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

[Suzee]

Hi, I just stumbled across this and I am very interested in finding prolific bean varieties that are suitable to the Helena, MT area. I actually live in Jefferson City, 15 miles south and higher in elevation. Last year my daughter grew some heirloom pole beans that were purple on the vine and turn green when cooked. Some added plusses for these guys is that they are very long, stringless, and never get tough. I saved some from her plants but they were cross pollinated with some blue lake pole beans so aren’t pure. They still grew great beans this year and we love them!

 

[Artorius]

Guy Dirix wrote to me that he received the Gold und Silber seeds from a German bean grower Solja Kaltenbach from Bienenbüttel. I don't know if she is somehow connected with Bohnen-Atlas.
I haven't received a response from Deaflora yet.

This year I grew Paulchen which was also bred by Solja Kaltenbach. Very nice bean.

I will return to the topic of Gold und Silber because I received an answer from the Deaflora store about the origin of this bean. Mrs. Annett Klitzschmüller confirms that it is a variety from Catalonia. I think everything is clear now. Gold und Silber from Deaflora and Or i Plata are the same bean.

 

[Artorius]

We're having friends over for dinner tomorrow night. There are trays of bean, pepper, and tomato seeds pretty much everywhere. In some parts of the house you have to watch where you step. I told my husband that the beans can stay on the coffee table given that they look so nice-- but he said the beans have to go to the bedroom for the evening. Guess I'll have to compromise.

I assume the seeds will stay where they are now. From what I've noticed, the female definition of the word "compromise" rarely coincides with the male one

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi, I just stumbled across this and I am very interested in finding prolific bean varieties that are suitable to the Helena, MT area. I actually live in Jefferson City, 15 miles south and higher in elevation. Last year my daughter grew some heirloom pole beans that were purple on the vine and turn green when cooked. Some added plusses for these guys is that they are very long, stringless, and never get tough. I saved some from her plants but they were cross pollinated with some blue lake pole beans so aren’t pure. They still grew great beans this year and we love them!

Hi welcome and glad you have found us. Hope you will be here often. I think you can ask the bean growers here what seems early or you can try out varieties and see what works for your area. You can also do what some of us do and that is start beans in small containers in some type of growing medium about two to three weeks before your normal planting time. Put the beans out in the sun during the day and bring them in during late afternoon. Then plant them roots and all with the growing medium intact when it's your normal planting time. This really speeds up maturity time for pole beans.

If you love your crossesd beans keep growing them. You will probably have your own variety. When two stringless varieties cross you are likely to again have a stringless bean. The stringyness has long been selected out of them by some plant breeder or were just naturally stringless.

I have a pole snap bean called Louisiana. It seems earlier than some of the other pole snap beans I grow. It's pods are rund and hang quite straight on the plant. One of my long time favorites. Maybe Weaver or Tennessee Wonder.

heirloomgal should have some ideas about early varieties. She lives in Canada.

 

[heirloomgal]

I will return to the topic of Gold und Silber because I received an answer from the Deaflora store about the origin of this bean. Mrs. Annett Klitzschmüller confirms that it is a variety from Catalonia. I think everything is clear now. Gold und Silber from Deaflora and Or i Plata are the same bean.

I've sort of forgotten a little about this and need a refresher, what are the pink beans with that name on the Belle Epoque Meisse? Is it a stable cross I have?

 

[Blue-Jay]

Cascade Giant. Grown in 2024. This is a snap bean and new to me. All I can tell you is what I read about the bean. Long thin stringless pods striped with purple. The variety is said to be mosaic resistant. Said to be an improved version of Oregon Giant.

Cherokee Trail Of Tears is said to be both a good snap and dry bean. The story with the bean goes that Cherokee ancestors carried this bean over the Trail of Tears, the infamous winter death march from the Smoky Mountains to Oklahoma (1838-39) that left a trail of 4,000 graves.
Cascade Giant - Pole Snap..............................Cherokee Trail Of Tears - Pole Snap Dry