BAD Half-Runner beans!

[kantuckid]

We have grown the white half-runner beans here in KY for many years. As seed was cheap we bought them from our local farm supply store, rather than save them. The variety was what we wanted & readily available so not one we chose to save. Even in our tiny (no red lights in whole county!) place that small store easily sells a large plastic trash can full of them pkg in 1/4# bags, each year-this to give you the idea of volume. The source was formerly the Southern States catalog for them & then more recently a wholesale seed seller out of Morehead, KY.
Given that we had experienced what seemed to us far too many "bad beans" in past few years I searched out one of the many heirloom seed sources online for what was called Mountain Half-runner seeds & bought 4 oz.. Many sellers, including the "big guys", use the same word for word description about that bean.
  We have two 75' rows growing & while the vines appear healthy/normal ~85% of the beans are BAD!!! The bad beans are flat-as opposed to the more rounded "regular" half-runner and have tough, fibrous green shell & smallish but normal looking seeds. They don't break normally, meaning the "snap" to prepare them. The taste isn't bad but best called tasteless. If you get one into your mouth at the table they cannot be chewed up!!! It will become a ball of fiber.
I recently Googled-"flattened bad runner beans" and found that "our problem" is a "national problem"! Many experienced growers are having the same issue and has been happening for 3-4 years based on web posting dates. There are people all over the country saying the exact same things as my post here.  There have always been a few of these bad beans in the row, just not a majority! It's something in the bean heredity that pops up now & then for many years. The issue is a problem to the extent that many will or have stopped growing them.
 I read a short piece written by an AG agent from NC that says it is the result of an accumulated problem that comes from mechanical harvesting as no human is judging the beans as to what gets shelled. Her version of a solution is to grow & save seeds that are visually selected for next years crop (like I have done many times) and things get better from there. Our current plan is to buy from another source next year and start saving white half runner seed, as we do many others.
I'm open to suggestions as to who's seed I want to try next?
 IDEAS?

[oxbowfarm]

Well, one solution would be to go through the row and hoe out all the bad off-type beans. That would leave you with the 15% that are showing the right type. If you let them dry down, I'd bet that would give you plenty of seed to replant your 150 feet of row next year. Probably you'd still maybe get some offtype plants if the contamination of the original stock was that bad, but I'd bet you'd have a majority that were useable. That would be a workable solution for you personally, for the industry it sounds like the bulk suppliers need to be renewing their stock from registered seed more often. I don't have any idea where you could source good seed.

[jondear]

This is a great reason to grow at least some of the seed for things you can't do without. It's sad that a once readily available bean has been so contaminated. 85 % contaminated almost sounds like the seed got mixed (as in more than one variety) as they harvested them. I'm thinking anyone should have a two year supply of seed that is important to you.

[zeedman]

You might be able to get good replacement seed from Bill Best in Berea.

[kantuckid]

Aug 9, 2014 20:53:19 GMT -5 jondear said:

This is a great reason to grow at least some of the seed for things you can't do without. It's sad that a once readily available bean has been so contaminated. 85 % contaminated almost sounds like the seed got mixed (as in more than one variety) as they harvested them. I'm thinking anyone should have a two year supply of seed that is important to you.

I don't see the seeds as mixed from appearance of seeds or plants. If you look for white half runner bean seed online there are literally hundreds of sources and they seem to vary mostly from descriptions as either the bush or pole half runner,otherwise many use the exact same text to describe. We grow the pole type which tends to get ~ 5-8' of vine-what I'd call a moderate climber. The bad seeds, i.e., flat beans, are very productive but unfit as food. Other than the NC AG agent comment I've seen no other rational reason for the beans to be so bad? My followup will be to the supplier of my seeds & some queries to some of the major sellers to see their original source.
I asked an ebay seller about their white half runners recently & was told they buy them from 3 sources with no reported problems-was kind of misleading as their ad stated "the family had been growing them for over 100 years" which meant the variety, not THAT SPECIFIC SEED! My original thinking was, of course that they were saving seed for over a hundred years.

I am well aware of Bill Best,thanks.