get to it). i'm way ahead of last season so this is feeling good overall. today was a good day. i was even able to help Mom on what she was doing.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Decoy1, Just realized tonight after updating the website. Lori B returned her seeds already which includes the Wesley Railroad Spike. Her seeds were in my mailbox probably a week ago already.

 

[Lori B]

Decoy1, is one of our network growers. If @Lori B doesn't want to send them. Decoy1 might get them from me next year or after she makes her seed return. She might acquire them as one of her grow out beans. @Decoy1 once Lori B sends back seed return I'll have them to send out again.

The fellow that I got the Wesley Railroad Spike from believes they are probably an indigenous variety of the American indians. He also believes they might be related to Ram's Horn and Hanna Hank beans. I've also come across another bean at the Livingston, Tennesse seed swap that has similar coloring called "Flood". From a West Virginia flood of 1888. Story goes that they were growing in a cornfield and after the 1888 flood seed must have gotten scattered around the field and they grew all over this cornfield. Said to grow as tall as a two story house.

That sounds like a good idea.
I agree with that "Tall as a two story house."

 

[Decoy1]

@Decoy1, Just realized tonight after updating the website. Lori B returned her seeds already which includes the Wesley Railroad Spike. Her seeds were in my mailbox probably a week ago already.

Thanks. Will certainly ask for some when I return mine. Some,eg Slut, are still drying. I’m hoping to manage the complexities of sending one or two extra varieties through customs etc.

 

[Blue-Jay]

[QUOTE="Decoy1, post: 357358, member: 7135"]
Thanks. Will certainly ask for some when I return mine. Some,eg Slut, are still drying. I’m hoping to manage the complexities of sending one or two extra varieties through customs etc.
[/QUOTE]

I don't remember if I've asked this before, but did I send you the green and yellow USDA import label to put on the box? You need to address the package not to me but to the USDA examining station in San Francisco. Same address that's on the green and yellow label. Place my address label inside the box with the package inventory list. You will have to add to the inventory list if you send more varieties, and with all the same information on the packets like the ones I think I sent you already. Packets all have to be numbered and correspond with the package inventory list. A little fiddling around, but it gets the job done without the beans being confiscated and destroyed.

 

[Decoy1]

Yes, you sent everything in very good order I think. Intending to get my head round it when I’ve got the seeds ready, so hope all becomes clear and possible. I know it’s important to get it right!

 

[flowerbug]

last garden got gone through today and all the bean plants and neighboring cosmos got buried. have a few handfuls of extra beans from that drying now. officially done with picking other than if i happen to notice something on the ground that makes me want to bend over (again!?! lol) i.e. not too likely with all the recent rains and such. as it was today was working in clay and mud since the garden outside the fence is the last priority for about everything so it hasn't been amended nearly as much as it needs to be. i had to scrape two inches of clay off the bottom of my garden shoes (which i have done hundreds of times before). i know it isn't the best to do any work in such conditions but sometimes you just have to... the organic materials i buried will help that spot i buried them. wish i had a huge bale of cardboard to put down to smother some things back there. quickest way to deal with it all. spread ashes, put cardboard over it and weigh it down in spots to hold it in place if the winds come up (and they will)... even better would be a lot of wood chips on top. nope, that's not happening... but nice to day dream.

i picked a lot of cosmo seeds too before pulling the plants. my seed stock of those is built back up now. fun plants to use as extra bee forage and also as a cover crop or nursery crop for the later part of the summer. the deer don't seem to go affter them either but they may try a few when sampling. once the seeds start showing up they are so sharp that anything trying to eat them runs the risk of damage. i've certainly have had them come through gloves and socks... still worth it.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Ridgerunner, I grew your Tranquility this year. Seems more like a semi runner than a pole bean. Didn't cllimb hardly at all and just about got shaded out by other pole beans in the grow out. Do you remember what bean Tranquility came from? Have you ever gotten a glossy seeded purple bean from it also? I got some glossy seeds this year from Tranquility. Very easy to spot right away while I was shelling the beans.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Start with the Will Bonsall #27. These were sort of a two toned brown, the two in the center of this photo. I had four segregations. I named #4 Raspberry Ripple but the others I did not name, just numbered them 27-1, 27-2, and 27-3. I sent you some seeds of all four. The plum-colored 27-1 is at the top of this photo. Raspberry Ripple is at the bottom.

I planted Raspberry Ripple and got segregations. I planted one of those and got more segregations. They just don't want to stabilize. I'd call them more brown than purple in what I'm getting from that line.

But the one you are interested in is 27-1, a light purple I called plum-colored. When I planted 27-1 I got the one I called Tranquility. I did not know what to call the color. The coat was flat, not glossy at all. It was such a strange bean I was struggling to come up with an appropriate name so I finally said it's not worth it and called it Tranquility. That's it below, 27-1 #1.

The vine was pretty weak, not vigorous at all. I was surprised it made as many beans as it did. It did climb maybe 6 feet. This is the only bean I got from the original 27-1 segregation.