Witza Pole Beans

[Blue-Jay]

@aftermidnight Wow that would be nice to have the original Lazy Wife bean from 1888. all of the lazy Wife beans I've seen are the kidney shaped ones. How do you know that this is the original? I'm sure we will keep this addiction going with ease.

I have a copy of a book called "The Beans Of New York". Varieties of beans grown and tested in the 1920's at the Geneva New York Agriculture Experiment station. The results given in this book published in 1931. Lazy Wife is described in the book. The seeds are said to be ivory white with a distinct grayish vein like pattern over the entire surface of the seed. Seed shape is said to be spheroidal. Yep not kidney shaped.

 

[aftermidnight]

@Bluejay77 here's a bit from the SSE...
'
From SSE catalog…
Setting the record straight- "Lazy Wife Bean"
It describes the original "Lazy Wife" as having been carried by W. Atlee Burpee starting in 1885, who obtained it from Mennonite immigrants in Pennsylvania who had grown it for generations. Burpee then dropped the variety in the early 1900's.
Somewhere along the line (around 1980) another different strain was circulated by the name of "Lazy Wife". SSE admits that they and other venders sold this inauthentic strain for years.
However, the original Burpee strain has been returned to circulation by Derek Fell, a former Burpee Seed catalog manager. Derek had obtained his seed from Bill Byrd of Carversville Pa, who had grown & saved seed for the original "Lazy Wife" ever since Burpee dropped it from their catalog.

I got a sample of these from Shirley Bellows who in turn got them straight from Derek Fell . I only planted 8 seeds but got a bumper crop of seed from them.

Not the best picture Russ but you can see they are a different shape, this is the seed I got from Shirley. I grew 8 of them and kept a few back in case of failure.

Annette

 

[Blue-Jay]

Ok @aftermidnight. That is interesting, amazing story, and the involvment from a former Burpee seed catalog manager. He would have certainly been in the know and have had access to old Burpee catalogs to know what the original bean was like also.

I can even see the vein like pattern in your seed photo that is described in the Beans Of New York.

I went through my SSE seed catalogs and found the article in the 2015 catalog. Cool stuff. I had not realized this about Lazy Wife. Had not realized this was in one of their catalogs. I started getting the SSE catalog about 4 years ago, and saving them, but usually don't even look through seed catalogs much at all. Most catalogs I get go into my recyle bin.

 

[897tgigvib]

I really liked Witsa. It was sort of a surprise growing them. As I recall, they grew as pole, and I'd say a 6 foot pole would work well.

They surprised me most because they were listed as a variety from Africa, but the beans they make are long puffy Greasy beans, Appalachian style. I kind of think someone could ask if Bill Best would like to grow some so he could make the comparison.

Maybe the term "Foreign Appalachian Greasy Bean" or something like that, maybe more politically correct, would describe the type.

Seems more of the ripened pods were later in the season, so maybe for growing in Canada the production total might be lowered, but I do have a season extending idea.

If you grow them on say 5 foot poles and build a frame of 1 x 2's around them tall enough by a foot, and enough berth around them by a foot too, and when frost looms, wrap it with clear plastic using heavy staples, you might get those extra few weeks for pods to get ripe enough.

 

[aftermidnight]

@marshallsmyth thanks for that bit of information, I do have a raised bed that is easily roofed and enclosed in plastic, this is where I grew those Andean/Ecuador beans in 2014. I did manage to get a fair bit of seed from them but it was towards the end of October, I'm thinking they were day length sensitive. I don't think I'll be growing those again as I'm sure they are a mix used as dry beans, the pods as snap beans were very tough. I have to say the seed was really pretty tho.
I also grow a lot of my pole beans on conduit poles, if the rain comes before the pods are dry enough for shelling I pop an umbrella over them. Works like a charm, only once did I have to put anchor ropes on one, a very windy day, the umbrella was spinning like a top and I thought it was going to take off

Yes I know, I'm that crazy lady from across the border LOL.

The gal who I was originally looking for Witsa seed for said it's a favorite bean grown in South Africa and apparently this year can't be found anywhere there. She did find a few but by that time I was already hooked on trying this one myself and thanks to Russ it looks like I'm going to get to try them this year.
Annette