2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[Triffid]

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.

Thank you Russ, that would be lovely. Are they the same as Turkey Craw in that they are snap beans and climbers?

 

[Blue-Jay]

Beautiful plants. So healthy looking. Do limas that are poles usually stay shorter than regular pole beans? Mine seem only about 4, maybe 5, feet.

I would agree with @flowerbug. Pole limas seem just as capable of some skyscraper growth as P. Vulgaris poles. These bean photos of yours look lovely to me.

 

[heirloomgal]

@heirloomgal, Bis wax grows this way. I have often wondered how such a small plant can produce so many fairly long and wide pods. The pods look weird too. The seeds only swell on one side, so the pod looks like a blunt comb. The blue color turns brown in older seeds, so I suggest freezing some fresh, well-dried.

Thanks for letting me know @Artorius ! I really thought they must be having a bad year, so I'm a little relieved to know they're healthy and just grow this way. It's certainly an odd variety!

 

[Zeedman]

Beautiful plants. So healthy looking. Do limas that are poles usually stay shorter than regular pole beans? Mine seem only about 4, maybe 5, feet.

My pole limas are slower to start climbing than the pole beans (and MUCH slower than the runner beans) but tend to out-grow them all later in the season - like now. Every 2-3 days, I have to untangle the lima runners from the adjacent bean trellises. I've begun just pruning those rampant runners back, in the hope that the limas will focus more energy on ripening their pods... but they will probably just sprout new runners to replace those cut off.

 

[Decoy1]

In the winter please remind me to send you some of the 'long reddish' Blackpod variant I identified last season - maybe they will be more to your liking. This year they continue to have longer pods than the original, and develop pigmentation while the pods are still young and slender.

Thank you.They sound very appealing, and quite a find. Also an achievement to isolate and produce true seeds, which is always a challenge, I find, with runner beans.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Thank you Russ, that would be lovely. Are they the same as Turkey Craw in that they are snap beans and climbers?

I have not tried the Black Turkey as a snap bean. I have used a few of them as a dry bean. Can't really comment on them either as a dry bean because all my soup beans are always in a mix with so many other kinds. The bean is still not totally stable. I'm sure one day with constantly growing of the one seed coat that it will become stable.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I pulled up about two of my stunted Karachaganak plants. The roots were not hollow, but the root system was very sparse.

Also notice that my Pale Gray Lavender are also growing as a bush bean. It was a beautiful pole bean the last time I grew it.

 

[meadow]

Also notice that my Pale Gray Lavender are also growing as a bush bean. It was a beautiful pole bean the last time I grew it.

What could cause a pole bean to grow as a bush??

Who knew being a Network grower could be stressful? I had another production bean casualty due to mole activity. Thank goodness there are no Network beans in that area! Fingers crossed that they finish seed production without any problems.

 

[Blue-Jay]

What could cause a pole bean to grow as a bush??

Well this is just as much a mystery to me as it is for you. I have no idea how a pole bean could turn into a bush bean in another season. Unless The first time I planted this pole bean it was outcrossed with a bush, but produced all the same seed and had the genes lurking inside it's newest embryos for a bush type and then now we have the bush beans this seaons. However I do have a hard time with that because I can't imagine the pole beans producing that many seeds and have all of them produce bush types since bush is a recessive trait without even a single plant becoming a strong climber. All the outcrosses I've ever seen usually produce a mixed bag of plant types and seed coats.

 

[meadow]

hmm. I think I'll keep the pods from each plant separate. If there are any with mixed seed coats, then we'll know which plant it came from and will have the option of isolating all of its seed (even if they look correct).

Is it 3 correct-looking growouts to show that seed is true?