The 2014 Little Easy Bean Network - Get New Beans On The Cheap

[aftermidnight]

Hi @marshallsmyth seems like everybody's gearing up for the coming season. Last year turned out to be a pretty good one for me. I grew quite a few different varieties, mostly heirlooms but I also grew a sample of a new runner bean bred by a fellow in Wales, the first purple podded runner if I'm not mistaken "Aeron Purple Star". Lovely in the green stage, tender and stringless. The pods turn a purple black as they are drying down. I hope to have a small trellis of them this year.
I don't have a very big garden so don't grow a lot of any one variety, but managed to grow 34 different varieties. Had enough beans to have a taste of most of them and enough seed for another couple of grow outs. I filled as many requests as I could until all my spare seed was gone and it went fast. I have a few packets left for our Seedy Saturday in March but that's it, the rest have been put in the freezer as I won't be growing them again in the next couple of years.
I have quite a list to pick from this year, some of the seed is getting a little on the old side so I have my fingers crossed they germinate.
Tentative list for this year...
Aeron Purple Star (from Wales), Aunt Jean's Barksdale, Barry Island (from Wales), Berlotti Nostrami, Big Mama, Blue Goose Chowder, Blue Jay, Blue Shackamxon, Brejo, Brita's Foot Long, Bosnian Pole, Bull Hunk, Candy, Chevrier Vert, Deseronto Potato bean,District Nurse, Dolloff, Duanne Baptiste Potato Bean, Fagiolina del Trasimeno, Flaro French Flageolet, Frank Barnett Cut-short, German Red Lima, Gila River, Grandma nellie's Mushroom, Hanna Hank, India Bush, Lazy Wife(the real one), Logan Giant, louisiana Snap, Mr. Fern's Purple Flowered, Oregon Giant, Pea Bean, Rattlesnake, Red Eye Fall, Regal Salad, Ruth Bible, Soissons Vert, Tennessee Cut-shorts, Tennessee Greasy Mix, Theresa's Pink Portugal, Tonello, Turkey Craw, Valena, White Seeded Cherokee Trail of Tears,Yancheng Bush and Zelma Zesta.
Quite a list, some I only have half a dozen or so seed, some I will only be growing in containers, looks like I'll be doing a lot of bagging again to make sure at least the seed I put in my stash won't have crossed. I think I need to invest in some sky hooks .
I'm trying desperately hard not to acquire any more beans as I have so many I haven't grown yet but what did I do last week, ordered a couple of more I need a keeper LOL.

Annette

 

[RickRickman]

Hi gang, I just talked to Russ earlier & he suggested I become a member of TEG & join in the fun here on the Little Easy Bean Network since this will be going on in 2015 as well. Is there anything I need to do to be a member on this thread or do I just log in regularly check this thread. Any help/suggestions for this newbie will be appreciated. Thanks Rick

 

[897tgigvib]

Howdy and welcome to teg @RickRickman

Nothing special needs to be done. Just hang on to your login info so you don't forget it.

We have other things going on in different threads meantime.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

just check in once in awhile on this one. though if there are other interests in veggies you're welcome to join in those threads! soon we'll all be starting up our gardens (some of us need to melt a few feet of snow first!)

 

[Ridgerunner]

I suspect Russ will start a new thread for 2015 when he returns from vacation. When he does it will get active.

In the meantime stick around and chat.

 

[thistlebloom]

Welcome @RickRickman !

 

[baymule]

We love new members! Tons of fun on TEG!!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

With planting season for some of the beans (especially the more cold loving ones) less than a month or so away, I have begun to think about what I plan to plant, and where. Though in my case, that actually isn't a good thing. since "thinking about it" tends to pretty rapidly degrade to "brood about the question of whether, with my success rate, it is really worth the trouble of even trying, and if, when you add the rarity of some of the seed I have, if I have a moral obligation to abandon all plans of planting myself and turn every seed I own over to others, on the grounds that they could probably do more with it than I could."

Most of my common bean space, of course, is allotted to the "big" project of winnowing down the Mottled Grey beans to those plants that can produce up here within a season. I've allotted myself three years to get through all of the base seed, but I'm still going to need to devote most of my space to make it in that (it's also why I'm being a lot more vigorous in trying to talk one or more of my neighbors or other nearby people with land into letting me use it if they aren't; if I CAN do the whole initial planting in one year, I will, before the viability drops anymore.

Beyond that, it gets a little murky. I'd LIKE to re-plant my personal Fort Portal Violet stash (the bit I saved for myself when I gave Seedobessor/Russell their portions, or more accurately, the seed from the plants that came up after I planted that bit) to see if I actually have FINALLY found one that actually IS different in trait than the others (one or two of the plants I got last year seemed to produce pods that were notably larger than is normal for FPV, and therefore evidence that Fort Portal Mixed actually WAS mixed at one time (between the low original viability and other factors, I still don't know if FPM was a variable landrace, and the various environmental and time factors pared off all of the gene branches in it except one or two, or if Joe Simcox made a wrong guess with it being a "mixed" bean, and all of the color variations in the original samples derive from differing growing and storing conditions.) But given the space the Mottled grey will take up this year, doing that this year would probably require planting them directly in the actual garden, as opposed to the pedestal pots; and doing that usually means more or less guaranteeing the animals eat every last one (if not as the planted seed, then as the pods.)

There are also a few "found" common beans I'd really like to give a place to. One of the ones I found in my Chinatown searches has an interesting red on white pattern I'd like to explore. And I kind of want to plant out any white seeded leftovers I have in my box to see if I can work out which one is the one I found in my Ricter's packet of Hashuli. But given the tightness, the white project may have to wait, and the pattered one will probably have to share a pot with the two tiny colored lima beans I found in my hunt (no wait, three, I forgot I found a second black one hiding in the black seeded cell of my cowpea box.)

 

[RickRickman]

Thanks for all the info. & the warm welcome, I look forward to a hopefully soon warm spring, haha. At the moment watching it snow & sleet & snow in Oklahoma. Thanks to all. Rick

 

[ninnymary]

Hi Rick, can't remember if I've welcomed you. So here it is in case I didn't. Glad you joined our group. I think you will enjoy being here. Just keep sharing about your garden plans and let us get to know you.

Mary