2020 Little Easy Bean Network - An Exciting Adventure In Heirloom Beans !

[Blue-Jay]

Today I had to check on my Pheasant Lane offsite that is 3 miles from where I live. 80 Varieties of dry beans planted 8 days ago. They have been watered twice by me. Now this is wild. My rain gauge after yesterday's rain measured 1.2 inches. The rain gauge at my Pheasnat Lane offsite measured 3 inches. The beanie babies are coming alive at this site and today I put in place nearly 200 feet of 2 x 8 vinyl lattice that I use to make rabbit barrier fencing.


Before

After

Some New Beanie Babies being born

 

[flowerbug]

busy day but a good one. got a large chunk of the bean gardens inside the fenced area weeded and since i got it done before a lot of the weeds were down deep it wasn't too bad to do the fine weeding closer to the bean plants. made it go a lot easier. if i can keep up with them all and get the north garden taken care of i'll be in pretty good shape for a change.

on top of the big project of removing drain tubes and moving a lot of pea-gravel and getting rid of useless pathways the time i'd have spent weeding those pathways (in previous years) could now go into weeding the gardens instead. that's a solid improvement and it is so much easier to not have to deal with all those edges.

 

[Artorius]

Last year it was hot in Poland. There is a lot of rain this year, storms and hailstorms. Beans don't give up, they slowly grow.

Purple Kingsessing

Tennessee Greasy Mix

Hyote

Mr. Tung

Karachaganak

Nata - bush runner bean

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Artorius,

Nice looking grow out. The beans look very healthy. Neat to see Karachaganack growing now in Europe. Ridgerunner will be excited about that too.

 

[Blue-Jay]

My south flowerbed photo. 13 pole beans planted May 26th. They are beginning to climb. From the farthest end working toward the camera are 1.) September Blue - a new outcross that I've named and been selecting since 2015 for it's blue seed. I think this one will wind up being one you can eat for green beans 2.) San Antonio - snap bean that's the terminology for green beans these days. 3.) Johnsburg - another cross I've been working to stablize since 2015. I think it is probably already growing true to type. 4.) Brejo - Native American bean. 5.) Leslie Tenderpod - Grown in the Appalachian area of eastern Kentucky for generations. I think it likely got it's name from Leslie county in southeaster Ky. 6.) Major Cooks - Multipurpose bean from Europe. 7.) New Mexico Red Appaloosa - want to test this one for it's snap bean qualities. Likely Native American in origin. 8.) Ohio Pole - Native American Variety I want to test for it's snap bean qualities. 9.) Irish Connors - snap bean brought to American in 1900 by an Irish family named Connors. The bean has been grown mainly in Canada since 1907. 10.) Armenian Giant Black - Large podded snap bean from Armenia 11.) Penland Family - Snap bean grown in Tennessee as far back as the civil war days. 12.) Logan Giant - An old West Virginia heirloom bean I will test for it's green bean qualities. 13.) Ringwood - Another cross that I named and will be testing for it's green bean qualities

Flowerpot beans. New outcross discovered 2 years ago in Mrociumere and grown again last year. Named them Burton's Bridge. Two different seed shapes of this bean. One sort of rounded and one Kidney shaped. The kidney shaped ones are growing in my large Pheasant Lane plot.

 

[Artorius]

@Artorius,

Nice looking grow out. The beans look very healthy. Neat to see Karachaganack growing now in Europe. Ridgerunner will be excited about that too.

I have 14 Karachaganaks. 6 of them grow as a bush, and 8 as a half-runner.
Ridgerunner, which growth type do you consider to be correct?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Interesting. I consider half-runner correct for Karachaganak. I just noticed it is listed on Russ's bean page as a semi-runner. I know you grew Karachaganak a time or two Russ. What growth pattern did you see?

The last time I grew it I had all half-runners except for one that grew as a bush. I planted those "bush" seeds this spring and have the results below. The color/pattern did hold true. I'm torn as to whether it is a semi-runner or a true bush but it certainly is not a half-runner. The growth pattern was consistent which is encouraging.

I'm using the working name "Kara Bush" but have another name picked out if I can get it to stabilize. I think this can be a special bean but do not want to use that other name until I'm sure it has stabilized.

 

[flowerbug]

Interesting. I consider half-runner correct for Karachaganak. I just noticed it is listed on Russ's bean page as a semi-runner. I know you grew Karachaganak a time or two Russ. What growth pattern did you see?

The last time I grew it I had all half-runners except for one that grew as a bush. I planted those "bush" seeds this spring and have the results below. The color/pattern did hold true. I'm torn as to whether it is a semi-runner or a true bush but it certainly is not a half-runner. The growth pattern was consistent which is encouraging.

I'm using the working name "Kara Bush" but have another name picked out if I can get it to stabilize. I think this can be a special bean but do not want to use that other name until I'm sure it has stabilized.

View attachment 36012

beauties!

 

[Blue-Jay]

I have 14 Karachaganaks. 6 of them grow as a bush, and 7 as a half-runner.
Ridgerunner, which growth type do you consider to be correct?

I've grown the Karachaganack about three times and each time it has grown as a semi runner. Ridgerunner who grew out the original outcrossed seed and who named the bean said he had also gotten a bush version of the bean. So seems like the bean can still segregate a little. The seed coat remains the same. So since it seems like the seed coat color and pattern are set and bush growth is a recessive trait the bush one should stay that way.

I wonder if Ridgerunner decided on a name for the bush version. Perhaps he would just call it Kara for short.

 

[flowerbug]

i don't have anything quite long enough yet to climb, but they are coming along. some day i'll have to get some sticks or poles set up soon so they can find their way up to the neighboring fence.

last season i tried to make a mesh out of sticks and some pieces of cotton yarn but while it sort of worked it did not work well for all of the beans. some of them kept getting blown off before they could wind around enough.

this year i hope i have a bit more time to pay attention to climbing beans so they can do better. i don't have enough wood of the right size here to put up tall stakes and i'm limited on what i can do at the moment so it will be too late even if i could run to the lumberyard and get some longer pieces.

the bush beans and semi-runners in the other gardens are all doing well. once we have a bit more sun for a few days i'll get some newer pictures, but pretty much except for a few spots they've all come up and are growing. i've kept the chipmunks and groundhogs from doing too much raiding (three or four groundhogs so far this year and about a dozen chipmunks. ). the deer are still wandering around the yard at times outside the fence so i don't know how well that bean garden will do, but so far the deer have mostly avoided it and ignored it in favor of the clover, grasses, trefoil, and various ornamentals around the yard.

i even have a chance at some edamame soys for a change this year. first time in a long time i've had plants get this far along.