Ping Zebra

[Pulsegleaner]

Hi all

I am currently in the process of trying to put together a holiday package for myself from Joe Simcox' site) After getting a setback on my planned stuff today (two of the favas I was contemplating just sold out) I was looking around and found this Lima called Ping Zebra

http://www.growrareseeds.com/

While this is not likely to be a choice for me (it's long season, so is basically a no-go for my zone). I was wondering if anyone else knows anything about it, specifically if it is indeed an unusual type. To me, this looks almost identical to the Christmas Lima you see in stores (and more importantly, by the binful in Chinatown) There does, however seem to be one key difference between what I see there and this; the size. Based on the dime in the picture, this seems to be a smallish Lima, whereas the one I know is a pretty big one (the usual quarter to half dollar size) So this may be something else. Anyone else care to comment?

 

[aftermidnight]

@Pulsegleaner can't help you out with any info on the Ping Zebra, pretty snazzy looking. It's a new one on me, but, darn, I shouldn't have opened that link, sooooo very tempting. I swore I wasn't going to acquire any more beans this year and guess what... there's 6 new to me varieties sitting on my desk and I have feelers out for two more .

Annette

 

[journey11]

That is a tiny lima!

Looking through the site, I found they have a bean called "Slut", a white bean, splashed with a little black. By coincidence, our own @marshallsmyth had an outcross pole bean he also named that, very similar, hardly distinguishable. This other one was from Romania though (couldn't find the post in which Marshall spoke of it though, so far back...but if my memory serves me, I do believe his was an outcross from his garden.) @Bluejay77 has it listed on the network page on his website...Marshall passed along most of his beans, so I think that is it. If so, the resemblance is striking.

There were a few others I've already seen in Russ's collection too. It was fun to browse through. I saw a couple of things I'd like to have.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi, @Pulsegleaner,

The Ping Zebra is much, much smaller than Chritmas lima. I've grown it here one time and it was very late. I'm going to try it again next year on the south side of my house where I have a flower bed. Seems the sunlight reflected off the south wall of my light colored house has the effect of speeding up the maturity of any beans I plant there. I think the color pattern of both beans is very different also. Here is my photos of both beans. I got my Ping Zebra from Joseph Simcox. He tells me the bean comes from China.



Can you see the difference in the color pattern on both of them now?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Since Simcox is the one who runs the site, it is safe to say that they are one and the same.

With them side by side, yes, I can seed the difference quite easily. Thank you for that.

This also confirms that what I see in Chinatown actually IS Christmas; the picture is identical.

To be honest, as it stands, there might not be all that much bean on what I wind up ordering. As I said, two of my planned things (two favas) just ran out (and like the Ricter's site, when something is gone, it's gone for good. Ah well, at least I have something like it already (the two that ran out were two "fingerprint" favas, and I already have "God's Eye" from Sacred Succulents, plus once in a blue moon, I can pull a thumbprinted bean out of the bin of green favas one of the local bodegas maintains) That leaves the the Mottled Fava, the Heptagon Cucumber (I have a thing for trying out foreign cukes, especially if they are asian and/or show appearance traits that indicate that they might be kiva types. And I already have the Assam Parchment from another purcase) and possibly the Donkey Melon. Beyond that, I don't know. I MIGHT get some of the Succotash beans, but am not sure.

Speaking of Ricter's thier Seed Zoo might have some other stuff to tempt others (I've been using it for quite a while, and since the stock is a little depleted now, there really isn't much there I wanted that I don't already have

https://www.richters.com/show.cgi?page=SeedZoo/seedzoo.html

Speaking from experiance, the Avakli cowpea does pretty well (I don't have enough to share thanks to the Squirrels and Chipmunks, but at least it PRODUCES up here, which is more than I can say for a lot of cowpeas)

The Zhuang Zhou melon might have some interesting DNA. Besides being orange fleshed (most strictly Asian melons are white inside) the seed is of note as it is truly tiny for a melon (much the same way Gregori's giant is unusually large)

There may be something of note in the Voatavu bean as well, since, even with the finds Simcox already sent into our pool via @Bluejay77 Malagasy bean DNA is probably still a little underrepresented.

I've tried the Gori Giant. It didn't grow for me, but someone else might have better luck, and it is a pretty big bean (nowhere near the Armenian Giant I sent earlier, but still big)

@Pulsegleaner pretty snazzy looking.
Annette

You should have seen the Los Pinguinos they had before (actually you can, I got a packet before the sold out, and can try and take a picture later)

 

[aftermidnight]

@Pulsegleaner
Talking about Seed Zoo, I bought a pkt. of a type of lettuce from them a few years back. It is grown for it's stock not the leaves. Our neighbor born in Northern China makes a dish from the stocks of ordinary lettuces lettuce once they've bolted, absolutely delicious. I gave some of the seed I bought to him, I should look see if I still have a few left in the fridge.

Annette

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Sound's like some kind of celtuce. I'm assuming you mean "stalk", people generally don't make soup out of lettuce (well not since the days of Ancient Rome, and then only for insomniacs (and Roman emperors with somewhat nasty senses of humor) And yes, I remember that, the list was once MUCH, MUCH longer. My favorite pea came from there (Piselle d' Ago) one of the few that would produce in my odd climate (where the time between too freezing for anything and too hot for cold weather crops is rather short) That is, until the critters came in and ate them all.

 

[aftermidnight]

OOOPs, yes stalk LOL, Just got up, haven't had my first cup of coffee yet. I'll have to dig around in the seed stash in the fridge, see if I still have it and what the name on the package is. But come on wouldn't you agree, not as bad as the time I asked someone to "bare" with me, the come back was I don't think I know you well enough to do that .

Annette

 

[Pulsegleaner]

OOOPs, yes stalk LOL, Just got up, haven't had my first cup of coffee yet. I'll have to dig around in the seed stash in the fridge, see if I still have it and what the name on the package is. But come on wouldn't you agree, not as bad as the time I asked someone to "bare" with me, the come back was I don't think I know you well enough to do that .

Annette

I can sympathize, I only JUST had my morning tea, and almost didn't have it at all (I was trying some Chinese "gift tea" packets in advance of giving some to a relative for Christmas. Six tries, six rejections. One more tomorrow, and if that fails, I may have to re-think)

My equivalent was when someone said that a character in a book was "not in the cannon" (he meant "canon"). I replied, "Why do you want to stuff him in a cannon? This isn't turn of the century India". (that actually was a form of execution there)

And, of course everyone here remembers the "agnostic" ground squirrels, or the "fresh Dungless crabs" (I sure as hell HOPE so!)

( I almost made one again, I almost wrote "six tires" of tea)