2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[Artorius]

In my grow out this year @Bluejay77 nearly every single plant grew true to type, with 2 exceptions. And they aren't bush beans that are climbing, but rather a pole and a semi that aren't climbing. Pale Gray Lavender and MB both grew similarly, as bushes though it seemed one branch in each plant was a bit longer than the rest, but not by much. I'd still call them bushes. However, the seeds seem true to type on both. PGL and MB had a full pod set and no more flowers by the time the poles started to flower. Other than these, each growth type was isolated with its own kind and they all lived happily homogenous.

Collected some more dried pods today! I'm growing Buckskin Girl, Victoria Brown Eyes and African Cave again (network beans from last year); they all really had a hard time last year. I'm happy to report it's going much better this year for all of them. I hope to build up more seeds of these varieties as last year I didn't collect a whole lot. And one of the bonus beans that I've wanted to grow for many years now, that I got from you this spring - Minnesota 1940's - is doing very nicely it seems. Harvested my first dried pods today! August 12th! I love the deep chocolate brown.

Minnesota 1940s
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African Cave
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Buckskin Girl
The purple tones were a tad darker than last year, I love it! And some of the grey tones were a bit more intense, with almost a navy blue-purple tone in there. What a special bean! There is the faintest, barely visible white swirl on a few of them too.
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@heirloomgal, I see material for another swap. What do you think?

 

[Ridgerunner]

In my opinion, the seeds of the bush version are smaller and rounder than the half-runner. The color pattern is the same.

I saw two different seed shapes from the runner version, a round and one that was more oval. If I planted oval they produced oval. If I planted round they produced round. The bush variants I got were always from the round seeds and produced round.

My understanding is that the climbing is dominant over bush growth habit. So bush can be hiding as recessive on a climbing bean but climbing cannot be hiding on a bush. Genetics can't be that easy, I imagine there are other gene pairs that can make that confusing. But I could see a bush growth habit stabilizing pretty quickly.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Bluejay77 Thanks Russ, I remember now. I was browsing old threads a while ago and must have seen the Black Turkey outcross. It's pretty!

I think Black Turkey is a nice bean. I've grown the Black Turkey twice 2014 and 2020. In 2014 I got some black beans from it and a white one. I grew the white one twice more in '17 and '18. They still came out white. In '20 my grow out produced the black and white and solid black

Next spring if you get more network beans I can send you a packet of the Black Turkey. I will send the latest grow out from 2020. If you want some of the pure white ones I can send some of those two.

 

[Blue-Jay]

My plans with them are to organize what I have and offer them to you. I lost most of my notes and records in a computer crash, did not have sufficient backup. And I recently moved so I'm getting settled plus we are having trouble selling the old house. And I'm being kind of lazy right now.

At some point I plan to organize a show on here of what I have, giving you first choice if you want them. I should be able to trace the heritage of them, just lost some growing habit, pod and flower color history, stuff like that. Some will be black or white, I grew some of those but favored the ones with pattern or color. I think there are some really nice ones in there. If I grew them and they segregated I got rid to those and worked with the segregations or the ones that grew out like the originals.

I'll also include the ones I have from the segregations I found in Blue Jay. Again, some black or white but a few I really like. To a large extent it's just me needing to get my butt in gear and get organized. It's not been my top priority.

Do you still have all your seed stocks still marked with the names you have given them? Yes I would definitely take what you have. I think There might be one that you sent back to me after the first grow out in 2016 that I don't have anymore. I trusted a new Network grower and never heard from them again. I sent out the last sample and it is possible that it didn't grow.

I had the thought of when all these beans that are possible to stabalize. I would send a small sample back to Will Bonsall and show him what became of all the outcrosses he had sent. He told me once he was saving them in his office with me in mind. He was also once a member of Seed Savers Exchange in the 1980's and he knew I liked to work with outcrosses. I thought it was quite something for him to still be thinking of me this way after nearly 30 years. I thought it would be fun to show him the results.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Do you still have all your seed stocks still marked with the names you have given them?

I don't have any "old" beans. Some I sent you all I had and some I lost for various reasons, usually bad germination or i just didn't get any seeds off of them when I tried growing them. The spring of 2017 was really brutal in trying to get them to germinate. I'm pretty sure I can tie everything I have back to the original bean I got from you.

If I planted a bean and got back what I planted I ate the old beans and kept the new. I was one step closer to having a stabilized bean. If I planted a bean and it segregated, I ate the old bean and kept the new segregations. The old bean was not stabilized so I worked with the new.

I had three stabilize I sent you a couple of years ago, Jas, Valley View, and Banzala. I can send more of those if you wish. I have another that has stabilized, Cock 'n Bull. I'll send that to you, either now if you wish or when I ship the rest. It would not be hard to make up a shipment for you. Those are the only four I could contribute to the "these stabilized". I think they are all nice beans. I don't know what you have that stabilized out of his other outcrosses.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@Ridgerunner,

Are you slowly getting away from bean growing then?

 

[Ridgerunner]

@Ridgerunner,

Are you slowly getting away from bean growing then?

I am out of bean growing. I've moved and no longer have any place to grow them.

 

[heirloomgal]

Great job @heirloomgal !

Aw shucks!

 

[heirloomgal]

Did I type "Bush" on the packet for Mpumalanga Boontjies? I should have used my new label file when I sent you beans this past spring. The bean is listed on the website as semi runner. This past winter when I was in Florida I took one of my computers with me and worked on a packet label project. I have files now where every bean you can find on my website has a correct label on a file that I can simple copy and paste into a fresh blank document when I'm printing labels for your order or request. I also have a file of larger labels for the seed return packets where all the information should be 100% correct.

Previously I would retype everything for every single label over and over each time I did another persons order or seed request and mistakes were made too often.

I even have a file of labels for every bean when it goes into freezer storage that I can copy from a file and paste into a new document then print out when I get a full page filled with labels.

These label files took 5 days a week all winter to do while I remained at a freinds place in Kissimmee, Fl while he was at work. I was at his place from about December 27 to March 15th. Finished the label project when I got home in March for about two days.

I had to look up the label for Mpumalanga Boontjies after reading your post just to check the label on file and it is correctly done as Semi Runner - Dry.

I'll check the envelope, I've been running on my memory from the website.....but maybe I'm remembering wrong!

Eta: I checked my return envelopes, and realized I need to check the original envelope that they came in, not these. Will do tomorrow.

 

[heirloomgal]

@heirloomgal, I see material for another swap. What do you think?

Me thinks yes.