2023 Little Easy Bean Network - Beans Beyond The Colors Of A Rainbow

[Blue-Jay]

Thank you!!! That's a little more info than I had. They are definitely vigorously climbing for me! But I hope they'll turn out to be sufficiently productive.

The productiviity could have been because of the type of season SSE had in 2018. You might get a different result.

 

[phaseolista]

Hi all! I'm an avid bean grower & got some network beans from @Bluejay77 this year too but I hadn't made an account here yet. I'm based in the Netherlands and sowed most of my beans mid May (I think about ~30 varieties this year). Attaching some pictures!

First blooms of the year on June 3th, Red Swan bush beans that I planted before my last frost date and the first pick on June 18th.


My earliest pole beans this year (picture taken this week), Don Carlos:


Pretty beans:

 

[heirloomgal]

Just came in from checking plants, tucking in wandering vines and propping up what needed propping. We had a short, but heavy rain today - hooray! - and the temperature is just beautiful, 75 F/24C. I couldn't have asked for better weather this year for growing network beans. Now that most of the plants are flowering, the heat is just right. I see lots of wee little beans out there on the bush beans, and some of the poles. The moisture has been just about right too. (And thank goodness too because I accidentally drained 1,000 L/264 US gallons) from the water containments because I forgot to close the hose! Uhhh---whoops!)

I'll be curious to see if the network bean Starlite is in fact a pole, right now it's looking like a semi-runner. It's only mid-July though, so time will tell, but there are pods dangling underneath the bushes and just short vines clinging around the bottom of the pole. If it is a semi-runner it will be one of the lower growing ones I'm thinking. Network beans Botsani Splash and Dead Man's Tooth are definitely bushes, not poles.

I know I've mentioned it before, but this is yet another year where bean transplants have worked wonders for network beans. All the varieties that went in as seeds are all climbing the poles vigorously, but they can't compare to the others that went in as transplants. Most of the transplanted varieties have grown above the support and are twirling. Even Harwig's Belgium and Petit Carre de Caen, which are more dainty type pole plants, with smaller leaves and a less 'bushing out' habit, are super tall, looking close to 15 feet tall. I see they even have little pods filling with beans. This year I slouched a bit with the non-network beans, putting many of them in as seeds, but I'm going to really try to start all the beans in pots next year.

 

[heirloomgal]

Few pics to go with yesterday's post. There was no bright sun, so a little blurry.

Starlite plants on the exposed pole. These went in is well developed transplants but are not tall like the neighbours. Some of that coiling is copper not bean vines too. I'd guess 3 1/2 feet tall maybe 4.

Underneath Starlite

Dead Man's Tooth

Auscherleben Meisterwerk (or something close to that, can't remember how to spell it)

Harwig's Heirloom Belgium

The last 2 deep rains we got really boosted growth. Some plants are super tall.

 

[heirloomgal]

Up pops a variety name that the last person it was sent to never returned any new seed. Your photo looks more like Solwezi #2 on my website (page Net 8). The Solwezi photo I have is a more elongated seed and slightly kidney shaped. Interesting you did your photo with all the eye of the beans turned away from your camera. Sometimes that is a revealing marker. I wonder if your Solwezi is the same as the one I don't have anymore.

Somehow I missed this?
If you want me to send you some of these @Bluejay77 with the network beans this fall I have enough to do so. It's been since last fall that I looked at them, but I think that they were indeed a little more rounded in shape than kidney shaped. I got them from @Zeedman so he would know more about their origins.

Sometimes I turn the bean eyes away from the camera because, for certain beans anyway, they tend to look a bit more *pretty* but your right, it's not a very scientific profile.

 

[Blue-Jay]

If you want me to send you some of these @Bluejay77 with the network beans this fall I have enough to do so.

Yes please that would be nice to have the Solwezi back again. Please do send some in the fall.

 

[Zeedman]

Solwezi
from @Zeedman
Pole, dry. Such a very lovely bean, the colour is very, very close to Ntingi but not quite that pink.

Up pops a variety name that the last person it was sent to never returned any new seed. Your photo looks more like Solwezi #2 on my website (page Net 8). The Solwezi photo I have is a more elongated seed and slightly kidney shaped. Interesting you did your photo with all the eye of the beans turned away from your camera. Sometimes that is a revealing marker. I wonder if your Solwezi is the same as the one I don't have anymore.

My source was WI LO M just before he passed away, sent to me unsolicited along with another swap (along with a lot of cowpeas that appeared to be of African origin). Regardless of the homogeneous appearance of the original seed, the first grow out was extremely variable in seed, pod, habit, and DTM. It appeared to be either a land race, or very heavily crossed. All of the seed sent to me looked like that above though, so that is what I selected for. It may still be a little unstable.

"Solwezi" reminded me very much of another gray bean, the runner bean "Tarahumara Tekomari", which was also sent to me as all-gray. That seed was so variable when grown out that no two plants were alike (it was verified to be a land race by Native Seeds/SEARCH). The gray was large & lima-like, so I selected that one too for the gray, eliminating the purple/black. I'm growing it again this year, which will be the 4th generation. The white flower/seed is recessive, so might still reoccur... I did cull out one of the seedlings this year for having an all-green stem, when the norm is purple.

 

[flowerbug]

my experimental planting of small patches of adzuki beans got mostly munched on by a groundhog. if that is all that i lose to that critter i'll be surprised but it was urged to vacate with a few air gun rounds. not sure if it will be back or not. or another will come along...

however, there's also a chance that that planting decoyed the critter into eating them instead of the other nearby beans.

 

[flowerbug]

the bean in my planting list that i used the temporary working name of Purple Potato Beans looks pretty much like the most purple colored Solwezi in the above pics. that is one of the Santa Beans (as i called them) that @Bluejay77 sent to me.

 

[flowerbug]

wandered through the fenced gardens today to give a quick tour to the mechanic who happens to live down the road a bit. nice guy.

when i told him i was growing 30 different kinds of beans he was surprised there were that many. then i told him i had hundreds and that there were many thousands...

i don't think he'll be a gardener but it was interesting as this isn't the first person who's been surprised like that about how many beans there are.

in sort of related news. there's already some more Purple Dove beans ready to pick. I. WILL. GET. THEM. PICKED. TOMORROW. !!!!!