2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[Jack Holloway]

Hestia!

I had a packet of those beans for, I'm not sure, probably 8 years. It was from Fothergills's I think. I never did get to trying them until last year. There were very few seeds in the packet and not one sprouted. I think the packet was old when I bought it, as many packet beans are. I also put those on a heating mat to germinate, which was a bad idea I realised after. Probably sealed their fate. The picture on the packet was quite pretty, flowers were red and white I think. I always wondered about that bean since it was never re-offered by Fothergill's after that first year I bought it. Until you posted this, I wondered if the bean was kind of a 'sham' variety. But it isn't!

This pack feels pretty full, and it says averages about 50 seeds.

 

[heirloomgal]

This pack feels pretty full, and it says averages about 50 seeds.

The low bean volume may have been my fault. Whenever I get a bean packet I always need to open it and peek inside. It's my inner 4 year old. The Hestia packet was opened, so I may have planted some that just never grew for me and i had forgotten. When I started gardening I had some pretty delusional ideas about what was possible....


But 50 seeds of runner beans is lot!! Generous packet! I ordered Black Coat and Painted Lady this year (I think those were the 2) and I got about 15 seeds of each! lol

Have you seen the pictures i posted in 2021 of @Artotius's Piekny Jas runner beans? HUGE!

 

[Jack Holloway]

The low bean volume may have been my fault. Whenever I get a bean packet I always need to open it and peek inside. It's my inner 4 year old. The Hestia packet was opened, so I may have planted some that just never grew for me and i had forgotten. When I started gardening I had some pretty delusional ideas about what was possible....


But 50 seeds of runner beans is lot!! Generous packet! I ordered Black Coat and Painted Lady this year (I think those were the 2) and I got about 15 seeds of each! lol

Have you seen the pictures i posted in 2021 of @Artotius's Piekny Jas runner beans? HUGE!

I don't think so. I'm working through the 2021 posts and am overwhelmed. So many wonderful stories and beans. I can't keep it all clear in the noggin. And the beans that threw so many different phenotypes, just wow! Wish I had some of the beans to grow to get that variety. And it wasn't a landrace. Just wozer man. Sorry, old man slang.

Just for you, I opened the pack and counted. 58 seeds. Although some should have been culled from the herd before packing.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Hestia!

I had a packet of those beans for, I'm not sure, probably 8 years. It was from Fothergills's I think. I never did get to trying them until last year. There were very few seeds in the packet and not one sprouted. I think the packet was old when I bought it, as many packet beans are. I also put those on a heating mat to germinate, which was a bad idea I realised after. Probably sealed their fate. The picture on the packet was quite pretty, flowers were red and white I think. I always wondered about that bean since it was never re-offered by Fothergill's after that first year I bought it. Until you posted this, I wondered if the bean was kind of a 'sham' variety. But it isn't!

I think a LOT of British seed varieties disappeared around that time. Besides the general loss of older types unfortunately common everywhere. Around there was when it think Great Britain went onto a "white list" system for what seeds one could and could not grow (In the U.S. we have a "black list" system; there is a list of specific things you CAN'T sell or grow and if it isn't on the list, it's OK. In a "White List" system the item HAS to be on the list in order for it to be legal to grow.) While originally designed to make sure people got appropriately labeled and pure seed, in Britain the people in charge of the list got quickly into the pocket of major agribusiness, which convinced them to make more and more stringent rules of what a variety needed to have in order to qualify, until it basically had to be completely genetically uniform in a way only modern corporate hybrids could be to stay on.

I recall a LOT of Thompson and Morgan disappearing around that time as well. Back in the late 90's T&M offered several "test packet" items for some species/genera; packets contains seeds of species and varieties they had been testing out for their suitability as new items, and that hadn't QUITE made the cut with regard to being offer able individually. (I remember a Lathyrus one and a miniature cucurbit one, there were undoubtedly others.). Then, all at once, they all disappeared.

 

[Zeedman]

When I started gardening I had some pretty delusional ideas about what was possible....

So what changed? I hope I never reach the point where my gardening stops challenging the arbitrary limitations imposed by geology & meteorology (or my physiology, for that matter). Those tropical vegetables aren't going to adapt themselves, you know. Nor will my mind adapt, unless I keep pushing the envelope. That's especially important for those of us who are well seasoned.

 

[flowerbug]

I think a LOT of British seed varieties disappeared around that time. Besides the general loss of older types unfortunately common everywhere. Around there was when it think Great Britain went onto a "white list" system for what seeds one could and could not grow (In the U.S. we have a "black list" system; there is a list of specific things you CAN'T sell or grow and if it isn't on the list, it's OK. In a "White List" system the item HAS to be on the list in order for it to be legal to grow.)

how would that work for cross-breeders? it doesn't make sense to me at all.

While originally designed to make sure people got appropriately labeled and pure seed, in Britain the people in charge of the list got quickly into the pocket of major agribusiness, which convinced them to make more and more stringent rules of what a variety needed to have in order to qualify, until it basically had to be completely genetically uniform in a way only modern corporate hybrids could be to stay on.

nothing like getting them into a potential hole. monocultures can sometimes end up being vulnerable to diseases. ugh...

 

[Pulsegleaner]

how would that work for cross-breeders? it doesn't make sense to me at all.

They probably made exceptions for agribusiness. The corporation would make the cross, send it to be tested, and then it would get on the list.

Actually, now that I recall, that was EXACTLY how they got around it for a while. Seed companies would simply send out a reply form with the seeds, asking for a review, and then they could say it was still "under testing"

nothing like getting them into a potential hole. monocultures can sometimes end up being vulnerable to diseases. ugh...

As well, of course, making every gardener a slave to agribusiness.

 

[capsicumguy]

@Jack Holloway from one newcomer to another, welcome to this thread! Looking forward to joining the network myself.

 

[Jack Holloway]

@Jack Holloway from one newcomer to another, welcome to this thread! Looking forward to joining the network myself.

Thank you @pauldaoust for the welcome. I was wondering if you have the same problem with the Himalayan blackberries like we do here in the Willamette Valley?

 

[capsicumguy]

I doubt that it really matters, but we'd all love to know what you've chosen! (well, at least I would!

well, happy to oblige then I think I'm going to go with...

• From the priority list
  • Cranberry Flieder (how could I resist a purple horticultural bean?)
  • Dean Family Greasy Cutshort
  • P-town
• From the network
  • Blue speckled tepary
  • Mbombo Green
  • Meerbarbe, Nona Agnes, or September Blue -- anyone know which one comes out most 'blue'?
• From the seeds for sale
  • Bird Egg Blue
  • Fort Portal Jade
  • Blue Jay

How about you?