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

[HmooseK]

@flowerbug
Thank you so much!

 

[heirloomgal]

i received these in a trade and they were marked Calypso. I know that bean goes by several names such as Ying Yang, Orca, Calypso and maybe a few I don’t know about. A lady on another forum says they don’t look like what she grows as calypso.
So I ask here. What say you?

I have a gardening friend in Manitoba who grows Calypso, and this is exactly what hers look like. She has a photo posted on her educational website called 'Mandy's Greenhouse'. (I couldn't put up a link because I can't find the mouse!) It seems that there are a couple variations of that bean.

 

[HmooseK]

@heirloomgal

The plot thickens. Beans are so much fun!

@aftermidnight We’re talking beans buddy!

 

[Artorius]

Maybe it's Calypso bean, but it's not Yin Yang. This one is rounder and is equally divided into black and white parts. It's bush bean.

 

[flowerbug]

I have a gardening friend in Manitoba who grows Calypso, and this is exactly what hers look like. She has a photo posted on her educational website called 'Mandy's Greenhouse'. (I couldn't put up a link because I can't find the mouse!) It seems that there are a couple variations of that bean.

i'm going from what i've grown, but also looking at what images show up when searched for on-line. so far, the only image i'm coming across for variations in the first pages are "Black Calypso Bean Seeds" which look like what were posted above. imo they are not Calypso, Orca or Yin Yang beans but something else sharing the same name and confusing things.

of course, someone may have crossed or selected these or it could be a second naming which is fine with me, but i'd still call them something else.

who has precedence? first naming in historical sources available and then if there is an actual serious issue genetic sequencing could probably figure out who was first.

to me the above pictures look like a cross that came from Anasazi or some other similar patterned SW USoA bean.

 

[BeanWonderin]

Something I've been wondering about since last year. Last summer I planted a row of bush beans that I had gotten as a substitute packet for something else I had ordered. It wasn't a bean I was familiar with but I thought I'd give it a try. Turned out that it wasn't a bush, but more of a semi runner. I had some of those tomato cages around (the ones that are not actually big enough for tom's) and plunked a row of the cages down the bean row. They climbed on and did very well with that; they actually started reaching above the tomato cage. When the runners got to about a foot above I just started cutting them off with scissors. I went out with the scissors about three times that summer to cut the runners back. I'd never 'pruned' a bean plant in full growth before, but it seemed like I had to do it. There was no where else for the plants to go.

I couldn't help but notice when fall arrived that the pod production was really tremendous. I collected a huge volume of seed, considering that the row was only about 6-7 ft long. Relative to the amount of seed planted/seed harvested, it must have been the biggest producer (not including tall poles) if not in the top three last year. Plus, I ate many beans from those plants as well. It got me thinking, I wonder if pruning bean plants could actually make them more productive?

I know that it's a dicey proposition given that many of us are struggling to get the plants to maturity to harvest seed. Cutting them back might slow them up somewhat. But I wonder if, with beans that have more of a sure thing DTM, if pruning could actually significantly increase seed harvests. Any opinions? Has anyone ever pruned, even accidentally, a bean plant and noticed a difference?

That's a really interesting idea, @heirloomgal! I have never intentionally pruned a bean plant, but seems like a good experiment for this year's garden. I'll see if I can do some side by side comparisons with the same variety.

 

[Blue-Jay]

i received these in a trade and they were marked Calypso. I know that bean goes by several names such as Ying Yang, Orca, Calypso and maybe a few I don’t know about. A lady on another forum says they don’t look like what she grows as calypso.
So I ask here. What say you?

I purchased a bean about 2013 from a place in Arkansas called "Double Helix Farm" that looks exactly like your bean. They called it "Orca". I have it listed on my website on the 4th bean page LA-PA. I continued to called it Orca with double helix strain in parentheses. Take a look www.beancollectorswindow.com. To me Orca should be a rounded oval bean that is white with a large black spot around it's eye. Your bean and the one I have looks just like another bean called "Vaquero" which is also on my website.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Something I've been wondering about since last year. Last summer I planted a row of bush beans that I had gotten as a substitute packet for something else I had ordered. It wasn't a bean I was familiar with but I thought I'd give it a try. Turned out that it wasn't a bush, but more of a semi runner. I had some of those tomato cages around (the ones that are not actually big enough for tom's) and plunked a row of the cages down the bean row. They climbed on and did very well with that; they actually started reaching above the tomato cage. When the runners got to about a foot above I just started cutting them off with scissors. I went out with the scissors about three times that summer to cut the runners back. I'd never 'pruned' a bean plant in full growth before, but it seemed like I had to do it. There was no where else for the plants to go.

I know that it's a dicey proposition given that many of us are struggling to get the plants to maturity to harvest seed. Cutting them back might slow them up somewhat. But I wonder if, with beans that have more of a sure thing DTM, if pruning could actually significantly increase seed harvests. Any opinions? Has anyone ever pruned, even accidentally, a bean plant and noticed a difference?

I had read somewhere once, possibly in the SSE yearbook years ago on a bean listing of Will Bonsall's that he trimmed the runners off a pole bean when it got to the point where the bean didn't have anymore room to climb on his structure. He thought it made the variety more productive with the rest of the plant setting more pods.

 

[HmooseK]

@Bluejay77

Thank you! I don’t remember how old this seed is, so I really hope it produces! I put everyone of them in the ground. After reading at your site, I see it comes from Dan. I understand it being in my collection. I have a few of Dan and Val’s.

 

[flowerbug]

... Your bean and the one I have looks just like another bean called "Vaquero" which is also on my website.

i knew i saw one there but i could not remember the name of it!

p.s. beans finally landed at the PO Box here this morning at 8:02 am, i haven't been to town to pick them up yet and i'm not sure if Mom got the mail on her way through town today or not as she was running a bit late. at least they finally made it.

it took them 10days to go from your place to Indianapolis before they went to Detroit and then finally up this ways. heh.