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

[Shades-of-Oregon]

In the PNW we have the opposite of dry weather. Rain in August is unheard of.and I have turned of the sprinkler system the last 4 weeks. Temps high in the 70’sF very cool for June - August. Pic cold front start of El Niño .this means we will have a much cooler wetter winter.





Temps warmer today.

 

[heirloomgal]

I’m growing Bobis d’Albenga this season too and it’s definitely been a bush bean here.
For me it was early but has kept producing and doesn’t seem to want to dry down yet.

Thank you for chiming in on this bean @Decoy1! I was hoping someone else had experience with it. I actually went and took a closer look at the bush after reading your post and now I'm truly bewildered. I think your right, that Bobis D'Albenga is a bush bean, I see almost nowhere this bean listed as a pole, except one. It makes me question if this company may have re-named a different bean, or made a mistake somewhere.

Pole Bean Bobis d’Albenga – Weston seed

westonseeds.com

This is the plant on the left, that never grew properly. The plant on the right is a different bean, I planted it thinking Bobis would die as it looked so burned, but it actually recovered and made a few pods.

 

[heirloomgal]

Hello!
I haven't been able to access the forum website for a while. At first I thought it was temporary, but when it lasted a bit longer I wrote to @Blue-Jay and @heirloomgal . It turned out that they can enter the forum without any problems. @heirloomgal sent a message about my situation to Nifty and I'm back. I see I have some reading to catch up on.

My beans are still growing, although not all the varieties on the list, because I lost some. Semi and half-runners that were growing on a small slope were literally washed away during one of the storms. Only Tinker's Fire and Tarahumara Bakamina survived. From pole beans I lost Tuvagliedda, Tuvagliedda Nera, Myrtle Allen, Ruth Bible, Caramel Delight and Floreta. I still have their seeds, so I'll try next year.

Is it just me that the weather is getting crazier every year? I don't remember such heat in Poland, which started in April, nor such violent storms and hailstorms. I'm afraid to think what will happen next year

On the other hand, during such heat, the pods dry beautifully on the bushes. I have already harvested almost all the bush beans, the aforementioned Tinker's Fire and the pole Lengua de Lobo and Rosso del Cadore. These are the earliest pole beans I have had so far. I am waiting for the harvest of the next varieties.

Hey, welcome back!!

I will likely () succeed with Myrtle Allen & Ruth Bible so I'll have seeds too if you have troubles. I think I grew Tuvagliedda last year so I think I have those as well.

So sorry you lost some of your beans @Artorius, that's a heartbreaker. I have had a difficult season here too but I've used it as an opportunity to resurrect from the rubble my bean loving soul. I feel a little fortified for future breakdowns now.

 

[heirloomgal]

Gottscheeer Strankalan (three e's are the correct spelling) is a historic bean cultivated already in the times of the Habsburg Empire by the German-speaking community in Gottschee in the Carniola region in present-day Slovenia.

That's right! I got this bean from you! I did so many bean trades this year that I'm all boggled up with what came from where. Thank you for the info!!

 

[heirloomgal]

More pod documentation for the 'bean files'.

Pods of network bean Lambada - wow! I wish I had better luck with this bean, the transplants started out brilliant then got burned badly so did not do well, I'm glad they at least survived. However, I will have plenty of seed to regrow it for you in 2025 @Blue-Jay. I can't imagine how gorgeous a pole covered in these utterly gorgeous pods would be!

Network bean Santa Maria Piquito finally starting to form pods. A late bean indeed. It wasn't one of the super affected plants so it's lateness really is varietal. Hope it makes it!!! I love the pink beans and so would love to have this one in my collection.

Network bean Buxton Buckshot, this one is later too. Not sure if it was affected or not, it was slow to get growing. I've wanted to grow this bean for a long time, I really like the shape and coloring.

Thank goodness, I'm confident about both the timing of volume of network bean Champagne to return. This is a very lovely bean, it has a perfect name. I'm relieved that despite the challenges it faced it still produced so well.

I thought this was an interesting difference to illustrate - this is network bean Stayley's Star. Unfortunately I did not have great germ rates with the seeds, I started 4 as pot transplants and only one sprouted, so I planted 3 seeds directly in the ground and one sprouted. So, I had only 2 plants. Look at the difference in plant maturity between the two! I think there's also more pods on the transplant.

I was very curious to grow this bean - it's a selection from a bean I really, really like called 'Blauhilde'. This one is called 'Brunhilde'. Not a great year to judge, but I quite like it already even in this awful year. Lots of pods hanging on the vines despite everything. I'd love to taste it but don't want to risk my seed harvest! As we all know, sometimes we have only a few seeds to start!

I thought this bean's pods were rather impressive - Steirische Grune. There are dots on some of those letters that I don't know how to put on there, but you get the idea. I don't know why, i just love the long podded beans and I got lucky this year with them even though I had no idea what most of the beans I selected to grow would look like in pod form.

This clump of beans is growing like this on the vine, it's wild. This is the biggest 'clump' of beans I've ever seen: 'Grasa de Transilvania', which translates to 'Grass of Transylvania'! Wow! It's times like this I feel conflicted about being a seed saver and bean seed hobbyist - I'd rather be just a simple bean eater sometimes.

I REALLY hope this bean 'Astrid' can mature at least a few pods before fall sets in. It is incredibly rare, possibly non-existent, in North America and I'll faint literally if I fail with these. Precious!! The tragic comedy of it all - the biggest bean grow out I've ever done, and I had the WORST year ever! I can say, though, that very few varieties totally died on me, most of them eeked along and will give me seeds to try again. But after getting spoiled by last year's bumper crop this is a big hit to take. Coincidentally, I did double plant outs for several varieties too in separate locations, which I never do, and that would up saving me with a few varieties where one planting totally died but the other location planting survived.

 

[Triffid]

Is it just me that the weather is getting crazier every year? I don't remember such heat in Poland, which started in April, nor such violent storms and hailstorms. I'm afraid to think what will happen next year

I'm sorry to read of your climate struggles, and can relate to your trepidation for the future. It's another bad year for me here, too. I'm quite devastated, really, as I desperately hoped for a decent yield of networks beans after last season's non-summer. It appears to be a wet weather repeat, but worse. The pest pressure (i.e. giant invasive slugs) has been unrelenting, and their 'grazing' has knocked back the growth and fruit set of some plants by many weeks, if there is anything left after their visit. The lack of sunshine and awful winds have compounded the issue. There's still time, but so far it's not looking good.

One cultivar that has survived the wind and rain has been Coree de Sang - the Kaigara Mame lookalike. It's very vigourous and productive. Too bad it's not for the network this time

I read a Dutch saying that roughly translates to 'wind and rain grows great cabbages'. Perhaps I'm in the wrong line of work.

 

[heirloomgal]

Probably the last post of pod types for different beans this year, I think the rest are too far a long to make it worth any bother to take photos of, they wouldn't really be identifiable. We had a real deluge today, the most we've had since June. It was short but intense, coming down in sheets. Had to run out and make quick decisions about what comes out and what stays behind - ugh, stressful! I've been too hasty in the past pulling out plants when a thunderstorm is coming and didn't want to repeat that mistake. At the same time, I didn't want anything to swell or sprout in the pod either. I shelled all the 'Declivius Romulus' pods this week and was crestfallen to see that so many had split their skins in the drying pods. It took SO LONG to dry down those few bushes and in hindsight I should have pulled them right out and hung 'em. I think they're just a variety sensitive to water; it didn't rain for weeks but what last bit of water I gave the plants was too much I guess. Being a snap bean it makes sense.

Anyway. Pods!

'Marmorierter Mond' bean which translates too 'Marbled Moon'. Seems rare, not much to find outside of a single website.

'Braune Tereza', according to the Seed Production Northeast Cooperative whose members come from Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, this is a local variety though local to where remains in question so far to me. One of the above places I guess. The description says that it can be eaten as a green bean, even with bumpy pods. Reminds me a bit of Herrenbohnli which I grew many years ago.

'Posena' , the classic Italian romano type bean. Doesn't seem to be a common romano variety though, because few companies are selling it. Another Weston Seeds variety like 'Bobis 'D'Albenga'.

'Anakin Kuvali Giant'. This is one of those large seeded bean that surprises you with how quickly the vines mature the pods. This was direct seeded and it's a miracle that it's so far along considering. A Joseph Simcox bean that I received from Mandy's Greenhouse 2 years ago, and I think she got it from @Blue-Jay. Such a small little bean world!

'Sannis Liebling' pole bean. Happy to see that these pods look much like the ones on Belle Epoque Meisse, so they are indeed true to type. Seems to be for use as a green snap bean. It'll be fun to do research about F. Schneider the originator of this bean. Maybe I can find out about his bean collection somehow! Hahaha, never know with the internet.

The marvelous pods of network bean Aunt Maggie! Sheesh, what an AMAZING bean variety and a gigantic plant!!! I'm just LOVING these Appalachia/Southern beans this year. It's like they all have some ring of magical protection surrounding them. All utterly fabulous in every single way!!

'Enfant de coeur de Arnald', an Italian bean from the Aosta region. Stunted this year, but hopefully will produce some seed to try again next year. Seeds I planted were very pretty.

'Mazlenk Rumen Visok II' aka 'Yellow Runner Bean from Mazlenk' - there are 5 different beans I can find that start with the name Mazlenk! I believe I got the name of this one correct here though, despite my incorrigible difficulty with keeping these kinds of names straight. Lovely little producer, the vines weren't super tall (but I didn't give them much really) and they were not in my best soil either, but they've performed marvelously. I'm impressed! Thrilled to have this Slovenian bean.

'Fagiola de la Bereta' an Italian dry bean. Bereta is a family name according to Belle Epoque Meisse. Another one that looks true to type from the pod photos, so far. I have opened one dry pod of this variety and it is GORGEOUS, partly deep blue and party white. Excited to see these all dried up!

'Madeira Maroon', presumably a Portugese (?) bean since HSL says it was bought in Madeira in 1995 and circulated out from there. For shelling, I've opened a single pod and it is a beauty. A reddish burgundy with beige flecks.

 

[Artorius]

The marvelous pods of network bean Aunt Maggie! Sheesh, what an AMAZING bean variety and a gigantic plant!!! I'm just LOVING these Appalachia/Southern beans this year. It's like they all have some ring of magical protection surrounding them. All utterly fabulous in every single way!!

I read in Bill Best's book that Frank Barnett has three different beans called Aunt Maggie from three different places in Kentucky. I wonder which one this one came from.

'Fagiola de la Bereta' an Italian dry bean. Bereta is a family name according to Belle Epoque Meisse. Another one that looks true to type from the pod photos, so far. I have opened one dry pod of this variety and it is GORGEOUS, partly deep blue and party white. Excited to see these all dried up!

There is a typo in the name. It should be Bareta, at least that's how it is written on the websites. Guy Dirix swapped this bean with Max Nunziata from Italy and I know from experience that Max has a rather specific handwriting, so if the name of the bean is written by hand by him, it's easy to make a typo later

 

[flowerbug]

...I read a Dutch saying that roughly translates to 'wind and rain grows great cabbages'. Perhaps I'm in the wrong line of work.

triffid trepidations... sorry to hear that you are also having so many troubles.

 

[flowerbug]

i picked some fresh eating beans and then went to start picking dry beans. half way through the first garden so plenty more to do. already noticed one that is interesting. ... let the games begin!