2024 Little Easy Bean Network - Growing Heirloom Beans Of Today And Tomorrow

[flowerbug]

...
I planted a few Purple Dove beans in some spots a week ago too, and not everything came up (the seed vendor I got those from sold me pretty bad seeds for all species I requested from them) so I filled in those empty spots and counted my lucky stars that a few of the Purple Doves did ultimately sprout. That whole series of beans (Blooming Prairie, Purple Dove etc.) have such a unique coloring I'm tempted to try them all.

as far as i know i've planted all of the Robert Lobitz purple beans that i could find on @Blue-Jay 's website and requested them. they all grew well in our various garden soils (i have a range of decent to various poorer quality garden soils so i can evaluate how different varieties grow).

my rather very biased opinion is that Purple Dove is the best of them. all of the others are very similar to each other except onethat bloomed later and finished a bit too late for my preferences, but in terms of edible fresh bean eating we've been very happy with Purple Dove and i've not replanted any of the others yet. even if the seeds look identical they are however also verified by me to be unique enough to keep them apart (so i do not grow the others yet and probably won't).

in my continued quest for Purple Dove outcrosses to make a great bean even better i've got some that i planted from last year's crop of outcrosses and then i also replanted this year some of those i grew last year which gave me some really interesting beans and i hope they come true because they eliminate one feature of PD that is not beautiful and that is the area around the hilum of the bean gets a brown or tan stain and it doesn't look clean or quite right when looking at it as a dry bean. granted when cooking them up and eating them this is not an issue of flavor or appearance after they are cooked. PD is a mild pinto flavor and cooks faster than a pinto bean (because it is a smaller bean). the texture is also perfect for me.

the new outcrosses i planted avoid that around the hilum discoloration problem because i think they crossed with Lavender bush beans that have a long and plain white hilum and the area is a clean white. if they come true i'll be delighted, if they have all the rest of the PD traits i like i'll be super happy.

these are the RL purple beans that i know of from my notes, parenthesis are the 1st year i grew them.

Early Enough Bush Beans:

Blooming Prairie (2022)
Delano (2022)
Purple Diamond (2020)
Purple Dove (2018)
Purple Rain (2020)
Purple Rose (2020)

Semi-Runner Early Enough Beans:

Purple Rose Creek (2022)
Viola (2022)

Bush Bean Honorable Mention (grew ok, but too late):

Chaska Purple (a few weeks too late) (2022)

None produced seeds that looked like Purple Dove and they all seemed distinct enough from each other but I would not want to mix up the seeds because they were all very similar to each other (other than Purple Dove being smaller and not so round).

 

[heirloomgal]

Thanks for all this info @flowerbug , I'm glad to know which are the longer season ones as I like to steer clear of those.

 

[Decoy1]

@Decoy1 here is some information about Bonel bean. The article is in Italian, but Uncle Google will definitely help you translate it

https://www.venetoagricoltura.org/upload/pubblicazioni/E455%20Atlante%20tradizionali/Fagiolo%20bonel%20di%20Fonzaso.pdf

I have not seen this bean seeds in online stores. I have a few from swap.


Did you see the PM I sent you?

Thank you, Artorius. Very interesting to have the background information on Bonel di Fonzaso.

And I’m sorry I hadn’t noticed your PM. I’ve replied now.

 

[Zeedman]

A very late 2024 bean list, and a very late garden thus year. The weather has not been cooperative, so these (and everything else I intend to grow this year) have only today been started in pots:

Common beans:
- Bosnian Pole (pole snap)
- Emerite (pole snap)
- Giant Red Tarka (bush shelly)
- Hodson's Silver Wax (pole? wax, new trial)
- Woods Mountain Crazy Bean (bush snap)
Cowpeas/yardlongs:
- Chinese Red Noodle (red yardlong)
- Long King (green yardlong)
- MN 150 (bush cowpea)
Hyacinth bean: Early Meaty
Lima: German Butterbean
Runner: Piekny Jas (white flowered)
Soybeans:
- Bei 77-6177
- Natsu Kurakake
- Sapporo Midori

I know I've been AWOL on these forums recently. My personal life took another gut punch, with the loss of my Mother in April (which seems to be a really bad month for me ). The subsequent ghoulish squabbling of some of my siblings over her estate (which is ongoing) hasn't helped. It has been hard to summon up enough motivation to do much of anything, and the neglect of yard & garden has reflected that. And oh yeah, I still have to deal with the 40-50 dead ash trees in my back yard.

My target deadline for seed crops is June 15th, so the garden plan has been revised into what I call Phase 2; only short-season beans, and vegetables harvested immature. My peppers were started before my life went off the rails again, so at least those should be close to normal. But I have completely given up on the rural plot, except for the 2023/2024 garlic planting (which based upon its exceptionally strong early start, may be the only thing which does well this year). I should still be able to get dry seed from the cowpeas, but all the other beans will be "iffy" - so I hope that we have a warm Fall.

 

[heirloomgal]

Major bean drama around here the last 48 hours; thankfully for me, not much of it is related to my gardens so far. My poor elderly neighbour though, who loves his little backyard garden, had a groundhog make temporary residence under one of his sheds. He discovered yesterday evening that he has lost three rows of bush beans (so - most of them). He had noticed a cucumber plant the day before had disappeared and was utterly bewildered about what happened. It was planted as a single among a sea of petunias. He's lived here for over 20 years and never had a little hog bother him. His garden is a short distance from his shed so it seems the critter is just going back and forth between the 2.

So after he came over to tell us (and warn us) about the decimated bean rows, he retreated inside for supper. An hour later he came out to find the groundhog in his garden again & more missing bean plants! He was not a happy camper; we've all been spoiled for years never dealing with these. The new housing developments that surround us are driving them from their traditional living areas.

So, of course I've been taking precautions as much as I can but I can't possibly protect 6 gardens full of beans at this point in the year. Knock on wood, he's only munched a single leaf off a few plants - Blue Gold Star and Bomba!!! He's eaten a single bean seedling (one of the few that had been seeded in ground) that was going to be thinned anyway. I'm both thankful and surprised that he has been so kind. It's been 3 days that he's been around.

I'm thinking that in this case, the fact that I started plants so early has really saved me. He probably is bothering only my neighbour since he plants beans around June 7th - all his plants were tiny without true leaves yet. I may have felt a tiny bit of regret a few days ago that I started the plants a bit too early this year, but I'm now seriously rethinking that. Even if the transplanting slows them a little, I'm glad that they're so old now. I don't think I would have been so spared of his pillaging if they were younger.

Clearly they like bean plants; I have cabbages and kales and peas galore and not a single one seems to have been touched?

 

[flowerbug]

...
Clearly they like bean plants; I have cabbages and kales and peas galore and not a single one seems to have been touched?

groundhog is a perfectly apt name for them, they can do a lot of damage, but i consider rabbits worse for beans because while a groundhog may chew on the young growth of beans they will usually leave enough alone that the plant will survive and give some kind of crop. rabbits eat lower to the ground and will take bean plants off below the level of the first leaves.

still though, without fences i'd not have much of a garden here at all these days. it's been a very busy year with all sorts of green eating creatures.

 

[flowerbug]

I know I've been AWOL on these forums recently. My personal life took another gut punch, with the loss of my Mother in April (which seems to be a really bad month for me ). The subsequent ghoulish squabbling of some of my siblings over her estate (which is ongoing) hasn't helped. It has been hard to summon up enough motivation to do much of anything, and the neglect of yard & garden has reflected that. And oh yeah, I still have to deal with the 40-50 dead ash trees in my back yard.

wow, that's quite a pile of things to deal with. i've certainly missed your being here.

My target deadline for seed crops is June 15th, so the garden plan has been revised into what I call Phase 2; only short-season beans, and vegetables harvested immature. My peppers were started before my life went off the rails again, so at least those should be close to normal. But I have completely given up on the rural plot, except for the 2023/2024 garlic planting (which based upon its exceptionally strong early start, may be the only thing which does well this year). I should still be able to get dry seed from the cowpeas, but all the other beans will be "iffy" - so I hope that we have a warm Fall.

i was hoping for a more normal spring this year and it was going pretty well. early summer so far is too wet (as i watch yet another storm coming at us). i probably am not going to be able to finish planting my last garden for a dry bean harvest of any size, but a cover crop and for fresh bean eating might still work.

 

[flowerbug]

this looks like it for my planting list this year:

  - Andikove (network retry)
  - Half Whites
    - Brown and White
    - Red and White
    - Small Black and White
  - Flair (pdoc)
  - Fluffy (pdoc)
  - Huey
  - Koronis Three Islands
  - Lavender
  - Light Green (loc)
  - Matte Brown
  - Montville (network retry)
  - Painted Pony
  - Painted Pony Outcross Black
  - Painted Pony Outcross Brown
  - Pale (pdoc)
  - Pale Purple (pdoc)
  - Purple Dove
  - Purple Dove Odds (seven selections of pdoc)
    - Spot
    - Lines
    - Bland
    - Splotch
    - Top Mark
    - Bluish
    - Spotty Bluish
  - Red Ryder
  - Sacre Bleu (pole)
  - Skinny (pdoc)
  - Tinker's Fire
  - Venda
  - Vermont Appaloosa
  - Yed
  - Yellow Eye

a lot of pdoc (Purple Dove Outcrosses) and a few other very promising beans i hope something comes from.

 

[heirloomgal]

Oooh! This is fun! Grow out lists! I love to see people's grow out lists, I hope all the bean thread followers jump on board!

eta: My list didn't copy over very well from my google doc so it probably isn't perfect, and that's also why there are some gaps in there but it's a rough estimate. There's also some out there I'm sure I put in in the last minute so it's not on here.

Eden Valley Horsehead Mala Zelena Slavonski Zeleni Schwarz Valder Buxton Buckshot Donald Todd Half-Runner Gillenwater Black & White Goose Zuni Shalako Kilham Goose Trevio Nun Santa Maria Pinquito Steven’s Black Eye Ranger Brown Eyed Goose Poletschka Leslie Tenderpod Hastings Petit Gris Volga German Siberian Zambezi #2 Olga’s Yugoslavian Lambada Champagne Octarora Cornfield Stayley’s Star Stibitz Tunny North Carolina Ruth Bible Nickel Fat Man Blue & White of Bernardo Aunt Maggie Blue Tip Blaue Graue Botosani Cyclops Fagiolo Ruviotti Kruger’s Speckled Caseknife Blue Gold Star Dule Goose Green String Granny Harvey’s White Haricot

Robert Hazelwood

Zimbabwe Stones

Pink Quartz

Mona Lisa

Greek Multicolor

Brizzolo Toscana

Sivcek

Fiagiolo de la Bereta

Unbekannte n.64

Gold und Silber

Coree de Sang Hoon

Tega Gnocca

Pragerhoff

Enfant de Couer de Arnold Aosta

Macia

Grasa de Transilvania

Bismarck Furst

Brunhilde

Mazlenk Rumen Visok II Oude Sloveense Boterboon Quatre au Metre

Emperor of Russia

Declivis Romulus

Tytania

Paulchen

Cannelino Nero Bush

Porcelain Bean

Rosso Di Lucca

Coco a la Creme

Riesenkorn aus Omsk

Poroto Huancabamba

Syrian Fire

Fumolet di Fonzaso

Bomba

Nigel Early Refuge

Purple Dove White Beauty Cresnjevec Zebra Aus Tenerife Ocean View Rinzenberg Etsdorfer Grumbliai Monachello di Esino Lario Aloisia Schwarz Dinah’s Climbing Afartapobres d’Orista Madeira Maroon Braune Tereza Senyorita Napoleon Mauchlebohne Muotathaler Steirische Grüne Stuttgarter Riesen Brita’s Footlong Daržinėlės Konstatin Gottscheer Marmorierter Mond Myrtle Allen Siebenbürgen Kärnten Ruhm vom Vorgebirge Perle Von Marbach Hunsrücker Weisse Cumberland Heritage Posena Cascade Giant Royal City Cannery Astrid Lena’s Bean Ram D’or Blue Spitball Saxon Gabarone Sugar Youdou #2 Bobis D’Albenga Turtle Peas (bean) Coral Lena's Bean Goose Dow Purple Pod Anakin Kuvali Giant Sultan's Golden Crescent Wildtaler Muni Chocame Grand Maman Dinel

 

[flowerbug]

Oooh! This is fun! Grow out lists! I love to see people's grow out lists, I hope all the bean thread followers jump on board!

eta: My list didn't copy over very well from my google doc so it probably isn't perfect, and that's also why there are some gaps in there but it's a rough estimate. There's also some out there I'm sure I put in in the last minute so it's not on here.

it's hard to get formatting to copy and paste correctly, but i used Code (under More Options) and at least it kept the rough format ok...