Dorothy,

Suzanne Ashworth in her excellent book on seed saving states categorically that:

"All P. vulgaris ( common bean, CJM)flowers are perfect and self pollinating. Thus she gives no isolation distances.

And that's been my experience as well.

She goes on to say " at the least" not to grow different varieties of P vulgaris side by side and never grow two white seeded varieties next to each other.

So I'm at a loss to understand why you were told that they cross easily if they are indeed common beans in the genus and species P. vulgaris.

Carolyn

I was thinking, Carolyn, that they may not be P. vulgaris, but some Old World species. Perhaps one of the favas or broad beans?

Not only are beans self-pollinating, they actually drop their pollen the night before the flowers open. So natural crosses are very rare. It's also why all P. vulgaris are open-pollinated, despite what some catalogs say about such & such variety being a hybrid.

At any rate, USDA separation distance for beans is 12 feet. Most commercial seed growers use 25 feet. For a home grower like Dorethy, 4-5 feet should be more than sufficient.

However, if they are an Old World bean, than distance doesn't matter, as they won't cross with P. vulgaris anyway, and she can plant them as closely as she wants.

I was thinking, Carolyn, that they may not be P. vulgaris, but some Old World species. Perhaps one of the favas or broad beans?

Which B, is why I wrote the following above:

(So I'm at a loss to understand why you were told that they cross easily if they are indeed common beans in the genus and species P. vulgaris.)

And the thread title is "common" brown bean.

Dorothy, can you shed any light on this? Have you seen the bean in question?

Carolyn

No I have not seen either the beans or the plant. I can only go on what I have been told by Tric. She does say I have some of the orginal beans PLUS some bicolored beans from a cross in their field.

Her husband calls them common brown beans with a white eye. From the way they talk they were a fairly common bean type for the area.

Considering that we are talking an area of Canada with cool summers and short growing seasons I think it may be possible they are another species then the ones we think of when we say beans in this area. If that is so how do I tell?

dorothy

If that is so how do I tell?

Ask Tric to describe to you the plants and what the beans look like?

Fava and runner beans , for instance, are very different from the common beans that most folks grow.

Carolyn

I got my seeds from Tric. They look like plain bean seeds. The "pure" beans are a deep chestnut brown with a small white eye. The "mixed" beans range from the chestnut brown to nearly pure white. Really striking among them are some that are white with a man like marking in the eye area in the chestnut brown. I am intrigued by those and will be planting them seperatly from the "pure" brown ones just to see what turns up. Will let yall know as we still have at least a month before planting warm season veggies.
dorothy