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Post by caledonian on Jul 26, 2012 12:30:16 GMT -5
Yes, bumblebees are capable of pollinating bean flowers. Whether they will actually do so is a complicated question.
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Post by mountaindweller on Jul 26, 2012 17:58:40 GMT -5
In beans I want that they cook in the same time and that they are colourful. As different beans taste different, I think I would like to keep them separated. But I have several areas to plant and there is a house in between. I am not after a beand exactly true to type, I think yield toughness and taste are more important no matter how the original bean was.
I think your landrace breeding is VERY interesting. If you would start one - which varieties would you choose and how would you proceed in corn beans and pumpkins? How many varieties how do you match them and how many plants of each?
BTW this was like many traditional wineyards were planted in Southern Germany were vine is dependable and they were put all into the same barrel too, better mixed wine than no wine, cider is always mixed too.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 26, 2012 20:37:12 GMT -5
I think your landrace breeding is VERY interesting. If you would start one - which varieties would you choose and how would you proceed in corn beans and pumpkins? How many varieties how do you match them and how many plants of each? Around here, beans are commonly sold and cooked as 'bean soup' mixes containing around 15 cultivars of 4-5 species of pulses. My pulse landrace contains around 100 cultivars and a dozen species. I need to separate it next year into a cold season landrace and a warm weather landrace based on the temperature preferences of each species. Oops. The trials and tribulations of planting unknown seeds from "bean soup". The obvious starting point for a sweet corn landrace is Astronomy Domine. It is descended from a couple hundred varieties. There aughta be something in there that would do well in most temperate climates. In general, I like to start landraces with varieties that are known to do well in my area. The local mom & pop seed stores around here carry seeds that have proven to do well year in and year out. Those varieties are great for starting a landrace. But I'm not picky... I'll trial seeds from wherever I can get them: Bean soup at the grocery store, plants I find growing feral, whatever someone sends me in seed-swaps, etc. My garden is set up so that rows are 50 feet long, so I generally plant one or more 50 foot rows. I'd rather plant in square blocks to minimize pollen drift and maximize crossing, but that would require me to do things differently than I have always done them. How many plants I save seeds from is related to the biology of the plant. For species with a lot of genetic diversity that are in-breeders, like my bean landrace which contains around 100 cultivars, I figure that I need to plant around 600 bean plants in order to have a good chance of preserving most cultivars. I harvest the whole crop into a common lot, and save out what I want to plant... Then I also save/plant seed separately that represents all of the obvious phenotypes. But if I only had 3-5 cultivars in my bean landrace, I'd feel extremely comfortable with only saving 30-50 seeds. I don't grow pumpkins... There's too many pepo varieties that are more important to me. And I don't want to fuss with purity or isolation. I grow only zucchini in one field, and only crookneck in another field. I could grow them in blocks, but who needs that much crookneck? I grow one row of each, so around 50 plants. But I only save seeds from maybe 15 plants of cucurbits. My target for corn is to save seed from 50 to 200 plants per landrace. My turnip crop contains only one phenotype: "Purple Top, White Globe". I plant about 15 to 20 roots per year as a seed crop, but I plant seeds from older harvests as well, so that the offspring of 45-60 mother plants are represented in the planting. Every year I plant one root from the grocery store or from family or friends in order to constantly introduce a low level of change into the population. BTW this was like many traditional wineyards were planted in Southern Germany were vine is dependable and they were put all into the same barrel too, better mixed wine than no wine, cider is always mixed too. I love mixed fruit wines... Whatever happens to be in season the day the batch is started, or whatever gets blended together before bottling. |
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Post by raymondo on Jul 27, 2012 0:16:57 GMT -5
By the way, in Australia, the word pumpkin refers to all winter squash and pumpkin. In fact, in Australia, it almost always refers to either Cucurbita maxima or C. moschata cultivars since they are what are mostly grown here. In supermarkets for example you are likely to find only four pumpkins - Queensland Blue and/or Jarrahdale (or hybrid versions of same) in C. maxima and Butternut and/or Jap (aka Kent) (or hybrid versions of same) in C. moschata.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jul 27, 2012 10:13:38 GMT -5
I've been trying to get my cutshort bean cornfield mix to cross for five years without success. I've seen bees working the flowers, bumbles and bright green tiny sweat bees. No visible crossing. I'd grow them all out together and assume you'll be alright till the bees prove you wrong. If they do cross please send us the crossed up seed. They should be cool.
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