2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[Blue-Jay]

I'm growing La Vigneronne as a network bean. It's a bean with splashes of red on the pods. Of the four plants I have, one is throwing plain green pods and is more vigorous that the true plants. I wondered whether there are any other reports of this stock of La Vigneronne having crossed or not being stable. I believe you have grown it, heirloomgal. Were yours all red splashed?
I imagine you want seeds only from the red splashed pods, Russ?

I'm not sure which seeds I would want. If there is a difference in seeds from the solid green pods and the red splashed pods. I would take some of both. If there is no difference in seed of each pod type then I'll take seed only from the red splashed pods.

The seed of La Vigneronne comes from a fellow in Tennessee in 2018. It was the first sample I have sent out. It is very possible there was some outcrossed seed in this fellow's seed donation. He does grow a lot of different pole beans each year. I don't think the bean was on my priority list. You must of asked me to pick something for you and since I didn't know the seed year of this donation. I thought I would be good to get at least one sample of the seed grown.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I need to look at my packet for the perfect spelling of the name, but I think it goes something like, Mbumpa Boontjies (network bean)...what I planted was a very pale pink and white mottled seed and this is what came from a few pods.....!

Just gorgeous Pale Gray Lavender beans. The Mpumalanga Boontjes seed, I think I probably sent you one of the orignal donation samples that was probably grown in 2013. The color of the seed you got from me might have been harvested during some wet weather and the colors became washed out. That is only a guess of mine. What you have might be how the seed should look. When you do a seed return I will probably photo your seed and might replace the original photo on the website.

After what I wrote above I got curious about seed that had been grown in previous seasons of this bean. I took a look at seed in the freezer grown in 2018 and it is lighter that what you show on your photo. The 2017 seed is also light in tone. I sure do like the way your seed looks @heirloomgal. Is this bean growing as a semi runner?

 

[flowerbug]

@heirloomgal seed color can vary quite a bit even on the same plant. i have just picked some dried beans that go from pale and somewhat yellow and orange to a darker red, same plant, same soil, just different conditions during ripening and finishing.

what this means is i have a ton of seeds that are probably all good for my purposes even if i'm selecting the reddest ones to replant. i'll get a pic of them sometime.

 

[Boilergardener]

2.5 inches of rain last noght with more on the way. I picked the Network Evolutie yesterday before the rain as they ripe enough to pick. They look great. No black blotches on the pods like some other non network bush beans i have Early warwick, Gauk, cherry trout, brightstone.

 

[Blue-Jay]

2.5 inches of rain last noght with more on the way. I picked the Network Evolutie yesterday before the rain as they ripe enough to pick. They look great. No black blotches on the pods like some other non network bush beans i have Early warwick, Gauk, cherry trout, brightstone.

Rain has been a concern of mine every since our nasty drought year of 2012. Each year since then including the summer of 2021 we get very long strectches with 80 and 90 degree weather and no rain. I have spent lots of time since 2012 watering the bean gardens. Time consuming.

I recently read an article in one of our local papers about the future of our ground water supplies and deep water wells. Municipalities will probably eventually be hooking up to Lake Michigan water even only to suppliment ground water and deep well reserves. The long range outlook for our rainfall is for it to avearge above normal in future years.

 

[ducks4you]

Has anybody here had success with Scarlett Runner Beans?
The look very attractive and I know that they are tropical, and I live in temperate.
Any thoughts?

 

[ducks4you]

@jbosmith , you garden looks great!!
I am SO sorry that you have Japanese beetles, like me!!
I am crossing my fingers that our JB season is almost over. I haven't seen any for a week now, but that could change tomorrow.
Interesting about your plain bean pods.

 

[ducks4you]

@Bluejay77, we are in a tiny town, last census 115, I am on the city board and we still have our own city water. It pulls from an aquafer that serves a low and rural population.
Our droughts usually don't affect growing seasons too much, although some field corn growers ended up simply baling up their fields in October, 2012 for animal fodder. THAT was a bad drought.
We also have many years where there can be too much rain. Last summer we had a single day deluge and neighbors 2 blocks over had 3 inches of water in their yards. It all went down by the next day.
Champaign/Urbana/Savoy, the triple cities north of us ALL get water from the Mahomet aquifer (15 miles west of Champaign), and Desani is sucking water from it to sell all over the place.
THEIR aquifer serves ~150K.
At some point, there might be a problem.

 

[ducks4you]

I have been watering heavily this year and my plants have been loving it.
July was droughty.
August has had dewy mornings that cling to water on the grass still there at 10AM in many cases.

 

[jbosmith]

As much as I hate to promote it, plastic mulch is great for water retention. Those Seneca Allegheny in my last post are in plastic mulch and I haven't watered them since planting. That includes several stretches that left the grass around the garden brown.

I'm honestly pretty conflicted about using single use plastic as a mulch here. I use it at those gardens because I am only there one day every couple of weeks so I can't water and weed on a whim with any reliability. I don't use plastic closer to home, but I spend a lot more time with a watering can in my hand. If I were in an area that had to rely on deep aquifers or anything similar that needs conservation, I would use it everywhere in a heartbeat.