Bean finds

[mjc]

A couple of weeks ago, I acquired two beans.

The first is Gator Green, a commercial bean that was a Ferry-Morse variety that was pulled sometime in the 1980s. It had between a 15 and 18 year run. It had been a PVP variety and was pulled around the time the PVP was expiring. I received 8 seeds from a gentleman who has been growing is for at least 30 yrs (yeah, before the PVP expired). When it was released for growing out to salable quantities, it was at the F13 generation...so it was 'dehybridized' release.

It is a long, straight, round podded bean. It grows as about a 2 ft tall bush, with most of the beans being held high on the plant.

I only received 8 seeds for this one.

The other, is a 'true heirloom'. It is a nameless been that has been grown by one woman for 67 years. She received as a 'wedding' present, as far as I can tell. It was probably in her family for much longer than 67 years, though, as it seems to have been a family member who gave it to her.

All I know is that it is a white seeded cornfield (pole) bean. It is reported to be prolific and very tasty as a string bean (yep, it's got strings), a 'shelly' bean and even great dry, especially as baked beans.

She gave me 325 seeds for this one...

[raymondo]

I'm a fan of beans and especially enjoy the stories that sometimes go with them. Hope they both do well for you. I was given a dozen or so seeds of a green pole bean that has been grown for at least forty years locally. It doesn't have a name either.

[galina]

I am growing a bean this year that I was given in a swap, called Cornfield White. And it too is tall growing, has very stringy pods, dark green and very delicious to eat as green pods. Haven't tried them as shelling beans yet.

Gator Green sounds fun too.

Hope they will do well for you. Did you really count the seeds ...

[DarJones]

Did you really count the seeds ...

Don't You? I thought everybody did....

DarJones

[mjc]

Yeah, because I was dividing some up for trades...

[paquebot]

A gardening friend from Tanzania returned from a visit to his homeland just in time for planting. He had 3 varieties of dry beans hidden in his luggage but only 5 to 8 of each. They were Kitenge, Maria, and Njano. we had no idea if they were bush or pole so I planted them where I could give them an option. Kitenge is a large bush, Maria is an agressive climber, and Njano is in between. From each, we will have plenty for a proper growout next year.

Martin

[mnjrutherford]

Our spring planting of beans were not so hot. Only the rattlesnakes (commercial) and Black Valentine (HG trade) produced. I got the notion that perhaps it had something to do with the heat?

We decided to plant peas and beans in the corn field after the corn was spent with the idea that it would fix in a bit of nitrogen for next years corn. We got a bunch of commercial seed, field peas, speckled lima beans, and wax beans. All were bush type. We planted 3 rows of peas, 3 rows of speckled limas, 1 row of the Black Valentine, and 1 row of the wax. We are eating the wax beans fresh now. I'll be bringing some to the swap I think. The field peas grew to about 3'. I had no idea they would grow so tall. The limas are only a couple feet, but they are vining out with great vigor for a bush type bean. The Black Valentines are also doing well but they are also vining. I didn't recall them doing that in the spring planting. They pretty much stayed in place. The peas are not yet flowering, the limas and BV are just starting to set fruit, and we are eating the wax... Beans and peas are rather interesting.

[galina]

Sept 13, 2010 21:24:01 GMT -5 DarJones said:

Did you really count the seeds ...

Don't You? I thought everybody did....

DarJones

I'll admit to playing with bean seeds, getting the urge to look at them frequently to see how they change colour in storage, muse forever over the connections between seed coat colouring and actual bean, but I haven't ever counted them. Except of course counting 25 into a seed packet to give away and then adding a few more if 25 looks too little and I have plenty left.