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

[897tgigvib]

Hay Bay!

That's cool! Giant Red Tarka sounds like a true Texas sized Bean! How many of them'll fit in a 10 gallon Stetson?

 

[baymule]

@marshallsmyth can you post a picture of your Nyimo bean? The Jugo Botswana that I had come up looks like a regular bean and it is a groundnut bean too.

 

[baymule]

The Giant Red Tarka comes from Hungary and it is a BIG bean. Real pretty too, red spotted. Dunno know how many would fit in a Stetson, I think I'll just see how many I can get in a beanpot.

 

[buckabucka]

I received my beans! I'm going to try starting them inside, but not yet. I want to time it carefully so they can go outside soon after sprouting. It has been a cold spring here.

 

[Smart Red]

Perhaps I should mention that I received my bean supply from @Bluejay77 as well? I should be planting them about the same time as he does. It won't be long now.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My Blue Lake Bush beans are sprouting, pretty good germination, so I feel the ground is warm enough to start the African beans. The ground where they are going is ready, but it's probably going to be wet for about a week, a good rain today and another rain Monday. As soon as the ground is dry enough, I'll plant them. The adventure shall soon begin.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Baymule
One up looks promising and exciting. Hopefully the others will not be far behind.

Marshall
Even if only one Purple Queen grows to mature dry seed it will be a success. Then that will be fresh new seed. There is no telling how old any of this seed might be. Some of it looks fairly dark.
Then again I don't know how the new seed is suppossed to look. Any sounds like your getting excellent germination on your beans at 94%.

Everyone who had asked for Network bean varieties recently I mailed them out yesterday.

Yesterday we had our very first real nice warm day at 80 degrees. I loaded up my roto-tiller and drove into the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove (60 miles) and tilled up my nieces garden plot.

Today is supposed be another 80 degree day. Predicted high is for 85 today. I'll be out tilling up my 3,400 square foot bean field. Will try to get more of that grass mulch from last season to degrade and disappear into the soil. If this weather keeps up perhaps I can plant earlier than last year. We are now 8 days beyond our average last frost date of April 30. It would be nice to plant like I have in the past by about May 20 to the 25th. Last years planting took between June 3rd to the 7th.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

#66 - 3 of them, are up with leaves. #67 has germinated but not popped thru the earth yet. #45 - no sign...

 

[Blue-Jay]

Murphysranch two out of three so far so good. It wouldn't surprise me if somebody does wind up with a variety that doesn't grow. I think that's a possibility. If that happens and your growing season isn't too far gone, and you feel you still have enough time to grow seed of a variety. Let me know and I'll send another bean.

Anyway we hit 87 degrees here today May 8th. I got all the mulch from last year incorporated into the soil. Tilled the entire 3,400 square feet once over today. I tilled the mulch into the soil one time last October. Much of it had broken down. Only mulched the bush beans last year not the pole varieties. I was amazed with just one application of grass clippings as mulch last year. How differently the soil already worked up compared to the area where the pole beans grew without the mulch. The soil broke up so much easier and was moister on the surface. To my amazement I found one volunteer bean plant that came up in the soil. That seed lay in the soil all during the fall and winter and now that it's nice has germianted and emerged from the soil. I knew tomatoes could volunteer like that, but I had always thought beans far to delicate to survive in the soil all winter.

 

[897tgigvib]

That's a lot of ground to rototill! Get some good rest after that workout.

Yep, beans can volunteer. I didn't get any this year but some years I get a good number of them. I was kind of picky with a couple of my old varieties and just let pods go on some plants, and sure enough next year some come up. This year was probably different because I was digging the soil out and rebuilding the beds.

Bay, I was going to photo those Nyimo African beans for you today, but I worked myself ahead of schedule on that bed in the back. Might even be planting in it late tomorrow instead of next Tuesday. Got the antigopher cage built and mostly set in it. This one needs to be fanaggled in to fit around one of the posts with some hardware cloth bending. Got the soil to go into it, 30 cubic feet of forest compost, and I'll mix some base soil in with it for good soil texture and better water holding. I'll try to remember to photo those Nyimo tomorrow. Most definitely a different species and Genus than Phaseolus vulgaris. These first leaves almost look more like Lupin leaves.

Digit sent me some Bei Soybean seeds and only one of 3 sprouted so I replanted in 2 holes. The one that sprouted has a real nice look to it, with soft fuzzy leaves.

SeedO sent me some Adzuki beans and 3 of 3 sprouted. They are smaller seedlings but are looking good.

Russ, you sent me such beautiful varieties and outcrosses! A good number of them are tricolored. I am understanding some of what you select for in beauty of seed! The subtle differences of white beige and red and contrasts. You're the bean maestro! We'll see what the Flamboyant outcrosses do, and the chocolates, the birds, the owls, the frauenbohnes and the others, blue aspen... some are showing differences as seedlings already, from the same outcross packet. I expect that some outcrosses will be different each plant from the same packet, as some are probably F2 hybrid seed. Even F3 and F4 can do separate segregations on the more subtle variations, but F2 is the most variable generation to grow. Out can come great grandmother variety, and with beans that hardly ever cross, great grandmother variety can be a variety grown before columbus got to this side of the world. Or, just different mixes of recessive and dominant traits of both parent varieties.

I kind of think the dark swirl or dark pinto pattern is from a set of dominant traits. Here is why. The first outcrosses that show are often that way, wouldn't you say? Those would be the seeds made from F1 plants. F1 plants generally express dominant traits, from Mendel's charts. F2 generation is where the recessive traits begin showing more.

This is so amazing to me. I may well have growing in my garden, over 100 brand new to the world varieties of Beans! Maybe 200. Some may be as subtly different as an African Premiere with a different shade of base pink, or an African Premiere that grows faster and is 10 days earlier.

Add to all this, bumblebees are already in my garden pollinating the berries, and we know what they do with bean flowers And in my garden, every 9 or 12 inches there is a different variety.