2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[Artorius]

Karachaganack & pod
View attachment 51226

@heirloomgal, this is definitely not Karachaganak. The pod and seeds are completely different.

 

[Artorius]

I told @Artorius I would have photos of the Karachaganak bush in which he sent me seeds of and I planted this year. I also planted the semi runner Karachaganak.

These photos below are Karachaganak bush. They are healthier than my semi runner version but I still think they are very lacking. I don't know what could be the problem because not far away from where the bush version is growing. There are varieties growing in this same soil that are growing exuberantly and look like they are in the prime of their health.
View attachment 51204
View attachment 51205
View attachment 51206

This last and center of the photo growing less than 2/3 of a meter away from Karachaganak bush is Horsehead. Horsehead is growing very large for a bush. In the same soil planted on the same day. All the beans in this grow out have all gotten the same amount of water. The soil was prepared the same way. The last time I grew Horsehead it was 2014 and I have had not seen Horsehead grow this large the last time I grew it.
View attachment 51207

The next post will be Karachaganak Semi Runners

I think these bushes look very hungry. It seems to me that beans with wide pods and round seeds have higher fertilization requirements. A few years ago I had a similar situation with Supernano Giallo bean. It started to grow properly when I additionally watered it with a solution of fertilizer for legumes. The kidney beans growing alongside had no problems.

 

[Artorius]

@Bluejay77 Karachaganak generally isn't very robust for me either. I had some years in Arkansas where the climbing version did pretty good but other years that it did not do much. I never had it do great in Louisiana. I was starting to think it may like it a little cool as poorly as it did in Louisiana.

I know @Artorius grows Karachaganak, I don't remember him mentioning poor harvests.

@Ridgerunner, I have been growing Karachaganak for two years and have had a very decent harvest of this bean. Next year I will sow the bush version again. I want to stabilize it to the end.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Three of my network beans are throwing some runners, though they were listed as bush - Cappuccino Nano, Brown Rice, and Striped Bunch. Should I be concerned?

I've grown the Cappuccino Nano, and Brown Rice and neither are semi runners. The Striped Bunch I have not grown. Cappuccino Nano, and Brown Rice should be true bush beans. No runners at all. I'm beginning to think more and more when I deal out beans to Network growers and they have both bush and pole types or semi runners on their wanted list that we are going to get more and more corrupted beans in the bush category. This year I found a couple of indivual plants popping up with runners in my bush grow out. I took my hand shear and went down to ground level and cut the plants stems clean through and killed off those runner plants so they would not cross polinate other true bush beans. I must admit I used to do this myself where I had bush, semi runners and Poles beans growing in the same plot. This is why I'm now finding a couple of beans each season with runners in my bush only plots. I'm killing them off so they don't further cross polinate true bush types. It might be that the bush types cross somewhat easily with beans that have the climbing habit. This is why heirloomgal got her entire grow out of Bountiful last year growing as a semi runner. I was amazed that I every single seed I had sent to her would be a semi runner. I grew Bountiful also last year from the same grow out as the seed I sent heirloomgal and none of mine had runners. So anyway 2016 was the last year the I ever grew a mixture of types in the same plot. I don't do this anymore with the exception that I will grow semi runners and pole beans in the same plot. True bush beans grow in a completely isolated plot by themselves.

It may not matter if semi runners and pole types are grown in the same plot. They both have the runner habit.

So @BeanWonderin my question is are every single plant of your three different beans growing runners? Are any of them true bush types? Can you save any seed from any true bush plants?

 

[Blue-Jay]

Karachaganack & pod

This is an outcross. Yes Artorious said it too, not Karachaganak. Are you getting any seeds that look like Karachaganak? Well there is still plenty of Karachaganak seed around so if yours are completly different it's not a big problem. If this occured in my Karachaganak I would be weeding out the off type seed and putting the beans in my soup bean cannister. Unless of course there was something so compellingly interesting that I wanted to grow the new seed out again. I find a lot of black beans in my off types. Must be a very dominate color or there must be plenty of genes for black within the gene makeup of many bean varieties that we get a pairing up of the genes for black a lot.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@bluejay you have some GORGEOUS beans in your collection, and it would be hard to pick favourites, but after shelling my first crispy nb Rotebeerbohne bean pods today... I would honestly say this just might be my favourite bush bean, at least in the top 5. I'm posting a few pics to best capture the colouring.

Yes, This is defintely such a gorgeous bean. I remember when I did a trade of beans with a young woman in Willich Germany a few years ago. She messaged me photos of the beans she had for trade. When I saw the Rotebeerbohne photo I almost fell over. It was defintely a must have bean. Heirloomgal you grow such beautiful seed each year too.

 

[BeanWonderin]

So @BeanWonderin my question is are every single plant of your three different beans growing runners? Are any of them true bush types? Can you save any seed from true bush plants?

I need to take a closer look next time I am at the garden. If I find that there is only one or two growing as true bush, should I pull the rest?

I did find a couple places online that indicated Striped Bunch could grow runners.

Beans | sandhill

www.sandhillpreservation.com

https://hsl.gardenorganic.org.uk/seedlist/french-bean/striped bunch

 

[Ridgerunner]

@Ridgerunner, I have been growing Karachaganak for two years and have had a very decent harvest of this bean. Next year I will sow the bush version again. I want to stabilize it to the end.

I've moved and no longer grow beans, no room. I would very much like to see you stabilize the bush version. Feel free to name it whatever you wish once you stabilize it. You are the one doing the work.

 

[flowerbug]

...
Karachaganack & pod
View attachment 51226

i thought you mentioned there was some white in them but i don't see any in those beans, so i would not put them in the same category as Karachaganack and my previous comment about it being a normal variation would have to be retracted.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I need to take a closer look next time I am at the garden. If I find that there is only one or two growing as true bush, should I pull the rest?

When I remove semi runner plants from a bush bean grow out I don't pull them as the roots of all these plants will be intertwined by the time they are mature enough that they have starting growing runners and could disturb the plants next to where you did the pulling. It's just a precaution I take. I cut the semi runner plant with a hand shear.

Is there any of these varieties you want to continue to keep for your own growing in the future? Then you probably don't want to take out all the semi runners among the Cappuccino Nano and Brown Rice. See if you find any true bush plants among the Brown Rice and Cappuccino Nano and mark them. When you harvest pods from the true bush plants you will have to be certain that those pods came from the bush plants. Or you can cut out the semi runner plant on either side of the bush bean with your hand shear if that situation exists. Perhaps you will find two true bush plants together then just cut out the semi runner plant on either side of the two bush plants growing together. We will just take a chance on saving seed from the True Bush plants that they will continue to grow like that in the future.

The Striped Bunch is not going to have anything done with it because it's growing like it's supposed too from the description you found on Sandhill and Garden Organic.

Check your grow out and see if there are any true bush plants growing among them.