2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[heirloomgal]

@Zeedman I'm fascinated by your detailed knowledge of soybean varieties. I would love to know what soybeans belong to which groups; I think I'm going to continue to expand my collection now that I'm all pumped up from my luck with this year's soybeans.

Do you know of a site that you could post a link to with all this maturity group info? So far I've collected Beer friend, Agate, Sayamusume, Black Jet, Gaia. Possibly a few I've forgotten. I'd love to increase that list. Particularly high yielders. Agate was pretty awesome production too & early to boot.

 

[meadow]

Thank you for the scoop on Mrs. Fortune, @heirloomgal! I was very intrigued after reading the review and appreciate your input.

Your Lazy Wife's Pole Beans are gorgeous! I don't see any sign of that seedcoat issue that mine have. This last batch I shelled out was even worse (although I do have plenty of nice ones too, so no worries if you come up short).

Seeing your results with Lazy Wife's gives me hope for Bolita. Btw, their paper-like pod does make them susceptible to molding. They are the only bean that has molded this year (other than a few that had light mildew).

 

[heirloomgal]

Thank you for the scoop on Mrs. Fortune, @heirloomgal! I was very intrigued after reading the review and appreciate your input.

Your Lazy Wife's Pole Beans are gorgeous! I don't see any sign of that seedcoat issue that mine have. This last batch I shelled out was even worse (although I do have plenty of nice ones too, so no worries if you come up short).

Seeing your results with Lazy Wife's gives me hope for Bolita. Btw, their paper-like pod does make them susceptible to molding. They are the only bean that has molded this year (other than a few that had light mildew).

If you've only had fungal issues with one bean, I'm totally jealous!

I'm hoping that LW will be abundant, and it's looking good! The pods are not all totally brittle yet, so Imma have to wait to know for sure....

 

[Zeedman]

Do you know of a site that you could post a link to with all this maturity group info? So far I've collected Beer friend, Agate, Sayamusume, Black Jet, Gaia. Possibly a few I've forgotten. I'd love to increase that list. Particularly high yielders. Agate was pretty awesome production too & early to boot.

Agate = 00 (and not an especially high yield for that group)
Black Jet = 00
My data source is the USDA GRIN, which only has info on accessions within their collection... and some commercial varieties are not listed. Don't have info on the others; but to judge by your results & the appearance of the seed, Gaia appears to be very similar to Sakamotowase (which is Group 000). I have grown Sayamusume, and it appears to be type I. I have no data or observations for Beer Friend.

I have 3 soybeans in Maturity Group 00 that have nearly double the yield of Agate (Bei 77-6177, Bei Liang 11, Zolta z Zolna) but those are all yellow. Of those, only Bei 77-6177 is fairly good eaten as edamame. Sapporo Midori (also Group 00) is an edamame with VERY large seeds, and yields about 25% more than Agate.

Edit to add:
I looked back on the soybean DTM data from my grow outs. Assuming I plant on June 1st (my target planting date) this is a rough conversion of Maturity Group to DTM for my location:
{Maturity group} = {days}
000 = 85/90
00 = 95/100
0 = 105/110
I = 115/120
II = 120+

 

[heirloomgal]

Network bean Georgian Black & White is done being dried and shelled! This turned out to be a really fantastic bean, beautiful and very productive. I also found that there were very little reject seeds, most of them were excellent quality. This is one of my favourite pole beans this year. And I direct seeded it!

Kartoffelbohne, pole, 3-4 plants. Wonderful variety. I think the name translates to 'potato bean'. Great bean.

Major Cook's, pole, 3-4 plants. Was quite productive but also on the late side.

Kroatische Strangenbohne, pole, 3-4 plants. Sort of a miracle bean. If I had put it in a full sun position I think it would have done even better. Wonderful variety. Another pole fave for the year.

Network bean Vulcan, 3-4 plants, pole. All the beans planted on my South wall did not prosper this year; they were the first to go in and suffered as a result so this weight is probably not indicative of its potential. It's a lovely bean though, with very few culls. Top quality variety.

 

[heirloomgal]

Agate = 00 (and not an especially high yield for that group)
Black Jet = 00
My data source is the USDA GRIN, which only has info on accessions within their collection... and some commercial varieties are not listed. Don't have info on the others; but to judge by your results & the appearance of the seed, Gaia appears to be very similar to Sakamotowase (which is Group 000). I have grown Sayamusume, and it appears to be type I. I have no data or observations for Beer Friend.

I have 3 soybeans in Maturity Group 00 that have nearly double the yield of Agate (Bei 77-6177, Bei Liang 11, Zolta z Zolna) but those are all yellow. Of those, only Bei 77-6177 is fairly good eaten as edamame. Sapporo Midori (also Group 00) is an edamame with VERY large seeds, and yields about 25% more than Agate.

Thanks for the info!

 

[jbosmith]

Agate = 00 (and not an especially high yield for that group)
Black Jet = 00
My data source is the USDA GRIN, which only has info on accessions within their collection... and some commercial varieties are not listed. Don't have info on the others; but to judge by your results & the appearance of the seed, Gaia appears to be very similar to Sakamotowase (which is Group 000). I have grown Sayamusume, and it appears to be type I. I have no data or observations for Beer Friend.

I have 3 soybeans in Maturity Group 00 that have nearly double the yield of Agate (Bei 77-6177, Bei Liang 11, Zolta z Zolna) but those are all yellow. Of those, only Bei 77-6177 is fairly good eaten as edamame. Sapporo Midori (also Group 00) is an edamame with VERY large seeds, and yields about 25% more than Agate.

Edit to add:
I looked back on the soybean DTM data from my grow outs. Assuming I plant on June 1st (my target planting date) this is a rough conversion of Maturity Group to DTM for my location:
{Maturity group} = {days}
000 = 85/90
00 = 95/100
0 = 105/110
I = 115/120
II = 120+

Here's my soybean mystery of the year for you: Cha Kura Kake (85 days in your listings) ripened to dry a solid 2 weeks before Ezonishiki (75 days in your list). They were planted within days of each other. I trust your numbers, so I assume this was something environmental.

Ezonishiki was in one of my cold gardens. Cha Kura Kake was in my home garden which averages 8-10 degrees (F) warmer. Maybe the early season temperatures at home gave them a boost? High heat flipped some switch later?

My home garden is also pretty much a sand pit with a thin layer of compost and a little hay mulch. It inevitably dries out the first time I get busy and skip watering. The cold gardens, on the other hand, have soil that retains water better PLUS it had plastic mulch so it was never completely dry. Maybe the Cha Kura Kake stress-ripened during a dry spell?

The cold gardens have richer soil, mostly due to access to farm waste of all sorts that I care to deal with. Mulch hay shows up in thousand pound round bales for example. Maybe the extra nutrients kept the growth phase going longer?

My guess is some combination of these factors but I'd love to hear opinions, even if they're wild guesses.

 

[Artorius]

I'm sorry to hear they didn't succeed. When I grew GG''s last summer they were wonderfully healthy plants, and almost TOO healthy in their vigour to sprout the developing seeds. I didn't have any malformed seed at all, just some (about 1/2) seeds that were not dry, and only just colouring up as they sprouted, just like Artorius described. The pods were SUPER fleshy, the fattest I've seen I think. I guess I should be grateful I got so many good seeds from it considering what a difficult variety it is to grow.

I read about a bean phenomenon called domestication syndrome, and I think that been has it. Makes sense because it is such a Rolls Royce type of mega romano type green bean. Hyper selected I'm sure for super thick, super huge pods.

I don't even have one Grandma Gina's seed yet. I cut the bushes off the roots and left them on poles for now. It's sunny but quite chilly. Maybe this temperature will limit the germination of seeds in the pods. The pods are huge indeed. If I get some good seeds I will try to plant them next year.
I noticed that some beans that I had grown again from the seeds I had collected grew much better. For example, Hidatsa Shield Figure and Tarahumara Dark Purple suffered terribly when I planted them for the first time. This year I have a great yield and the seeds are of very good quality.

 

[flowerbug]

... For example, Hidatsa Shield Figure and Tarahumara Dark Purple suffered terribly when I planted them for the first time. This year I have a great yield and the seeds are of very good quality.

i could never get HSF to give me many seeds at all. three times planted, 2nd and 3rd time from a few home-grown seeds that were viable. too much clay, too much heat at the wrong time, not enough fence space, etc.

a beautiful large bean.

 

[Zeedman]

Here's my soybean mystery of the year for you: Cha Kura Kake (85 days in your listings) ripened to dry a solid 2 weeks before Ezonishiki (75 days in your list). They were planted within days of each other. I trust your numbers, so I assume this was something environmental.

Ezonishiki was in one of my cold gardens. Cha Kura Kake was in my home garden which averages 8-10 degrees (F) warmer. Maybe the early season temperatures at home gave them a boost? High heat flipped some switch later?

My home garden is also pretty much a sand pit with a thin layer of compost and a little hay mulch. It inevitably dries out the first time I get busy and skip watering. The cold gardens, on the other hand, have soil that retains water better PLUS it had plastic mulch so it was never completely dry. Maybe the Cha Kura Kake stress-ripened during a dry spell?

The cold gardens have richer soil, mostly due to access to farm waste of all sorts that I care to deal with. Mulch hay shows up in thousand pound round bales for example. Maybe the extra nutrients kept the growth phase going longer?

My guess is some combination of these factors but I'd love to hear opinions, even if they're wild guesses.

The DTM I gave for Ezonishiki is for edamame; the DTM for Cha Kura Kake is for dry seed. Not sure why I did that, given that both are edamame cultivars. I must not have recorded both dates... something I'll flag for their next grow outs.

But that aside, Exonishiki should have ripened slightly earlier; or at the very least, close to the same time as Cha Kura Kake. I can only speculate that while both varieties would have flowered at the proper time for your latitude, the temperature differences between the two sites may have retarded pod development for Exonishiki, and perhaps accelerated it for Cha Kura Kake. Quite a difference, almost a 3-week reversal of what should have occurred. Did you record the actual days to dry for both? That might help to unravel this mystery.