Looking for an Anthracnose Resistant OP Pole Green Bean

[ferdzy]

Subject line pretty much says it all. We went looking for anthracnose resistant green beans and all the ones listed as such seem to be bush beans, many bred by Monsanto. Not what I want on 2 counts.

Any suggestions?

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

This probably wont be that helpful, but a quick google search found this.
www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/pests/pdf/hgic2200.pdf

It mentions Pole Bean 'Kentucky 191' as Resistant to rust. and Snap Bean'Derby,''Provider' as Resistant to Bean common mosaic virus. Though no mention of anthracnose. I had to google what anthracnose was. Do you suffer from anthracnose a lot in your garden? I assume you do or else you wouldn't be asking.

I understand if you refuse to grow the monsanto bred bean if because of moral objections, though i believe beans bred by monsanto and syngenta beans are currently conventionally bred and not GMO if that is why you are opposed to them.

I'm not much help since i don't grow or eat green beans. I only grow dry beans. I grew some pole beans randomly last year, but they are too small and too long for my likes. I don't necessarily care if a bean plant is bush or non-bush growth wise, i just dont like the beans themselves "pole bean shaped". Light kidney influence is fine. Full kidney bean is not. Just my preference.

Hopefully others will be able to be more help and help you find something. Though if you still can't find any maybe you should find a resistant bush variety and breed it with a really good pole variety. I personally think it would be kind of funny if someone took a IP protected variety from a big company that had restrictions on it and bred it with an Open Source seed variety which in an odd sort of opposite way also has restrictions on it. The two restrictions clauses would clash in a funny sort of way. I personally think the Open Source one would be the winner in the end though. But that's just me. I might do it just for fun with the Kumato.

[zeedman]

All I can come up with is bush varieties too. I seldom grow bush beans... but Rocdor looks interesting. To judge by my experience, though, you might try Fortex. In a very cool, wet year, most of my pole beans had foliar diseases (mainly rust). Fortex was directly adjacent to infected plants, yet had no sign of disease.

I also grow the KW 191, and grew it in the same cool year mentioned above. It is rust resistant, but not rust immune. The plants can get infected, but damage is less severe, and they will continue to produce.

[ferdzy]

Thanks guys. Our problem is specifically anthracnose. We had bean mosaic one year, but it came and went. Rust has not been a problem.

We bought some Pencil Pod Black wax beans one year at a big box store from one of the fine old American seed houses now fallen into semi-obscurity and disrepute - I forget which one exactly. We just wanted to give the slugs something to chew on before they hit the lima beans. Unfortunately, they were infected with anthracnose and it spread to everything. Cherokee Trail of Tears showed resistance for a while but this year they were the worst affected.

Blue Lake, our favourite pole bean is badly affected by the anthracnose. It was actually quite resistant to the bean mosaic. Originally I was thinking of crossing Blue Lake x CToT, but since CToT seems to be not that resistant after all I guess I should look for another bean to use. I could use a bush bean I guess.

keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.), personal taste is a wonderful thing. Without it there would be about 6 kinds of beans and then we would be in trouble. I would certainly be inclined to use Monsanto material for breeding purposes without any qualms other than having to give my money to them in the first place. However part of the problem was all the varieties I found listed I had never heard of. Research says only 2 of the 14 resistant varieties listed by Cornell University are available in Canada, and both from companies I really don't use.

zeedman, I didn't see Rocdor listed as resistant on the list from Cornell but Johnny's says it is! Good catch. Maybe I will give them a try. They are bush, yellow, and black seeded; all the things I DON"T want, LOL, but through the miracle of cross breeding maybe I can change that. Ha! I've grown Fortex and didn't love the flavour all that much. Too bland for me, and it was also not really resistant to the bean mosaic - it held out for a week or two but them succumbed.

The other things we will continue to do is select seeds from the most disease resistant (or at least unaffected) plants we grow, and soak! soak! soak! our seeds in hydrogen peroxide before planting. It does seem to help.

[zeedman]

Well... if you intend to breed for resistance to anthracnose & mosaic, the varieties Decibel, Espada, Label, Laureat, Marbel, and Vilbel are listed as resistant to both. (So, by the way, is Rocdor).

[prairiegardens]

Sanilac is a bush navy bean said to be bred to be resistant to anthracnose...still a bush bean though. There is a study from Manitoba which talks about various beans being resistant to some strains of anthracnose, apparently there are several, which would appear to make breeding for resistance sort of like selecting for resistance to flu in people. Some beans do have resistance to some strains, but not sure if any are pole beans. IPads are so much less useful than desktops! I don't know how or if possible to open two screens or give links. I'll try to find it and link when I get back home to desktop.

[philagardener]

Jan 25, 2017 20:31:09 GMT -5 keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) said:

I personally think it would be kind of funny if someone took a IP protected variety from a big company that had restrictions on it and bred it with an Open Source seed variety which in an odd sort of opposite way also has restrictions on it. The two restrictions clauses would clash in a funny sort of way. I personally think the Open Source one would be the winner in the end though. But that's just me. I might do it just for fun with the Kumato.

It always comes down to who hires the most lawyers . . .

There are some wild accessions that have resistance to specific strains of Anthracnose, but as was pointed out before the disease has a lot variation and there does not seem to be a broad resistance trait out there.

[ferdzy]

zeedman; thanks for the list. I don't see any of them on the list of varieties available in Canada put out by Seeds of Diversity every year. (The Canadian equivalent of SSE.) Don't see Sanilac either, @prairegardens.

I didn't realize there were multiple strains. I may just decide I'm selecting for resistance in my own garden and practicing good sanitation in an effort to eradicate it from my beans and leave the breeding alone. On the other hand Rocdor is easy to get and I may give it a go and see how it does.

Thanks, everybody.

[flowerbug]

we get a lot of fog and dew in the summer so almost everything i grow gets hit by some sort of leaf problems. i try to keep an eye out for those that seem resistant, but it doesn't seem to affect most production for the beans i'm most interested in. rust i might see on a few lima beans and the other common beans but i'll pull those leaves/plants.

if i plant the beans in mixed plots with the early and more determinant beans finishing up and then the neighboring beans overgrowing the early beans as they dry i can have white mold arrive so i have to try to keep an eye on those and get them picked and the plants removed before the white mold gets going. i'm trying to do larger blocks of plantings for some beans now because of this kind of problem but also it is just easier to take care of a larger block of similar plants than having mixed beans together. in cases where i do want more chances of crossing i'll still likely plant some more mixed gardens, but since those plots will be more closely watched anyways this is ok.

i bury all garden debris so if there is a disease reservoir in doing that i'm just going to let it continue. i don't really want to breed beans that i have to particularly baby or treat with poisons. i do have enough production that it is ok if a few particular beans don't work out. this is why planting a diversity is a good thing. as conditions/climate does vary season to season it also helps me find beans that are pretty tolerant of our soils and conditions. as i keep going along i'm always happy to find more.