What else did you grow the year you last grew Dolloff? In other words, what is likely to be crossed into the seed you have.

IMO, there is nothing bad wrong with growing a bean even though there may be crosses in the mix. This presumes they will be for consumption, not intended as a crop for saved seed.

Dolloff has one critical flaw, it has no heat tolerance. It produces reasonably well in cool maritime to northern climates where temperatures rarely get above 90F.

You could always bag a few flowers and tag the beans produced for seed. I do this with most of the beans I grow just in case I do get a cross, this way I always have a backup.

Annette

Maybe I have this wrong. Would I need to bag the Dolloff only, or would I need to bag a few flowers from each bean variety I grow? In other words, are you saying any potential crossing only affects the promiscuous variety?

I grow way too many beans to want the chore of bagging a few flowers from each kind. I'm too busy on my hands and knees sticking paint brushes in the squash blossoms, lol.

"Dolloff has one critical flaw, it has no heat tolerance. It produces reasonably well in cool maritime to northern climates where temperatures rarely get above 90F."

I bet that's what I did wrong with Dolloff. I planted them late and it was unseasonably hot that summer. That's good to know. Thanks!

Dolloff did pretty well here in a summer of near-record average highs, where the daytime temperatures hovered in the mid/upper 80's - 90's from June through August. Granted, a hot summer in Wisconsin might pass for a cool summer in the South... but many of my other beans languished under the same conditions, so it is worth noting.

Since I've only grown Dolloff once, I can't vouch for its promiscuity one way or the other. I won't know if there is any crossing until I regrow that seed again, in a few years.

But assuming that Dolloff is promiscuous, maybe we are asking the wrong question. As already mentioned, Goose has amply demonstrated that trait. Both are early, large-seeded, and productive. Maybe the question should be, why hasn't someone intentionally grown those two together yet, and let them cross to the greatest extent possible? It sounds like a good match, and the progeny could be interesting. ;-)

I grow a lot of different pole beans in a comparatively small garden, I don't grow a lot of any one variety so bagging a few flowers on most of mine is just insurance in case I get a cross. I keep seed from the beans that haven't been bagged as well as the bagged and so far I haven't detected any crossing with one exception, and that could have been a mutation not a cross, one bean in a pod of seven. From what I've read here some varieties are notorious for crossing and best grown in isolation, apparently Dolloff is one, Ma Williams another.
The one cross/mutation in all the years I have been growing beans. This was from a pod of Mr. Tung's.
Annette