2021 Little Easy Bean Network - Bean Lovers Come Discover Something New !

[flowerbug]

i went out to check on some gardens today for dried beans and picked a few but i ended up spending more time weeding than picking beans. i need to get back outside later today to get some lima beans picked.

looks like Sacre Bleu (the only pole bean i planted) is coming back as a striped pattern instead of the solid blue, so none of the seeds i planted since someone gave me the seeds came true this season at all and i don't have any more viable solid blue seeds either. looks like they flopped... too bad as they are a very pretty bean.

found more Venda and Lavender seeds, so that is good, ate some pods off Venda since i do have enough seeds and decided i liked them well enough to keep growing them as a green fresh bean, but i'd have to be wary of how i grow them and keep the seeds since they are a similar enough shape to Purple Dove that i may mix in some of the seeds from each if i'm not careful enough. the pods however are much different for shelling out so at least that is not an issue. that they are still flowering and putting on edible pods this late in the season is also ok with me - they also had seeds on them a long time ago that were viable so they've gone all season. these are not easy at all to shell out in comparison so if they cross with something else that would be easier to shell i'd be happy with that. there is a lot more meat on them compared to Purple Dove and they're probably usable as a canning bean, but i'd like to eat them a lot on the smaller side of things before they reach full growth. canning of fresh beans has never been a priority to us here. we much more want them when they're fresh.

 

[heirloomgal]

i went out to check on some gardens today for dried beans and picked a few but i ended up spending more time weeding than picking beans. i need to get back outside later today to get some lima beans picked.

looks like Sacre Bleu (the only pole bean i planted) is coming back as a striped pattern instead of the solid blue, so none of the seeds i planted since someone gave me the seeds came true this season at all and i don't have any more viable solid blue seeds either. looks like they flopped... too bad as they are a very pretty bean.

found more Venda and Lavender seeds, so that is good, ate some pods off Venda since i do have enough seeds and decided i liked them well enough to keep growing them as a green fresh bean, but i'd have to be wary of how i grow them and keep the seeds since they are a similar enough shape to Purple Dove that i may mix in some of the seeds from each if i'm not careful enough. the pods however are much different for shelling out so at least that is not an issue. that they are still flowering and putting on edible pods this late in the season is also ok with me - they also had seeds on them a long time ago that were viable so they've gone all season. these are not easy at all to shell out in comparison so if they cross with something else that would be easier to shell i'd be happy with that. there is a lot more meat on them compared to Purple Dove and they're probably usable as a canning bean, but i'd like to eat them a lot on the smaller side of things before they reach full growth. canning of fresh beans has never been a priority to us here. we much more want them when they're fresh.

That is so sad about your Sacre Bleu It is such a beautiful, truly unique colour. I've not seen anything quite like it; however, my blue Meerbarbe bean smoked it in production by a LONG shot. I like the shape of the Sacre Bleu bean better than Meerbarbe though, and the name is so funny to me, having French blood in my veins, knowing what an irreverent name in francaise that is.

On another note, I had some toast sort of fall butter side down on me, figuratively speaking, this week. I planted a round lavender-greyish bean called Kaiser Friedrich on a flat bean trellis, and about 4 feet down from it planted another bean called Gout d'Echanans (not 100% on the spelling with that one) which is distinctly different in colour, a light brown. The bean shapes are pretty identical though. Almost my whole grow out this year is of visually distinct beans with a few exceptions. I've been meticulous with those ones knowing how easy it would be to confuse them. Aside from those, I can harvest pods of dry Orca beans along with Mayan Red pods and mix them in the same cardboard flat without identification worries. Well, I did that with Kaiser and Gout and to my amazement the Gout beans must have been crossed! The shelled pods were identical to the Kaisers! I don't ever consider crosses since I've never had anything cross in my garden except tomatoes. But both these varieties I got in a trade! The strange thing is there were 3 or 4 Gout plants, and they all had the same colour of crossed seed?! What were the chances? Has anyone heard of that many identical crosses in a variety?

Either way they are very pretty beans, mixed up as they are, and I'll grow then again to see what happens.

 

[Zeedman]

On another note, I had some toast sort of fall butter side down on me, figuratively speaking, this week. I planted a round lavender-greyish bean called Kaiser Friedrich on a flat bean trellis, and about 4 feet down from it planted another bean called Gout d'Echanans (not 100% on the spelling with that one) which is distinctly different in colour, a light brown. The bean shapes are pretty identical though. Almost my whole grow out this year is of visually distinct beans with a few exceptions. I've been meticulous with those ones knowing how easy it would be to confuse them. Aside from those, I can harvest pods of dry Orca beans along with Mayan Red pods and mix them in the same cardboard flat without identification worries. Well, I did that with Kaiser and Gout and to my amazement the Gout beans must have been crossed! The shelled pods were identical to the Kaisers! I don't ever consider crosses since I've never had anything cross in my garden except tomatoes. But both these varieties I got in a trade! The strange thing is there were 3 or 4 Gout plants, and they all had the same colour of crossed seed?! What were the chances? Has anyone heard of that many identical crosses in a variety?

That sounds more like a labeling, packing, or planting mistake than a cross. Beans cross only sporadically, and 4 identical crosses stretches probability beyond the point of credibility.

 

[flowerbug]

That sounds more like a labeling, packing, or planting mistake than a cross. Beans cross only sporadically, and 4 identical crosses stretches probability beyond the point of credibility.

agreed, but the other possibility would be coloring change due to soil conditions.

 

[Artorius]

@heirloomgal
The Gout de Chataigne D'Echenans seeds I sent you are from the German online store Deaflora. I have this bean this year. I also thought it was a cross when I opened the first pods and saw this violet. Now the seeds slowly change color to light coffee with milk.

 

[Artorius]

From soil sensitive varieties I have grown the Smith River Super Speckle this year.
I sowed such seeds ...



... and I harvested such as these.

 

[Artorius]

My bean-hunting season has opened. I received this package in June, but I put it in a drawer because this year's beans were already growing in the garden. I opened it a few days ago. Sow True Seed does not ship seeds outside the United States, so a friend from Connecticut bought them for me.

 

[Blue-Jay]

From soil sensitive varieties I have grown the Smith River Super Speckle this year.
I sowed such seeds ...

Oh How Beautiful Artorius ! I thought the Smith River Super Speckle would look better in your soil than mine. I still have two other soils here in my county to try growing Smith River.

 

[heirloomgal]

That sounds more like a labeling, packing, or planting mistake than a cross. Beans cross only sporadically, and 4 identical crosses stretches probability beyond the point of credibility.

Nope, definitely wasn't a labeling or planting mistake as I treated those seeds and plants like Cabuchon rubies since there were so few and they were so relatively rare. But looks like @Artorius solved the mystery! Thank you Artorius!! I'm so glad to know that they will sort themselves out as they are all mixed together now. It will be like watching a chemistry experiment I guess. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that every single pod of Gout d'Echanans was lavender! Twilight zone moment for sure.

However, it may not be as unlikely as it seems. @Bluejay77 sent me 12 seeds of Bountiful, and every seed produced a semi runner plant, which means they are all crossed, as that is bush variety. The seeds all are all the same so far. So perhaps this is a rare situation where all the seeds were crossed but yet were uniformly crossed. Strangely, the Coss. di Sicily beans I planted as well, some of which are still drying, most of the seeds I've harvested so far from those plants definitely look crossed but also look the same, rusty pink splotch on white. We'll see with that one as the pods continue to dry.

Couple bean things. That Candy bean is pretty extraordinary @Bluejay77 , can you tell me anything about that bean, does it originate in your gardens? It is just so big and so colourful, what an unusual and highly productive bean. And for a bean so large it matures quite early. It is a winner all way round.

@Artorius that Piekny Jas bean could become an addiction! What a bean! It is so, so giant and again, so productive. My daughter thinks those beans are just amazing. I have already harvested many bean pods and there are dozens more out there. I will definitely keep it in my collection. Is the translation 'Gentleman's Bean'?

And Meerbarbe! What a crazy little blue bean @Bluejay77 ! It is just having one of those mega pod making years I guess. Your site mentions Sacre Bleu as highly productive, but it did not produce that much for me, though it looks like one of the plants may have been killed by my mole. The pods are beautifully smooth and clean for shelling though. It is a really beautiful bean, and I don't think I'll be able to live without it from now on.

 

[flowerbug]

it looks like i'll have enough odd and large types from the Yellow Eye harvest that i can send them off to someone who might want to try to develop a different selection. i've had them before in my harvest but i've not usually gone out of my way to develop them since they are the opposite of what i'm aiming for (I want more uniform, smaller and rounder beans - these are longer some are flatter and they are bigger).

i'll put them away for the seed swap if nobody wants them and eventually if they don't find a home from there we'll eat them.

note that these are only one or two beans per pod so it isn't a fully segregated variety yet and may not repeat, but as a starting point this is how i usually develop a new selection or named variety.