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

[Blue-Jay]

Network bean Stayley's Star. This one turned out to be a true bush variety, not a pole. Only 2 of the 4 seeds sprouted! But the plants are doing well and the pod set is good.

I had to look up on my records to see who grew this bean last. There were two growers in the same year of 2018. One grower in Maine never reported anything unusual about it's growth. I'm going to email this Maine grower to see if they are still maintaining Stayley's Star and ask how they have known it's growth habit. The other grower from West Virginia when sending back seed reported that all her plants of Stayley's Star grew as a bush. I bet I sent you the bean sample that the West Virginia grower reported as a bush bean. I origianlly got them from Will Bonsall in Maine. I thought I had seen his seed packet marked as a pole bean. Well I looked up an old listing of his of the bean in the 2012 SSE yearbook and it's listed among the pole dry beans and he had in his description that it was from Australia and might be a snap bean.

About ten years ago I ran across a website with all Australian beans and I had seen a pretty bean that was marked somewhat like Jacob's Cattle with some sort of variation that I can't remember anymore. I discovered the bean was an original by an Australian Seedsman of the late 19th and early 20th century. The bean was not spelled like it is today. I originally saw Staley's Star as the spelling. So a couple of years later I collected another of Sir Arthur Staley's beans called Staley's Surprise which is a bush bean and I believe this website that I ran into also showed Staley's Star as bush bean and both were spelled with Arthur Staley's last name like his name was on both beans. So I don't know how the bean got this extra Y in the name and it is very likely a bush bean as you are growing this year. That is probably the correct growth habit for this bean. However when I received the seeds from Will Bonsall the seed color was not what I had remembered on this Australian bean website. However I decided to maintain this bean anyway.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Summer Bean Show 2024 Vol. #15

Two more beautiful limas. A little more eye candy for you to enjoy.


Bean #27...........................................................Bean #28

 

[heirloomgal]

Summer Bean Show 2024 Vol. #15

Two more beautiful limas. A little more eye candy for you to enjoy.

View attachment 67520View attachment 67521
Bean #27...........................................................Bean #28

Until I joined the LEBN I had no idea that lima beans could be so gorgeous, I thought it was just common bean seeds that had all the colors and patterns. It's amazing the diversity in the lima family.

 

[heirloomgal]

Some more bean pics for fun. I've been out in the garden a bit more since our uptick in hot weather, things are growing better. Was a little discouraging before, but the poles are growing so much more vigorously now even if they are late. The bush beans on the other hand are really starting to dry up, only a few varieties left in the green pod stage.

Network bean Schwarze Valder has been a most impressive bean. It's probably the latest of all the bush varieties, but the plants are huge, vigorous and extremely healthy. A remarkable feat for such a bad year. I'm super impressed with it. It's only got little tiny beans and flowers still blooming, but given that it's only early August it isn't that late. Eden Valley is just behind almost totally dried up with the leaves yellowing and falling off. I'll probably pull Eden Valley plants up tomorrow to finish in the drying room.

Network bean Mala Zelena is another bush variety that I am really, really liking. Not quite as big as Schwarze Valder, and much earlier to dry up (which it's doing now) but the pod set is fantastic and the plants were also very vigorous and healthy. Beautiful, high quality varieties both of them. I harvested my first dry pod today. I'm guessing by the end of the week the plants will get pulled up.

I thought this was an intriguing surprise - this is Brita's Foot Long. It's actually not that long really, not yet anyway. It's only just starting to mature.

But this is Quatre au Metre; there are a couple beans with this name it seems and I wasn't sure which one this was. And wow it is a long one. I couldn't find a ruler so I used a new pencil to show relative length; it's the longest pencil pod type bean pod I've ever seen. Maybe not a true quarter metre long, but it is still VERY LONG!

I thought this was curious; network bean Gabarone Sugar beans planted from seeds I collected last year, the ones that baaarely twirled around a bamboo. They were more a bush than a semi-runner, but this year they are twining a bit more. More than they did last year for sure. It may be that they got a bit crowded last year with other semi-runners, and these ones are isolated on their own trellis.

Network bean Donald Todd Semi-Runner is the healthiest, most vigorous climbing bean of ALL of them this year. It is the single climber than never had a check in growth this summer. This is a stellar bean! It's only just now making pods and coming to the end of flowering, but it is SUPER vigorous. Wonderful bean, a keeper for sure.

Muothaler purple pole bean, a very nice purple bean. It grows a bit differently somehow, the way the beans hang on the vines or something. Quite a substantial bean pod.

Network bean Olga's Yugoslavian is growing like a bush bean. I honestly cannot tell if this is stunted growth due to bad year, or maybe a cross? I planted 3 plants around a pole in two separate locations and both grew into small bushes. Pod set is pretty good though.

Cracked open the first pods of Reisenkorn aus Omsk today too. The seeds are HUGE! Off white with dark purple markings. Very early for such a big bean and big plants.

Network bean Green String is finally catching up!

 

[Branching Out]

As part of an effort to document blossom colour for each of the bean varieties that grow in my garden I noted an off-type yesterday, finding one pink blossomed specimen amidst the many white blossomed plants of Cocaigne Shelly, https://uprisingorganics.com/products/bean-bush-dry-cocaigne
Also, Cocaigne has pods that are solid green on one side with purple markings on the reverse, whereas pods on the off-type are green with purple mottling on both sides of the pod.

I will mark the pink flowered plant with a ring of stones, so I can keep those seeds separate from the rest. Last year Cocaigne Shelly grew next to Rossa di Lucca, so if there's a cross I suspect that would be the other parent. Not sure why but I find out-crosses to be very intriguing.

This is the first year that I've heavily mulched our garden beds, and what a difference it has made during this hot dry summer. Leaves collected last autumn have worked very well under the bean plants; I can only imagine how many happy worms and insects are living under this nutrient rich layer. Best of all I find that I am watering a lot less, and that the bean plants are thriving.

 

[heirloomgal]

I've been trying to keep track of blossom colors too on my plants. I keep meaning to take notes....then forget. But I did snap a photo of a blossom they other day that seemed especially pretty pink. Can't recall now for the life of me what plant it was.

 

[ruralmamma]

I'm in awe of all the beautiful bean photos!

We're currently experiencing the worst drought our state has had in over 60 years. Did get an accumulated total of just over an inch of rain last week and the beans seemed to have grown 12-18" overnight. However the mid 90s temperatures means that I'm back to watering again. Garden expansion has been halted due to heat, drought and the fact that I sprained my ankle in June and it's still giving me fits.

I have a trial variety of beans named Bhatmash that sat without growing for over a month and then suddenly shot up and has outgrown a 6' trellis. Problem is there are absolutely no blooms whatsoever. Seeds were direct planted 5/25 and not having an issue with any of the other beans.

Also a variety I picked up at our seed library is growing and blooming like mad. It was labeled Blue Meerabarbe with a note saying that it also went by Nonna Agnes Blue. Further research revealed that it is also known as San Bernardo Blue and is a variety that I've been drooling over for at least a year. Eager to see how it turns out. Ironically it was a search for this particular bean that led me here.

 

[Blue-Jay]

I heard back by email today from the person I got Olga's Yugoslavian from and she says it's a bush bean. I will update the website to reflect that.

 

[Branching Out]

I've been trying to keep track of blossom colors too on my plants. I keep meaning to take notes....then forget. But I did snap a photo of a blossom they other day that seemed especially pretty pink. Can't recall now for the life of me what plant it was.

I printed my list of bean descriptions and attached it to a clip board so I can walk around the garden and make notes on the paper. Then eventually I will update the descriptions on the computer with whatever notes I have taken. It could well be October before I get around to that part-- but at least the information has been gathered accurately in real time.

Yesterday I noted that the Arikara Yellow dry bush beans have completely dried down and are ready to clip and bring inside. This was the first bean to dry down last year as well. I see in my notes that I wanted to try planting it as a late bean to follow garlic, but I have clearly missed that planting window. Lol. This note will get moved to my list of garden tasks for June, so that I can try to start some Arikara seeds to go in when the garlic comes out next summer.

 

[flowerbug]

...This note will get moved to my list of garden tasks for June, so that I can try to start some Arikara seeds to go in when the garlic comes out next summer.

some beans are daylength sensitive and may not bloom if the days get too short, but it is always worth a try. i think the Purple Dove beans i planted in mid-July may work out as they do finish early enough - i've had reasonably good luck with them before in later plantings.

i do also need to wander around and sample beans and write down descriptions because there are quite a few i would like to verify if the pods are edible before they get too mature and also noting bloom colors would be good while i'm at it.