ethin's doings

[ethin]

Picked and threshed some pinto's today and found another surprise.



Purple Pinto's!

The brown ones are most likely just the normal color reversal you get sometimes, but all the seeds in the pod where that way, I'll keep an eye out for more pods like that just in case. 

[Joseph Lofthouse]

ethin: Very nice black beans. A hybrid perhaps? A volunteer?

[ethin]

Thanks Joseph.

They have to be another hybrid.

I noticed earlier this year that at least two pinto plants had pink flowers instead of yellow so I had some idea that they might be crossed, I didn't say anything at the time because I wanted to be sure.

I did have all the dry beans and some of those wax beans mixed together last year, but all the info I've read makes crosses sound so improbable that I thought the chances of getting a cross the first year would be slim at best, but I got at least two.

[philagardener]

Were the wax beans you were growing black (dark purple) or white? I grow both kinds.

I'm guessing the former might explain the color in those seeds.

Does anyone know the genetic basis for "a wax bean"? Single gene for pod color? Do they also have a hairless pod trait, like greasy beans, or is that variable?

[templeton]

Aug 22, 2015 5:58:06 GMT -5 philagardener said:

Were the wax beans you were growing black (dark purple) or white? I grow both kinds.

I'm guessing the former might explain the color in those seeds.

Does anyone know the genetic basis for "a wax bean"? Single gene for pod color? Do they also have a hairless pod trait, like greasy beans, or is that variable?

By wax i presume you mean yellow? I've mused on this a bit, but haven't looked into it. There are the full purple pods, and dappled pods like Rattlesnake, and red pods like Red Swan, and the red dappled yellow pods like Borlotti. It would be too simple if it worked like peas, which i begin to know something about...
Having looked at the videos on crossing bean flowers, I think I'll stick with peas for the moment, tho some simple growouts of crosses would determine some of these relatively easily, if they aren't in the literature.


And nice beans, Ethin...
T

[philagardener]

In my experience, the term "wax bean" is applied to varieties of yellow, round-podded snap beans that have a smooth, waxy appearance.  I've recently grown several bush types (Pencil Pod Wax, Cherokee Wax, Improved Golden Wax); some have black seeds while others are white seeded (IGW has a very attractive brown patch around the hilum).  I don't know if these varieties are related to each other or independently derived, and I too have wondered what emerges when you cross a wax bean with a green podded bean.  Maybe it is a single gene trait, with yellow recessive to green, and shows up from time to time as a spontaneous mutation in regular varieties.  I occasionally see Dragon's Tongue called a wax bean, but I never have heard the term applied to beans with background pod colors of green, purple or red.  I guess I am just trying to understand if "wax bean" is more than a name (and maybe it isn't).

There are yellows that are not referred to as wax beans, although that the ones that come to mind (Gold of Bacau, Gold Marie) are lumped with Romano beans for their flattened pods.  They do seem a distinct group.

[jondear]

Those purple beans are gorgeous. Hopefully they retain the markings for you next season.

[ethin]

philagardener
The wax bean that generated the cross (brown seeds with brown markings) are "Golden Wax", I've been growing them for 5 or 6 years now. I also have "Cherokee Wax", got them last year.

The bean pods on the wax beans I have look and feel just like most of the other beans I grow, the only bean I have that has a smooth or waxy pod is a green podded black bean.

[ethin]

Thanks templeton, jondear.
I hope that some of the F2 look like that but I'm also excited to see what else might show up.

[ethin]

The jungle has completely filled in now, I feel like I need to dress like Indiana Jones just to go looking for some tomatoes.


Found another cross in the Pinto's

[philagardener]

Really great looking, ethin !

[steev]

Those last beans are really striking.

[ethin]

Harvested the garlic Joseph provided me with last week, the scrapes had finally dried. 7 heads, 3 scrapes, 1 seed pod, 1 rather sad looking seed. Hopefully I'll have more luck with getting seed next year.

harvested 3 "cantaloupes" today, they were grown from seed from store bought fruit, all are in the 1.5 lb range.


As for the beans, after seeing the pinto crosses I've decided that the father of the Wax bean cross might have been a pinto. The father of the purple pintos must have been a black bean. I have no idea where the black marked ones came from though, unless they are another possible outcome of a black bean cross.

[templeton]

Love that wild garden, ethin, those flowers! wish i could afford the water to grow flowers in my vege patches. Another nasty el nino predicted for this year
T

[ethin]

templeton: I actually started growing flowers in the ditches between the squash hills because I figured that there was water going to waste. I guess it all depends on the irrigation method being used.