Uncle Walt's was selected to be earlier with more filled pods (and maybe larger seed). A side-by-side trial under your growing conditions (not Uncle Walt's) is really the only way to go.

There also may be more than one variety of Speckled Cranberry, but I'm not going there, for now.

I gave away all of my UWVC seed. Perhaps we can trade in the fall?

Gary

Thanks Gary. I got the Speckled Cranberry from SSE, and the UWVC came in a trade from someone at T'ville. I suppose I'll have to do as you suggested and trial them both.

The main subject of my interest, however, is an unidentified cranberry bean (or october bean of some sort) that I spotted at the farmers market a couple years ago. The farmer called it a Wooster bean and said his family's been growing it for generations. (I'm in western NC and that's pretty typical here.)

Anyhow, he gave me some seed for it and I grew it last summer. It was the best bean I've ever grown. Gorgeous big round pink and white beans, grew like gangbusters, easy to shell, super productive, delicious, and it hardly took any time to shell a big pot full of them. It was the perfect bean.

So I was thinking I'd trial THAT bean against whichever of the other two was a better bean. I've never grown any cranberry beans before. Maybe they're all good. But it sounds like I'll have to compare all 3.

I'll be glad to send you some UWVC in the fall. I'll have lots. I grew 200 feet of the Wooster bean last year. I think I really like Cranberry beans.

I don't mean to jack your thread, But I have a question?

How bad is the "gas" effect with them? :)

I used to grow October/cranberry beans that I bought at the grocery store.

They are delicious fresh, but the gas pains for me and everyone that tried them was overwhelming!

We didn't have a problem with them. But then, I always presoak beans at least overnight before cooking them.

One novelty I found with UWVC is that it is a very tasty snap. They must be picked very immature, before they get full length, let alone begin to swell. Otherwise, they get tough very quickly. So, it is just not very practical to use UWVC as a snap.