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

[digitS']

I have been avoiding the idea of giving an update because there have been ups & downs.
First the downs and it starts off with me failing to save seed for the 2 varieties that completely failed in my garden: Colored #72 did not emerge from the soil and only 2 Green Kidney #11 showed up. One weak seedling died immediately and the other I found a couple feet away; something had pulled and dropped it.

I saved a few seeds for Boonkjies #39 only because they are so tiny and I began to panic as I was dropping them in the ground. I may not have needed to - emergence must be 100% and the tiny plants seem to be growing strongly.

The same can be said about Venda #59 and Purple King #32 - nearly 100% emergence and growing well. You may recall that I was somewhat concerned about Purple King but after some delay, all the seedlings popped up.

Lusaka #28 came up quickly and has begun to vine. I really hope that the description of it as a "half runner" is correct and that I know what a "half runner" is!

I've grown Pintos and remember them as very short vines. If the Lusaka requires a taller trellis than the little 4' one I set up, I'm in trouble. They are right in the center of one garden and the sprinkler will hit a trellis that is much higher.

Some ups and downs and I'm hoping Lusaka is, at least, a low climbing bean.

Oh yes! My free Illinois Snap beans are growing best of all!

Steve

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hi DigitS,

Well don't feel bad about the the two failures. That is the breaks sometimes. As I've said before. Nothing was known about the age of the seeds in this African collection. I'm sure that can have some bearing how strongly some of them can grow. Added to that many of the samples were very small, and given that, sometimes things can happen in trying to grow out very small amounts of plants. Bad weather, animals that eat the plants, insects etc. There is an amount of risk working with tiny samples.

Great to hear that all the rest of your bean plantings are doing well, and that Illinois Snap. Always trying to put my best foot forward in giving out good seed.

 

[baymule]

The Jugo and Bambarra beans are growing and doing just fine. What has really taken off is the one pea/bean seed that was in the bunch. It is laid out on the compost pile, headed for the back yard gate. I think it wants to eat the chickens........ I found one bloom, can't wait to see what this thing is! It has some looooong vines!

 

[britesea]

Are there bean varieties that mature fast enough for me to grow in my short growing season? I'm in a high desert area, where (if we are lucky) we have about a 90 day frost free season.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Wow Britesea,

90 days is a bit short for growing beans to produce dry seed. I get about 130 to 150 frost free days depending on the season. It would be more comfortable if you had even 110 days. That's nearly another 3 weeks, and 90 frost free days doesn't even mean your soil is warm enough to plant. Bush beans are the earliest types to mature dry seed. You could always buy some snap bean seed from a hardware store and see if you can produce mature dry seed with that. If you can accomplish that then you might be able to grow some of these bush types for seed.

 

[the1honeycomb]

I have several of my beans ready to send but the runners haven't got any of the vine beans yet so excited

 

[britesea]

I ran across a listing for Black Garbanzo beans; they said the black color meant that they had more anthocyanins and could sprout in cooler soil than most. I think I'll give them a try, maybe starting them in my hot bed first before setting them out. Hummus and fried chick peas...

 

[Pulsegleaner]

They will, but there are a lot of other desi (grinding type) chickpeas that are just as cold tolerant, if not more so. Unless you really need the anthocyanins in your diet, you might do better shopping around some Indian seed sites and seeing what they have. Oh and fair warning, the more cold tolerant a chickpea is, the less heat tolerant it usually is. You can move the season earlier or later by varying the type, but by and large, getting a significantly longer obne is hard (unless, of course, you plant a selection and accept the type you get changing through the years.)

 

[the1honeycomb]

well lets try again

 

[Smart Red]

@Bluejay77, the two pole bean varieties you sent are growing tall and well. One has flower buds at 8 feet. Of the two bush bean types, one -- with very few seeds -- is doing well and flowering with small starter beans, while the other I divided into two plantings because of the difference in seed shape. Both seem to be pole beans -- for sure one is -- although the last bean may end up being a semi-runner variety.

Whatever they are, they seem to be doing well. I should have seeds to return to you this fall for each variety.