Good to have you back, Remy! I wondered why GW had been so quiet lately. ;-)

Neat looking beans, indeed.

No, they don't resemble anything else that I have seen, at least in terms of color. I did, however, grow two Serbian pole beans last summer, obtained through a swap. One of them was very similar to yours in size & shape, and had the same slightly shrunken appearance when dry - but with black & white mottling. They turned out to be a highly prolific flat-podded wax bean, which was rather unusual in that it made a good shelly when allowed to mature.

These were fresh-harvested shellies, so they are larger in the photo than they would be dry; but it shows the seed colors. The Serbian pole wax is the black & white one in the upper right. Directly below it is a red & white Hungarian bush bean. Comparing them to yours, it appears that such mottling is commonplace in beans from that region.

Do you know if they are green, or wax?

Zeedman,
Lol, I've been around causing trouble in other forums.
I thought they were unusual, and being odd to you, I now know they are. I have the note from the trader somewhere, but with all the Christmas stuff I'm not sure where I put it! I'm thinking green though because he sent me a popular bean from the Netherlands that is a wax bean.
I hope they taste as good as they look!
Remy

Did these beans turn out to be a green or wax bean?

thanks,

Dean

Hi Dean,
There was a post about them somewhere, but it is gone. I wonder if it disappeared during one of GWs glitches. Anyway, it is like a green Romano. I did find Zeedman's report from this year "Despite the wet start & a very cool summer, had an exceptionally good bean year, especially for dry seed. "Bosnian Pole" (from a GW trade) in its second year (only had 3 plants last year) has produced 9 pounds of dry seed from a 20 foot row, with a tray of pods yet to shell."
Remy
Remy

Dean, I take it that the beans have arrived?

A week ago, I found an online archive of the original uncut Shelly Bean thread, and asked GW if I could restore it. No answer... and now I can't find the archive. Too bad, there were a lot of good posts, and the results of both my & Drloyd's 2009 bean trials. I still have a printed copy of my post, and thankfully Drloyd saved both of our results in a text file.

"Bosnian Pole" is a green-podded Romano-type. The pods are not very long (about 6"), but they are wide & fairly thick, and borne in large numbers. The flavor is very good, and the pods remain stringless for a long time. As I had stated previously, the dry seed yield was also exceptional, my highest ever. Haven't tried cooking the dry beans yet, so don't know if it's worth growing for that purpose.

Thank you for the information, as I am gathering the information for the seed packet that I will give to the local Bosnian community.

Thank you once again Zeedman for the seeds.

Dean

I was just going through my seed stash and, looking at the Bosnian Pole seed I harvested last season I have to say this is the bean to grow in a less then perfect year. This bean came through with flying colors I didn't get to eat many of them as green beans but what I did were very tasty. I only had one pole of these it produced a heck of a lot of beans and the seed I harvested was first class. The other beans I grew mainly for seed rated from pretty good right on down to iffy. It's definitely a keeper in my books.

Annette

These seeds are beautiful. Anyone know what they are like as dry beans or as shellies?

"I was just going through my seed stash and, looking at the Bosnian Pole seed I harvested last season I have to say this is the bean to grow in a less then perfect year.... It's definitely a keeper in my books."

That was my conclusion as well. That it also flourished in your cool Maritime climate, Annette, shows great adaptability to less than ideal conditions. The yield & flavor of the snaps were exceptional. The shellies were just OK for me, with a sweet flavor... but considering the snap quality, this makes it an excellent multi-purpose bean. Never did try it dry, which I should, since I still have a lot of it.

I should point out that the beautiful color in Remy's photo develops over time. When first harvested, the dry seeds are only white with black streaking. Portions of the white darken in storage, while other portions (usually on the side opposite the hilum) remain pure white. My seed from 2009 is nowhere near as dark as that in the photo, only a dark tan... so I would estimate the original seed to be about 5 years old.

That ability to go from 2-color to 3-color in storage is very rare, and is a distinguishing characteristic of this variety. The only other bean I've grown that changes color in this way is "Porcelain" (a.k.a. "Snowcap").

Now, you've got me all crazy for spring! I'm so looking forward to growing these finally. My first attempt was a failure being they all died after planting(something ate them.)
I'm glad I sent some to you, Zeedman, as you were so successful. I remember when you sent some seeds back to me. I was confused by the coloration. I knew it was odd, but I didn't know it was so rare for a seed to do that.
I have a new bean starting method now. I start them in pots outside up high and then transplant. I haven't had any problems since.
Remy

It's good that things worked out well for this bean, Remy, and that you'll get a chance to grow it this year. I nearly lost mine the first year too, to squirrels. After all the transplants from the original seed were dug up by squirrels (!!!) I reburied them, watered well, and surrounded them with chicken wire. Only one plant survived, and that with a broken stem; I had to stake it up until it healed. We came that close to losing this great bean.

The seed that first year had me confused as well. It was so plain looking, compared to your photo, I thought that crossing might have taken place. It wasn't until I pulled the seed out the next year that I noticed the beginning of the color change.

I too had a problem, something was digging mine up, I'd go out in the morning and find them lying on top of the soil. I had to replanted these beans a couple of times, also grew a couple more in the green house to replace the ones that capitulated. I split a hot cap down one side, placed it around the pole to keep whatever it was that was getting at them off until they got going, after that I didn't have any problems. I wonder what's so attractive about this particular bean that makes critters/birds/? go for it leaving all the other beans alone.

I also thought they might have crossed when I first shelled them, they weren't showing the brown coloration but as time went by they started to look like the seed I planted.

I gave a few of these beans to a couple of Seeds of Diversity members this morning, hopefully they will grow them and pass them on.

Annette

I love how these beans look, they are beautiful. They remind me of the Hidatsa Shield beans from SSE. After reading all the great reviews about this bean, I am really excited to get these in the ground come April.

The Bosnian Pole grew well for me too and produced early and a lot, and made big beans.

Annette you can make hot caps out of plastic bottles too, so it wouldn't be too much of a loss to split one. Bell shape hot caps are expensive here.

Remy this bean was a really good find!

My plants of 'Bosnian Pole' have been weak and non-productive for me. Not quite sure what I am doing wrong since my other varieties are going gangbusters, but the 'Bosnian Pole' are slow growers and reluctant bloomers here in Chicago. I did finally get to harvest a few handfuls of snaps this weekend and sauteed them up with some ripe 'Stupice' tomatoes and a tiny amount of left-over crumbled bacon. Oh my were they ever good! Texture was buttery and the flavor was strong enough to carry through the tomatoes and bacon.

If this were a stronger, more productive plant, then I might consider these to be "forever" beans just based on one tasting. They were that good. However, I am not sure I want to waste valuable garden space on something that may or may not produce well in the future. From the way my plants look, I doubt I will even get a second harvest from them this season...

Ispahan, I grew these last year, could hardly believe the amount of beans one pole produced and it wasn't the best of years weather wise. I wouldn't give up on them yet, give them another chance. I'm giving Barksdale another chance, they are doing much better this year even tho this year until now the weather has been the pits.

Annette

Hmmm...Now that the temperatures around here have cooled off, my plants seem to be springing back to life with many blossoms and baby pods. Maybe this variety does poorly in warm conditions? I would really love to get a good harvest from these plants--the pods are delicious!

Ispahan,
I've experienced the same thing! July was the hottest and driest ever here, and it sulked. All the sudden, the plants are growing everywhere, so it must not like sustained heat.
Remy

Yep this is a bean that likes cooler weather. I grew it last year, the weather was the pits but this bean thrived in fact it outdid everything else I was growing in seed production.

Annette

Annette, I suspect they may like 80F or so. Mine are just starting to bloom and they are almost the latest. - Dick

Ok, the beans have made up for the heat withdrawal. They are loaded with beans now. I picked some for dinner. They have a bit of plumpness to them with the seeds developing. Well, I have to say they are excellent! Very yummy and no strings.
Remy