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

[flowerbug]

as a side note regarding lima beans.

i found it an interesting description in the previously mentioned article that lima beans can be picked still green, dried at that stage and then this can be cooked up much easier than the fully ripened dried versions (which we love anyways so it isn't a big thing to us). this is similar to the stringed "leather britches" beans i've heard of (but never actually done) of greasy beans.

also these articles contain the only mention i've seen of eating a lima bean pod when immature... i've never done/tried that either (yet).

 

[Blue-Jay]

many of the quotes on his site seem to come from this article (or related ones):

https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/vegetables/heirloom-bean-varieties-zewz1302zsch

this is also good reading:

https://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/history-of-beans-zb0z11zsch

If you notice the photo on the right of the entry for "Light Brown Zebra" bean. That is a Mother Earth News" magazine photo. The bean on the lower left of the photo is my original bean "Pawnee". At the time Mother Earth put the photo in one of the issues of their magazine. I had left Seed Savers Exchange after 1989 and was not a member or a part of their annual yearbook for about 22 years. When I first listed Pawnee in the SSE yearbook it was 1982 and 1983. I never wrote a description of the bean for the yearbook. As the years passed nobody seemed to know the origin of Pawnee. I purchased William Woys Weavers most recent book on Heirloom gardening. He wrote about Pawnee in his book stating that it was a product of sophisticated plant breeding and probably of German introduction into the midwest probably sometime in the late 1800's. That could not be further from the truth. "Pawnee" was found in my Capron, Illinois bean gardens in September of 1979 growing among a bean called Brown Kidney. An outcross that I stablized over the next few summers then listed it in the SSE yearbook for the very first time in 1982.

I wrote to Mr. Weaver and told him about the bean and sent him a scan of the page of the 1982 yearbook that listed all the beans I was offering that year. I also sent him a scan of the 1982 yearbook cover and a photo of beans I still have of Pawnee grown in 1983 years before the bean got around and became very popular for the first time with gardeners during the 1990's. Weaver still has not replied.

 

[flowerbug]

If you notice the photo on the right of the entry for "Light Brown Zebra" bean. That is a Mother Earth News" magazine photo. The bean on the lower left of the photo is my original bean "Pawnee". At the time Mother Earth put the photo in one of the issues of their magazine. I had left Seed Savers Exchange after 1989 and was not a member or a part of their annual yearbook for about 22 years. When I first listed Pawnee in the SSE yearbook it was 1982 and 1983. I never wrote a description of the bean for the yearbook. As the years passed nobody seemed to know the origin of Pawnee. I purchased William Woys Weavers most recent book on Heirloom gardening. He wrote about Pawnee in his book stating that it was a product of sophisticated plant breeding and probably of German introduction into the midwest probably sometime in the late 1800's. That could not be further from the truth. "Pawnee" was found in my Capron, Illinois bean gardens in September of 1979 growing in a bean called Brown Kidney. An outcross that I stablized over the next few summers then listed it in the SSE yearbook for the very first time in 1982.

I wrote to Mr. Weaver and told him about the bean and sent him a scan of the page of the 1982 yearbook that listed all the beans I was offering that year. I also sent him a scan of the 1982 yearbook cover and a photo of beans I still have of Pawnee grown in 1983 years before the bean got around and became very popular for the first time with gardeners during the 1990's. Weaver still has not replied.

with the length of time involved and all of the possible combinations of genes i think it is quite possible for various beans to be discovered/rediscovered as they happen in people's gardens.

i see in my own gardens and efforts so many beans appearing which look like other already named beans. how those got here, were they crosses that happened or did they come in with the seeds i obtained? i can't truly tell. all i do know now is that i have about a hundred to two hundred of these and each year i get more that show up. the specific traits and details may not match though and that to me would be beyond a lifetime of work for me to sort out.

i do find it all facinating and interesting (or i'd be doing something else ).

to me the fullest way to track the actual history will be gene sequencing and counting mutations of various kinds and tracing each bean and family of beans that way. of course even genetics isn't going to be the whole story (as environment affects how genes can be expressed and the appearance of some bean traits).

i really wish i could afford to fund a lab which does nothing but gene sequence bean varieties and puts up the information for free so people can use it to build up a database of bean family trees (and also use it to make crosses which are suited for their circumstances). alas, i think i'm about a hundred years too early.

as far as specific seed line stability, from something as simple as the Top Notch wax beans i have a whole box top full of about 20 variations already and it's only been about 10yrs and i'm only doing crosses via what the bees are up to, nothing specific with me going in and moving pollen around by hand.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I wonder if some of our last years growers are coming back in 2019. I haven't heard from

Journey11
Raiquee
Eleanor
Honeycomb
Benji K.

 

[Eleanor]

I wonder if some of our last years growers are coming back in 2019. I haven't heard from

Journey11
Raiquee
Eleanor
Honeycomb
Benji K.

Yup, now that I understand this year's garden spacing, count me in! I'll work on my selections this week

 

[Blue-Jay]

Here is another bean that can be grown out. It's the second bean I've come across with the name of Indian Mound. Just received this in the mail last Thursday from a fellow in Michigan. He keeps all his seed stored in a freezer for seed longevity. Looks a little like Logan Giant but with more brown and less white on the seed. If anyone wants to grow this one it's available.

Indian Mound - Pole Dry

 

[Blue-Jay]

Does anyone presprout their beans before planting? If you do, how does that work out for you? Do you feel it shortens the time for the seedlings to emerge from the soil?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I sometimes do under two circumstances.

One is if the number of seeds is very limited, so as to "coddle" as many as possible to growth.

The other is if SPACE is very limited, so as to not waste any with dead seed (remember, a lot of my stock came from the earliest deposits of Richter's, and is quite old, so germination can be quite poor.)

Nowadays I also sometimes try in order to cheat the animals by keeping the bean plants indoors until as much of the cotyledon material has been absorbed as possible, so as to lessen the attractiveness to them.

 

[flowerbug]

Does anyone presprout their beans before planting? If you do, how does that work out for you? Do you feel it shortens the time for the seedlings to emerge from the soil?

i haven't yet, mostly because i can't always predict how my time will go, if i put them someplace to sprout and then the weather or family things come up, they'd be wasted. i have pretty good germination rates with direct planting so if i have 6-12 seeds i'm usually ok. it's been very rare i've had to get into the backup seed stashes. inside the fence the most likely issue is the chipmunks finding certain seeds attractive (some of the more edible green and wax beans can sometimes be targetted) so i try to keep an eye on them until they are up and growing.

i'm being hopeful this spring as we've not seen too many chippies around so far.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Does anyone presprout their beans before planting? If you do, how does that work out for you? Do you feel it shortens the time for the seedlings to emerge from the soil?

I did that once when i had a limited number of beans and was not sure of the germination rate. For some it worked well but I had a lot of problems with mold. I was never sure if the mold problems came from a lack of sanitation on my part or came with the old beans. I think I may have spread mold form some to others.