2022 Little Easy Bean Network - We Are Beans Without Borders

[heirloomgal]

Spent some time, as in hours, in the pole bean patch today checking for any signs of mould and trimming where necessary. The 3 days of rain we got not long ago caused a wee bit here and there. So I trimmed leaves near the bottom of some plants to ensure good air flow, get some sunlight in and removed spent leaves from the ground. I don't want to take ANY chances if high humidity returns. The growth has been SO vigorous this year with most of the vines, the layers of foliage can cause problems. I saw a few leaves with joints damaged by mould. Thank goodness it's been hot and dry since that wet spell; I can definitely tell that beans are much more able to deal with drought than high moisture and humidity!

Few pics of the haircuts.

Gold Of Bacau
Was at risk for sure, and I had to pull a few spoiled pods.

Fasold
Another one whose leaves had actually suffered some damage from the high humidity. A few bad pods, but not many. Without a trim I think my harvest would have been compromised; this bean got the biggest transformation though many leaves had expired already. I took them out, and dumped them all elsewhere. I don't think thinning like this will be a problem, the plants are technically almost 30 days older than if I had put in seeds, because they're transplants. So these are mid-September stage plants to some degree. I only did the plants at the back end of the garden too, which is a lower elevation.

This was some of what I was rooting out -

Grandma Nellies's Mushroom bean

Bean pics from today.

Tremonti Di Trebua - network bean harvest today
There is a cross within the 3 pole plants, because I see some pods are purple, some green. I think the dried pods I found were the purple ones. So, this may not be true to type? The seed shape isn't exactly, exactly like the BCW photo, the colours seem about right though? Let me know what you think @Bluejay77. But I did find the seeds purdy.

Worcester Indian - bush
This bean has been sold out at Heritage Harvest Seed for a long while, and this spring it finally was for sale again so I got it. It isn't a 'wow' bean, but it's got a simple, humble quality. Has some bright yellow tints here and there. Reminds me a wee little of Hutterite, without the limey green. Or Arikara.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Tremonti Di Trebua - network bean harvest today
There is a cross within the 3 pole plants, because I see some pods are purple, some green. I think the dried pods I found were the purple ones. So, this may not be true to type? The seed shape isn't exactly, exactly like the BCW photo, the colours seem about right though? Let me know what you think @Bluejay77. But I did find the seeds purdy.

The beans I got from Joseph Simcox were probably not new. So your soil could have possibly changed shading of color and even the pattern slightly. I think they look pretty much like same thing. Your beans look slightly shorter and more plump. Those are definitely keepers. Lovely beans. Was there any still slight amount of purple when you harvested the dry pods. Some purple pods still show a slight amount of purple tint after they dry. Sometimes along the umbilical vein, along the opposite side of the pod and even sometimes slightly tinted on the side of the pod.

 

[Blue-Jay]

@heirloomgal mentioned recently was there hope for her Ping Zebra. I have 4 poles of Andromeda which are outcrosses of Ping Zebra growing in my south flowerbed this summer. About a week ago the farthest two poles in the photo had some blooms on them the other two I just discovered the beginning of blossoming yesterday. This outcross seems as if it's about a week or two earlier than Ping. The seed in my grow out was presprouted then planted the sprouted seed on May 28th. Hope your Ping Zebra produce well for you. They should set a lot of pods.

 

[flowerbug]

for the first time in eons i feel bean rich. by that i mean i can go out and pick fresh beans for cooking up and eating if i want and i don't have to worry that i'm eating too many of my future dry bean harvest or risking not having enough seeds from the project beans i have going.

i did scale back how many project beans i planted because i wanted to spend more time this season harvesting and enjoying eating fresh beans.

 

[heirloomgal]

The beans I got from Joseph Simcox were probably not new. So your soil could have possibly changed shading of color and even the pattern slightly. I think they look pretty much like same thing. Your beans look slightly shorter and more plump. Those are definitely keepers. Lovely beans. Was there any still slight amount of purple when you harvested the dry pods. Some purple pods still show a slight amount of purple tint after they dry. Sometimes along the umbilical vein, along the opposite side of the pod and even sometimes slightly tinted on the side of the pod.

I looked really closely at the plants today, and I was wrong about thinking these were from the purple pods. The pods are a beige, a bit speckled with purple like how some green pods get purple speckles as they get older. I actually think the purple podded plant hasn't dried any pods yet, and is still flowering. The green speckled pods are drying up more quickly. It's a really great variety @Bluejay77 - nice pod set, early maturity, lovely coloured seeds. I just love this bean! I guess the purple is the crossed seed, but I'll wait until the pods dry to see what's in there.

Yes, I agree it seems the main difference from your photo and my seed, a bit chunkier seeds here. The colour looks right. Maybe seed shape can alter in different soils a little like colours can?

 

[heirloomgal]

@heirloomgal mentioned recently was there hope for her Ping Zebra. I have 4 poles of Andromeda which are outcrosses of Ping Zebra growing in my south flowerbed this summer. About a week ago the farthest two poles in the photo had some blooms on them the other two I just discovered the beginning of blossoming yesterday. This outcross seems as if it's about a week or two earlier than Ping. The seed in my grow out was presprouted then planted the sprouted seed on May 28th. Hope your Ping Zebra produce well for you. They should set a lot of pods.

View attachment 51314

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.

 

[heirloomgal]

We've been getting quite hot days, and chilly nights. I imagine beans do not like this? Nights seem below seasonal average; tonight as I was bringing in some boxes of pods I had drying in the sun during the day I actually felt wetness across the table surface. I had also laid my glasses aside for ten minutes or so out there and when I picked them up the lenses were wet with condensation! I can only hope this wetness on the plants through the night won't be too problematic.

My device, which is now 7 and ancient by tech standards, did NOT like any of my dried bean colours today. Just some bouncing effect from those colours. Hoping to replace the tablet soon, for better photo taking in particular. Pictures ain't that great, but it was the best I could do.

Wild Gonny - semi runner
I like the song Johnny be Good, and though this guy is spelled differently, I felt the similarity sufficient to try them. It turns out the bean is as good as the song! This is also a super resilient bean, and has weathered all kinds of crud without a hint of stress or diminished capacity.

Bis - wax bush
I cannot believe how blue the eye splotch is on these! No doubt it won't last, blue seldom does, but wowzers I like a bean with blue! Terrible time trying to get a close up though. Plants were so small it seemed like something was wrong, but the pods set was decent and I've never grown it before so I have no idea what's normal for it. Maybe it's just a diminutive plant.

Fukuruyu Chanaga - network bean
So far of the few pods I've shelled, over half have blown their skulls. Not sure what causes that? It's almost like this bean was bred for drought? As soon as the pods look more developed, I'm going to pull the plants to stop water uptake and try to lessen this tendency. This was surprising because the pods had only just dried, I've kept a close eye on them. I hope the rest have less of this issue. Fun fact, fukuruyu means 'crouching dragon' in Japanese. The chanaga is a mystery to me, with the only hit coming up that there are more people with that last name in Columbia than anywhere else in the world.
Interesting name combo.

 

[BeanWonderin]

I'm not even sure if Cappaccino Nano is even a stable bean. I got it in trade with a fellow from Italy and I think he gave me some of his orignal outcrosses. Which I don't care but it would be nice if he would have grown them enough that they don't segregate much anymore.

Have you tried to remove any of the semi runners around the true bush Brown Rice beans. How long have they been in bloom?

I have not removed any runners from the Brown Rice yet. There is a group of three plants without runners right next to each other and that's probably what I would save seed from. Not sure how long they have been in bloom and I won't be able to check them during the next week. We did have to untangle the runners from these plants, though.

 

[Artorius]

Bis - wax bush
I cannot believe how blue the eye splotch is on these! No doubt it won't last, blue seldom does, but wowzers I like a bean with blue! Terrible time trying to get a close up though. Plants were so small it seemed like something was wrong, but the pods set was decent and I've never grown it before so I have no idea what's normal for it. Maybe it's just a diminutive plant.
View attachment 51321

View attachment 51322

@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.

 

[flowerbug]

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.

not in the ones i've grown - they've easily topped the 7-8ft fence and come halfway down the other side (and would have probably still been going had not the frosts taken them out).