The Little Easy Bean Network - Get New Beans Varieties Nearly Free

[Blue-Jay]

Hi Honeycomb !

I grew the Black Coco last summer and I grew them as bush beans. They don't climb. The tops of the plants might throw off these short tendrils but they won't wrap around anything. I believe mine grew last year in a true bush form. I wouldn't do anything special for them. Just let them grow as a bush bean.

 

[897tgigvib]

Some bush beans grow kind of tall with a determinate short runner or two.

A thing I've noticed about growing lots of different beans that are not varieties carried by all the seed catalogs is that some varieties don't fit neatly into a listed growth pattern. That grow pattern of a short determinate runner is one of the grow patterns that is a good one. The top end of it may flop down over onto its neighbor plant. That's alright.

My Anasazi bean has a short viney, like 3 foot or so, way of growing. That patch will get some short sticks. Similar to that are my Rio Zape, but Rio Zape has a way of, well, they just seem to want to set pods laying on the ground.

These grow patterns are one of the fun things about beans.

 

[Blue-Jay]

This year there were 10 participants of the Little Easy Bean Network. I sent out 29 seed samples of beans. Hope the Network grows next year. I wouldn't mind having a hundred growers. I ran into something in the last couple of days on the internet where it said that John Withee had about 400 growers in the Wanigan Associates.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i went out about an hour ago to take a look at my beans and noticed a few were pushing through the soil! yeah!

 

[897tgigvib]

Russ, if all goes to plan, hopefully I'll do a lot more, like 30 kinds of your beans next year. Also, I should be able to send you some more well packed varieties. Yes, hoping lots more Easy Garden folks jump onto the bandwagon too. Maybe some varieties can be listed as quick enough for northern gardeners and some as good for the very hot southern areas.

Some of the beans I'll send you will need good names, like the red seeded borlotti podded bush which I believe is breeding true, also the pink podded one if it breeds true. That one is only on 2nd generation. These both, plus a burgundy seeded kidney all come from a variety I only received as burgundy bolitas. On the other hand, seed I saved from a half runner borlotti is already showing flower buds as bush. I'll wait to see if they throw late runners. That particular one came from my capirame mix. More selections from that i will plant next year. I believe I will also obtain some more of the tepary mixes to sort through. With the weather changes, tepary beans may well become more important.

Did you get all your beans in yet Russ?

 

[journey11]

This year there were 10 participants of the Little Easy Bean Network. I sent out 29 seed samples of beans. Hope the Network grows next year. I wouldn't mind having a hundred growers. I ran into something in the last couple of days on the internet where it said that John Withee had about 400 growers in the Wanigan Associates.

I hope it will grow too! I could manage a few more varieties next year than what I took this year...I have plenty of room. I didn't want to hog all the fun at first, since I wasn't sure how many folks would want to help.

I tell you what, I felt like I was burying rubies in my garden when I planted them. I had to keep telling myself...all will go well and then I'll have a jar full of "rubies" at the end of the summer. Prettiest beans I've ever had in my hand... Can't wait to see how they taste and how they differ from each other.

I liked your system of cataloging them too, BlueJay77. I'll be sure to take better notes on production and other notable characteristics of the other heirloom beans I have.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hey Marshall !

Yes I got everything planted last week. Besides trying to break some new ground that had grown in grass for years. I wanted to kill off as much of that grass as I could and soften the ground as much as possible to make a good seedbed to ensure the beans would do very well. The weather here was so cool that the temperatures were concerining me that my seed would just decay away in the soil. I'm so used to having our late May weather be in the mid 70's to mid 80's. Somedays lately we had a hard time breaking 60 degrees with temps in the 40's at night. Pole beans were planted on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday most of the bush beans. Thursday it rained and was to wet to work. Friday I got the last 4 of 16 rows of bush beans planted.

As far as the Llittle Easy Bean Network goes nobody should feel they are taking all the fun away from someone else. There were nearly 70 beans on the list that nobody requested.

Below is a picture of my 3,384 square foot plot before I planted. Can you barely see my Troy Bilt rototiller on the other side. My big plot is six miles from here on some ground I'm renting. Way out of the city limits. Then a picture with the Pole beans in, and I got a row of tomatoes in also. I didn't take any pictures with the bush beans planted as all the seed is not visible in the ground and there are no supports for the bush varieties. I'll post some more pictures when all these beans emerge from the ground. A plot this big is quite a sight to see. I don't know if a photo will even do it justice. On June 1st I got my raised beds behind my house planted. I live in one of those modern subdivisions. Two raised beds boxes 5 x 12 feet. One box has tomatoes in it the other box mostly Pole beans. The picture of my raised bed is below too.

My tomatoes are something I'm trying to select out of Early Girl Hybrid I grew two years ago. Then I will have somehthing like an early girl that will grow true every year. I know I could grow something like Stupice and have my tennis ball size tasty tomato but doing something like this is a fun project to try to accomplish.

 

[baymule]

Bluejay, that big garden is beautiful. That is some nice dark rich looking dirt too! I am envious of all that room! You sure have put the work in that spot, I can see the lush, thick green grass all around it!

The Kilham Goose beans have 3-4" pods on them now! The Smith River Super Speckled is not far behind! it is so much fun, growing special varieties like these. Thank you for giving us the opportunity and sharing your expertise with us!

 

[897tgigvib]

Hay Bay, I'm not far behind you. Most of my bush Beans planted at the main planting have flowers starting now.

 

[Blue-Jay]

Hey Bay !

Yep that soil is dark as a lump of coal when it gets wet in the rain. I was lucky to have those people answer an ad I had running in a local paper last August to rent a big piece of gardening ground. They live about 8 miles out from the center of my town here. I think they have a total of about 7 acres. A good chunk of it is Wooded from the road. The fellow who owns the house that is on the property is an Archictect and designed the place himself. The wooded area extends back of the house a ways then beyond that there is all this open ground where my garden is. They have a garden back in this opening too. I love it. Hope I can garden there for years.

After all the grass roots decompose out that soil I think next year that ground will work up with my tiller much nicer.