Tepary Beans

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Here's higher resolution photos of the offspring of the hybrid tepary beans that andyb shared with me.


Higher resolution photo

[andyb]

Thanks for the grow report, Joseph Lofthouse!

I've been meaning to post for a while about some more tepary F2 seeds I'd like to send out to interested growers. I have about 100 Menager's Dam Brown x Blue Speckled F2 tepary beans. Also have twenty or so F1 seeds as well.

I'd like to send out something like five packets of ~20 F2s and a few F1s each. PM me if you're interested.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

This week, I received and planted a packet of F1 and F2 tepary crosses received from andyb. I also planted all the segregating (F3) seed that I grew last year from his seed. There were enough seeds to plant 150 row feet.

[andyb]

Glad to hear you're putting those seeds to good use! I hope you start to get some adaptation to your environment. I'd love to see tepary beans more widely grown, in general.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

May 31, 2018 15:10:15 GMT -5 andyb said:

Glad to hear you're putting those seeds to good use! I hope you start to get some adaptation to your environment. I'd love to see tepary beans more widely grown, in general.

LOL! They are definitely getting adapted to my habits as a farmer. I harvested them last fall from a patch of grass that was about 3 feet tall... Yikes. Hoping to do better with weeding this year.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

The F1 hybrid and F2 tepary beans that I received from andyb are growing very well. One of the F2 plants is already senescing. That's wonderful! A short season tepary. I know that they are supposedly an ephemeral species, but in my climate, it's always been a race against the fall frosts. This plant is expected to beat the fall frosts by a couple weeks. There are two plants in this photo: One a typical tepary bean, and the other with yellowing leaves being extra early.

I'm also growing a long row of F3 tepary beans descended from Andy's hybrids. They are likewise thriving. For what it's worth, I did a great job this year of weeding the F1 and F2 tepary beans. The squash patch is about to overtake them, but at this point, the beans have already won the competition.

Tepary bean with precocious senescence.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

The F1 and F2 tepary beans that I received from andyb really thrived this year. I kept them weeded and watered. They produced abundantly.

This is the harvest from around a dozen plants.


What the plants looked like before harvest.


I pulled the intact plants, thew them on a tarp, then beat them with a stick. Followed up by screening and winnowing.


The F3 seeds also thrived. I found a pink seeded tepary among them. A first for me. The pink, dark brown, and blacks came only from the F3. A few of the seeds have what looks like swirling color patterns. Perhaps I'll play with them to see if the trait is heritable.

Link to high resolution photo.

The following photo is about 50% of seed from my previous landrace, and about 50% of the now F4 seeds from Andy's hybrids. I am super pleased with the teparies now.

Link to high resolution image

Here's what my tepary landrace looked like a year ago, before the addition of Andy's hybrids.

Link to high resolution image


Thanks Andy!

[andyb]

Joseph Lofthouse You're most welcome. Thanks for growing these seeds out! I'm curious to see how the population adapts to your environment over the next few years.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

The teparies are adapting well already... For example while I was harvesting, some F2 plants were huge, with 50 pods per plant. I also noticed a plant that only had 2 pods. I still saved seeds from that plant. They went into the bulk seed, so the more productive plants will be swamping it out. Another example, would be the F2 plant that dried down much earlier than the others. There is some selection going on for anti-shattering. And heavy selection going on for being able to grow well in alkaline-ish clayish soil under irrigation.

I have been saving tepary seed in bulk, rather than growing out individual plants. It might be interesting to grow some as specimens to see if there are any traits that are particularly appealing to me.