You say an "old" seed catalog. Is Jumbo Pod still available? Is it a bush bean or pole bean? What sounds good about it? As a jumbo Italian bean, I'm guessing it's a Roma type. They are pretty tasty.

Jim

Its a Gurneys 1997 catalog. I search the web for them found them johnny's seeds that's the only place I could find them. Its a bush bean that has short runner. The gurney catalog reads: JUMBO POD. Italian Flaver in a Big Way. here's a harvest to Make the neighbors sit up and take notice-flat Podded beans up to a foot long! Pick young for regular-bean size but baby bean flavor and quality. an exellent freezer bean too. Approx 45 seeds per pkt. 60 days.

I love Roma beans and the size of this one impresses me. Johny's says its a cross between Roma and Kentucky wonder. Just wanted to know if anyone has grown them or heard about them so I could get some first hand info about them.
thanks
Mel

Here is a link that might be useful: Johnny's - Product

Here is another source (see link). This would be a good variety to save seeds for... 18 companies carried it in 1998; only 3 or 4 now. I may have to try this one myself!

Here is a link that might be useful: Jumbo Bean

That sounds like a delicious bean. It's always fun to make the neighbors sit up and take notice too. :-)

Jim

Is the Jumbo from PSRseeds different from the Jumbo offered by Johnny's, I wonder? I've been trying to decide on an Italian bean for the upcoming spring garden and this one is tempting.

Jumbo has disappeared from PSR's website. I emailed them and they said it's been removed from their 2007 offerings but that "In the future we plan to have it back in the catalog."

Fliptx, according to the description in "Garden Seed Inventory, Sixth Edition", and the decription of the variety on Johnny's website, both varieties are the same. They both share the "Romano X Kentucky Wonder" decription, which I believe is conclusive evidence.

I followed up on the other sources listed (PSR was one of them); I checked all but one, and each had also dropped it.

The only remaining U.S. source I could locate has no website:
Fisher's Garden Store 406-388-6052
I did not call them, so I not sure if they still offer seed.

It seems that my recommendation of this variety for seed saving was right on the mark... it is vanishing rapidly. In addition to its size, it is also BCMV resistant, so it is well worth growing.

Zeedman, thanks for that info.

I just placed an order with Johnny's for Jumbo among other things. If anyone would like to do small trades in order to help save seeds of this variety, let me know. I'll post in the exchanges section of the bean forum.

Update after my January 3 post:

Jumbo seems to be back in the PSR catalogue.

I've been harvesting Jumbo for the past week or two and I'm very pleased. They're productive, the beans are tasty and tender at 8", and the plants are vigorous. Very vigorous. They grew runners and if I'd given them a trellis, they'd probably be about 3 feet tall. Since I'd planned on them being bushes, I didn't give them a trellis and let them sort of flop/tangle all over each other.

I think this would be a good bean for people who like pole types but for whatever reason would rather grow something bushier. Plus, each bean with its generous size is the equivalent of four or five regular snap beans.

"They grew runners and if I'd given them a trellis, they'd probably be about 3 feet tall."

I had planned to grow them this year as a bush also... thanks for the warning.

Man, Fliptx, am I jealous... I can't even _plant_ my beans until next month! Eat some for me, will ya? ;-)

"Eat some for me, will ya? ;-)"

Happily!

I think the Johnny's catalogue says something like... Jumbo may grow short runners in very fertile soil. I've got most of the plants growing in a raised bed on concrete, where I've continuously grown vegetables for over a year, and lightly amended between crops. I guess it was more fertile than I thought!

But yes, knowing what I know now, I would give them more space.

I thought I'd revive this thread to see if we could get feedback on "Jumbo."
Is it really jumbo in size, and if "yes," are the pods tasty when huge?
How many seeds per pod? And what size are the seeds and the pods?

All your interesting and humorous comments are greatly appreciated....

Some questions that I could think of:
Source of seeds:
Germination rate:
Early, mid, late season?
Productive?
Taste as snap:
Taste as shellies:
Taste as dried:
Tender or tough pods?
Growing habit: Bush/pole/other? How tall?
Healthy?
Plagued by bugs or whatnot?
Did it turn out to be "BCMV-resistant," cf. Zeedman's post above?

The bean sounded so interesting that I thought it would be helpful to follow up with some facts.

Would you grow it again?

Thanks for the feedback.

I grew the Jumbo a few years back. An excellent bean, but it not a Romano type. Flavor is much more akin to Kentucky Wonder. Big pods on bush bean with true pole bean flavor. As mentioned it is tall and the pods are heavy. I did not stake but use mulch so the beans were not overly bothered by laying on the ground. They can use use type of support tho. For some reason they dissappeared from the market for 5 or so years. Good to see them back, but think a true bush Kentucky Wonder. I have only used them as snap beans.

Just found this post and as for a reply to the original post...it seems that Jumbo Pod green bean no longer exists. I raised them back in the 90's, but there is no longer any evidence of its existance. Johnny's Select Seeds does now offer Jumbo, which is an altogether different variety than the original Jumbo Pod...Jumbo leans more towards being a romano type as from crossing kentucky wonder with roma, I think...Jumbo Pod resembled more of the Kentucky Wonder type only a lot bigger pods.

I did a search of the SSE online Yearbook and there is no listing. The historical database is currently not available. Dick

I heard that the Bean Seeds are ground up and used as Viagra.

Here is a current link form Johnny's catalogue: http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-7726-jumbo.aspx