Hal
Deeply Rooted
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2013
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Hi Hal,
Last year the Shortwave Sunshine was a new bean that I found, and I suppose the bean Junin probably had crossed with a semi-runner or perhaps even a pole bean. That cross had to have occured in Astrid Storm's garden in Germany where the bean came from. Now the bean is segregating. I will have plenty of true bush ones to collect seed from.
The bumblebees indeed cause the majority of the outcrossing. They are larger and stronger than the honey bees. However the honey bees can create crosses. Calvin Keeney the father of the stringless bean used honey bees to breed his new stringless bean varieties.
Junin reminds me of a bean I saw offered in Canada that is now sold out for good.
We just don't have Bumble Bees. Bumble Bees are just flower tearing brutes.
I just don't get any crosses because there is so much food around for the regular bees that they don't even bother with the difficult to access flowers like beans or peas.
To get any crosses I have to do it myself, you on the other hand get some very nice gifts from the bees.
It would be interesting to watch how many bees you get visiting on a given day.