Pole Beans:
Cherokee Trail Of Tears*
Rattlesnake*
Red Triumph* (received in a trade and a bit difficult to find info about it)

Bush:
Top Crop*
Jade
Blue Lake 274*
Contender*
Improved Tendergreen*
Greencrop*
Cherokee Wax*
Pencil Pod Wax
Royal Burgundy

Other Beans:
Chinese Long Bean*
Lingua di Fuoco*
White Acre Southern Pea

Peas:
Amish Snap
Sugar Snap
Sugar Daddy
Dwarf Grey Sugar*

The ones with asterisks are new to me. I will be doing a mini-trial of green bush beans to see which variety I prefer. And I've always been happy with Pencil Pod Wax but I've never compared them to any other wax bean in the same year. The pole beans I'll be saving seeds from (and yeah, I'll be bagging the blossoms). It should be a fun year. I'll be growing way, way more legumes than I have in the past.

Rodney

Rodney, did you get my last email about the runners?

Hosting a bean swap, I'm sitting (for a very short time) on a few hundred legume varieties. :)
Deciding is not easy. :(

First selected from those is Maria Zeller, the most beautiful bean I've ever seen.

After that, there are several that look somewhat like Aunt Jean's (Annie Jackson, Dedo's Day/Night Regular Semi-Runner, Russian-East German Pea Bean, etc...). These, hopefully, will all be trialed to try to find any differences.

Then Flamingo...as I'm starting to get emails about this bean from who-knows-where (someone mentioned a Facebook group or something).

And...Aunt Mary's Meat...where in 2014 the first 99 out of 100 beans split while drying. They did better later on.

3 to 6 selections of Fortex cross. I have 3 selections with very different colored seeds, 3 others that are not.

After that, I really don't know.

Peas...I have about two dozen varieties that I'd like to trial, and I'm wondering when the ground will thaw.

Cowpea?...Fast Lady Northern Southern Pea. I'll have to do some research on it.

Soybeans...maybe

Garbanzos...iffy

It's still very early to really make a list, in ink.

Gary

I am still waiting for Frank Barnett's spring list. In the mean time, so far I am planning on:

Runner Bean
Bianco di Spagna

Common Pole Beans
Aunt Jean’s
Berta Talaska
Brita’s Foot Long
Borlotta Solista
Clay Bank Fall
Early Brown Harvest
Frank Barnett Cutshort
Gallahar
Granny, some late
Lazy Daisy Greasy
Lazy Wife Red Fall
Margaret Best Greasy Cutshort
North Carolina Speckled Long Greasy Cutshort
Opel Evans Fall
Paul Gibson’s Butter Pole
Snowball Greasy started June 1 or later.
Square House
Striped Hull Greasy Cutshort
Tennessee Cutshort
Rodney, Borlotto Lingua di Fuoco is a really fine shelly bean.
- Dick

I am firm on just a few varieties so far.

Fortex - Growing these because I crossed them to Oaxacan 5-1 last year and can pick out pink flowered plants for seed.
Carolina White Sieva - Seed to Sandhill
Grandma Roberts Tricolor - Growing for myself to eat and for seed to Sandhill
Old Time Pink & White sieva - Seed to Sandhill
Dr. Martin lima - Seed to Sandhill
Sword Bean - half a row for fresh seed

Blue Pod Capucijners - for Sandhill
Golden Sweet - for Sandhill

I have half a dozen beans that the seed are getting old so I might put in a row or two just to conserve them. I can plant 2 varieties on the ends and runner beans in the middle to fill up a row and get fresh seed.

I won’t have space for all of these, at least not large plantings of them. Some of the older more generic pole and bush beans are negotiable in my mind. A lot of my selection is from commercial sources, but I am branching out into heirlooms, so the commercial offerings may have to wait till 2016 to grow again. Also some things I grew in 2014 may have to wait another year.

Cowpeas:
• Pink Eye Purple Hull (grew in 2014)
• Brown Crowder (grew in 2014)
• Black Eyed Pea Queen Anne
• Black Crowder
• Ozark Razorback
• Tohono O'odham
• Blue Goose
• Red Ripper

Long Beans:
• Chinese Long Green (I grow this every year. I’m growing out some of my oldest seed to keep it viable)
• Red Noodle (grew in 2014)
• Liana (recommended by Zeedman)
• Thai black and white speckled (eBay from Thailand)
• Galante
• Sierra Madre

Adzuki
• Tarkara Early

Peas:
• Mammoth Melting Snow pea
• Blue Podded
• Green Arrow
• Sugar Snap
• Sugar Sprint
• Mammoth Melting Sugar Snow Pea

Beans:
• Bush Blue Lake
• Bush Royal Burgundy
• Bush Pencil Pod
• Bush Bountiful
• Bush Black Valentine
• Pole Rattlesnake (vigorous vines in 2014. These are left over seeds)
• Pole Purple Pod
• Pole Kentucky Wonder
• Pole Romano
• Headrick Greasy Cut Short
• Striped Hull Cut Short

Runner Bean:
• Insuks Wang Kong

Lima:
• King of the Garden Pole Lima

Aaand, I may be joining a bean grow-out network on another board . . . so this list may grow by a few more varieties. So much for my lawn.

Gary- Yeah, I got the email. Will email back soon.

Rodney

tormato, Mariazeller is my favorite for looks too. :)

I did a *ton* of trading last year and this winter, so am having a really hard time deciding which varieties get precious yard space. We were hoping to have bought a place by now, but the already-expensive housing market became astronomical over the summer so no luck there. I'm hoping to work out a sharecropping/gardening arrangement with a neighbor or two, then I could double or triple my usual numbers. Anyway, here's what I've got so far:

Peas Already Growing:

• Austrian Winter Pea
• Bijou
• Biskopens Graart / Bishop’s Grey / Bishop’s Red / Swedish Red
• Charmette (needs replanting)
• Citadel (needs replanting)
• Crown
• Flour
• Krimberger
• Opal Creek
• Orange Delight
• Pischeldorfer
• Purple Pod Parsley
• Tom Thumb / Half Pint
• Triple Treat

More Peas:

• Mrs. Lei
• Red Podded
• Yakumo
• others TBD

Favas:

• Karmasyn
• Peruvian Red Cheek
• Violette Lochstaler

Chickpeas:

• Black Kabuli
• Hannan Popbean
• maybe also Brown Popping to compare

Pole Beans:

• Bomba
• Dolloff
• Early Brown Harvest
• Golden Lima
• Grandpa Arlie Grizzle
• Grey Wolfe Greasy
• Lazy Wife Greasy
• Milk and Cider
• Seneca Speckled Egg
• Speckled Cranberry
• Turkey Craw

outcrosses:

• Big Sky (from Blooming Prairie)
• Rosita (from Rose, looks like a mini version)
• unnamed from Zona Upchurch Goose

• unnamed from Trionfo Violetto (Taos Red likely father. Trionfo de Taos?)

Bush Beans:

• Bumblebee
• Eden Prairie
• Fort Portal Jade
• Koronis Purple
• Lavender Bush German
• Mariazeller Bush
• Mary Ison's Little Brown Bunch
• Piros Feher
• Tobacco Patch

outcrosses:

• Blossom Valley (from Maggie’s Crescent)
• Bluetick (3rd gen from Kishwaukee Yellow)
• Inkblot (3rd gen from Flagg/Chester/Skunk)
• Pied Python (2nd gen from Kishwaukee Yellow)

[I feel like I should defend myself at this point by saying that only two of the above eight crosses happened in my garden]

Limas:

• Calico Willow Leaf
• North Pole

• a comparison of a few each of Loudermilk and Florida Butter

Runner Beans;

• Ayocote Amarillo
• Hestia
• Tarahumara Tecomari

Misc:

• adzuki Blue Speckled
• adzuki Dainagon
• Andean lupine / tarwi
• Apios americana
• bambara groundnut

• cowpea Atchafalya Swamp
• hyacinth bean
• pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan)
• soybean Natsu Kurakake
• sword bean Akanata Mame (Canavalia gladiata)
• various grocery lentils for fun

Tennessee Cutshort

Cherokee Striped Cornhill

Frank Barnett Cutshort

Cooper's Running Snap

Poletschka Pole Bean

Berta Talaska

Barksdale

Georgia Long

Woods Mountain Crazy Bean

Tarahumara Purple Ojos

Tarahumara Dark Purple

Mecatlán Black

Calico Willow Leaf Pole Lima

Black Jungle

Kahala Soy

Of the pole beans I will do large planting of Tennessee Cutshort, Cherokee Striped Cornhill and Barksdale and Cooper's Running Snap.

Of the bush beans I intend to plant a large, long row of Woods Mountain Crazy Bean and just a sample of the others.

I will do at least 16' of Georgia Long Cowpea (Long bean), and several tepees of the limas.

This week I shipped seed of Woods Mountain Crazy Bean to Tel Aviv, Israel. This bean is really getting around! Also, a week ago I spoke on seed saving, at our local 4H club and presented a sample of Woods Mountain Crazy Bean to each young person in attendance.

I intend to plant a LOT of Kentucky Red Cowpea and enough to renew seed of Penny Rile and Zongozotla Pintitos (all cowpeas).

George

Tahlequah, OK

Those Woods Mountain Crazy Beans are getting around :). I sent some to Scotland last year and your Barksdale have landed in Wales.

Annette

I bet Barksdale would do well in Wales.

George

Oh, I also need to grow out Fowler Bush Bean. My seed is getting old. I received this seed from Dr. Don Fowler of Grace Theological Seminary, in 1983. He received the seed from someone he stayed with, while representing the seminary in California. Their ancestors carried the seed over the Oregon Trail to California.

Well, after thinning cutting back some, this looks like the list:

Runner Bean

Bianco di Spagna

Common Pole Beans

Aunt Jean’s – white and maroon seed

Berta Talaska – red seed

Borlotta Solista – tan and maroon seed

Clay Bank Fall – tan seed

Early Brown Harvest - brown seed

Frank Barnett Cutshort – tan seed

Granny – white seed some late

Lazy Daisy Greasy – white seed

Lazy Wife Red Fall – red seed

Liz Carpenter Crowder – brown seed

Margaret Best Greasy Cutshort – white seed

McMaine Greasy Cutshort – tan specked seed

North Carolina Speckled Long Greasy Cutshort – tan speckled seed

NT Half Runner – white seed

Opel Evans Fall tan and maroon

Otis Stewart Cornfield – brown striped 3 foot vines

Paul Gibson’s Butter Pole – white seed

Square House – white seed

Striped Hull Greasy Cutshort white seed

Tobacco Worm – white seed

Valley Bean – white seed

@Rodney, I grew "Contender" last year and it was a waste of space. The beans were not that good and the yields were terrible compared to "Top Crop" and "Cherokee Wax." I'd recommend against growing that variety if your selections are because of space issues. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

I'm growing fairly common varieties of peas/beans this year. On my list for 2015:
Peas - Alaska, Little Marvel, Sugar Snap
Beans - Blue Lake 274, Kentucky Wonder, Black Turtle, Top Crop, Cherokee Wax, Pinto

I have to agree with tripleione on the Top Crop vs Contender. Contender was ok, but Top Crop kicks all over it as far as I'm concerned. A much tastier and better producing bean. I'm out of Top Crop seed and so am trying out some other seed this year since I have so much on hand, but will likely return to Top Crop again.

I had to seriously comb and comb again through my seed stock to come up with this years list- there's just so many good beans, and only so much space in my garden that I can dedicate to growing them!

For what I am planting this year.

Poles are going to be

Tiger Eye

Succotash

Mayflower

I try to keep it to only three kinds of pole beans each year, and almost always drying beans for my pole beans. Last years Eye of the Goat did really well, so I made sure to pull some seed stock of that for another year. I'm tempted to add Flamingo to the list and figure out somewhere to grow it just because it's supposed to be such a beautiful bean.

"Special" is going to be White Marrowfat- I only have 7 seeds, so I'm hoping to grow out a seed crop this year of it. If I'm really lucky, I'll end up with enough for an eating crop too, and keeping my fingers crossed for that.

Another special I'm considering is scarlet runner beans for their blooms- I've read the hummingbirds really love the blooms. We get lots of hummingbirds.

Green bush beans are

Harvester

Lynx

Masai

Triomphe de Farcy

The Lynx and Masi are kind of old and need to be used up, but I'm hopeful about the Harvester and Triomphe de Farcy being good. We eat a lot of green beans, so the more the merrier here.

For yellow beans

Rocdor

Golden Wax

Cherokee Wax

Pencil Pod Wax

We don't normally like wax beans around here- but we do love my spicy pickled beans, which I use yellow wax for. So I figured this year I would try out some different yellows to see which I like best for pickling.

For peas.. I have a little bit of little marvel and petit provencal that I'm thinking of growing out for seed stock. Otherwise I got Green Arrow, Alaska.. and Sugar Pod 2 to plant in like crazy and hope to get a couple peas- I've had the worst luck with getting any peas for eating.

Dear fellow bean lovers:
Thanks for all the wonderful information you have provided so far, about the large varieties of beans you are considering (or not). This is my first season growing legumes (My zone, location & altitude are in my username), and I'm concerned about which varieties of snap peas or snow peas can:1. withstand 100 F western sun exposure all afternoon, without dying.
2. are resistant/unaffected to/by soil nematodes. I profess my ignorance here, as to whether soil nematodes like munching on just the roots of sugar snap peas or Chinese snow pea pods.
If you are not familiar with growing peas in a high desert environment, perhaps you could steer me to someone that is in my neck of the woods. Thanks again, Diane

Hi Diane! Have you seen Native Seeds/SEARCH? They tag all their seed varieties with their region of origin and climate adaption, so if you look under "high desert" or "New Mexico" you should be able to find some that are suitable for your area. They also sporadically blog about southwestern gardening, which might be useful.

I don't know that there are going to be any peas that will be happy with 100F full sun every day. Maybe you could grow them in the shade of trees, a fence, or taller crops, or hang a shade cloth?

The beans I've experimented with, which Native Seed Search carries, have always shown good resistance to heat. I grew Tarahumara Pink Green Bean in the high desert of Hidalgo, Mexico and also here in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. That bean grew normally in Hidalgo (not too rampant) but went absolutely wild in Tahlequah, overtaking a number of poles and tomato cages (smothering the tomato plants). It would not flower in Tahlequah, until September. Though it produced a whole lot of good dry seed. The snaps were very tasty, but stayed good for snaps for a very short time. I couldn't recommend it as a main stay snap bean. Native Seed Search might have something else though.

Also, you might consider Rattlesnake. That pole bean has some good heat resistance and probably is not day length sensitive.

George

Diane, I doubt that you will be able to find a pea which would survive long in 100 degree weather... but you might find some which would do well planted either earlier or later in your climate. "Limestone" is a snow pea which is reported to have above-average heat tolerance; I've grown it, but my summer climate generally provides little in the way of heat stress.

Still putting the finishing touches on my own grow list, I should be posting it in a few days.

Diane,

I just remembered that I have a bean-friend in Los Angeles who has trouble with root knot nematodes. She says that Tarahumara Dark Purple bean does really well for her, as do cowpeas and yard-longs.

Well, finally finished going through the SSE Yearbook, and prioritizing my grow outs accordingly. Quite a few things from my 'want' list showed up in the Yearbook this year, or were obtained recently through trades... which didn't make the decisions any easier.

Beans:

• Bert Goodwin
• Blue Blockeye
• Blue Marbutt
• Budapest II
• Cascade Giant
• Fortex
• Giant Red Tarka
• Jembo Polish
• King Horticultural
• Sangre de Toro
• Scotia
• Sargas
• Solwezi
• Trionfo Violetto

Limas:

• German Butterbean
• Violet's Multicolored

Runner beans:

• Black Coat
• Gigandes
• Tucomares Chocolate

(Will grow Black Coat if it germinates, otherwise Gigandes)

Cowpeas and yardlongs:

• Adzuki, Gray Seeded (appears to be cowpea, will treat as one)
• CES-18-6 (Paayap)
• MN-13
• Thailand Pole
• Yardlong, Black Seeded
• Yardlong, Chinese Red Noodle
• Yardlong, Unknown Chinese
• Yardlong, Yancheng Bush

Peas:

• Carouby de Mausanne
• Cera Sierra
• Mesa
• Limestone
• Nadja
• Sugar Magnolia
• Unknown snap

Misc. legumes:

• Butterfly pea (ornamental)
• Garbanzo, PI 315810 (with Brown Popping as a backup if germination poor)
• Rice Bean, Bush
• Tepary, Virus Free White
• Velvet Bean
• Yellow Mungo

Soybeans:

An,dunscaja, Bei Liang 11, Blackeye, Grignon 18, Jaune de Desme, Kharkovskaya Zernokormovaya, Oosodefuri, Ozzie, PI 89056-3, PI 194626, PI 291281, PI 437524, Sac, Selection N. 505, Soja Brun Hatif U486, SY 9514014, Tengamine, Tokio Vert, Traverse, Ugra Saja, Wielnska Brunatna, Yi Tong Lu Da Dou

Still some trades in progress, so there will likely be a few changes. Most of these are "must grow" due to seed age, so I hope we have a reasonably normal season (as in no flooding rains). I'm so far behind on beans that I'll be looking for volunteers from family & local gardeners this year, to grow some of them out... which should be an interesting exercise.

Well, I think this is it. More varieties than ever as I look for Appalachian "full" type beans suitable for the PNW.

Runner Bean

Bianco di Spagna

Common Pole Beans

Aunt Jean’s – white and maroon seed

Berta Talaska – red seed ½ trellis

Brita’s Foot Long white seed ½ trellis

Clay Bank Fall – tan seed

Early Brown Harvest - brown seed ½ trellis

Frank Barnett Cutshort – tan seed

Granny – white seed some late

Headrick Greasy Cutshort ½ trellis

Lazy Daisy Greasy – white seed ½ trellis

Lazy Wife Greasy – white seed

Lazy Wife Red Fall – red seed

Liz Carpenter Crowder – brown seed

Margaret Best Greasy Cutshort – white seed

McMaine Greasy Cutshort – tan specked seed

Monte Cristo

North Carolina Speckled Long Greasy Cutshort – tan
speckled seed

NT Half Runner – white seed

Opel Evans Fall tan and maroon

Otis Stewart Cornfield – brown striped 3 foot vines ½
trellis

Paul Gibson’s Butter Pole – white seed ½ trellis

Square House – white seed

Striped Hull Greasy Cutshort white seed

Tennessee Cutshort – tan seed

Tobacco Worm – white seed

Valley Bean – white seed ½ trellis

I like to grow a few beans too

Peas

Little marvel

Sugar Snap

Abinsinnia

Bean

Runner

Mung

Black Turtle

Honey Bean

Forgot I'm trying iut a few hyacinth bean too

Has anyone grown the "Texas" cowpeas from Native seeds? Just curious about it's taste in comparison to purplehull or black eye peas. Contender tastes better to me than Blue Lake and it's so fast I actually get some before the heat kicks in, will have to try Top Crop again someday. Trying Park's new "Prevail" seeds since I was putting in a flower seed order from them, hope I don't regret it. But will still have a teepee of Rattlesnake in case. Want to try some pole limas on a big trellis I have, my husband and I love the big white/tan limas. King of the Garden I guess? Or any productive type with a similar flavor? But since I still have a space on the fence I was looking at those Texas cowpeas since we love purple hulls and black eyed peas. Hopefully we will move next year and have lots more space, that's the plan anyway :-) I'm so envious of all the awesome varieties you are all growing!

Oh and I also somehow have to fit in a few rows of Cherokee Wax, I just love the taste of them.

These are certainly very ambitious lists, much, much longer than any I have ever compiled for legumes, but I guess everyone has different niches within vegetable gardening.

Has anyone ever trialed 'Savannah' (Harris)? It was absolutely the best variety I have grown, I encourage anyone who is on the search for their "favorite bush bean" to put it up against anything out there. I see a few other recommendations for great bush bean varieties that I am taking note of as well, so as to not come off as that I can only give opinions and not receive.

Final final list:

Runner Bean

Bianco di Spagna

Bush Bean

Woods Mountain Crazy Bean

Common Pole Beans

Aunt Jean’s – white and maroon seed

Berta Talaska – red seed

Big White Greasy – white seed

Early Brown Harvest - brown seed ½ trellis

Fat Man (Cornfield) white seed ½ trellis

Frank Barnett Cutshort – tan seed

Granny – white seed

Greasy Back white seed ½ trellis

Headrick Greasy Cutshort tan/brown seed ½ trellis

Lazy Daisy Greasy – white seed ½ trellis

Lazy Wife Greasy – white seed

Lazy Wife Red Fall – red seed

Liz Carpenter Crowder – brown seed ½ trellis

Margaret Best Greasy Cutshort – white seed

McMaine Greasy Cutshort – tan specked seed ½ trellis

Monachine stringless snap brown and white seeds

Monte Cristo white seed

North Carolina Speckled Long Greasy Cutshort – tan
speckled seed

NT Half Runner – white seed

Opel Evans Fall tan and maroon ½ trellis

Otis Stewart Cornfield – brown striped 3 foot vines ½
trellis

Paul Gibson’s Butter Pole – white seed ½ trellis

Square House – white seed

Striped Hull Greasy Cutshort white seed ½ trellis

Tennessee Cutshort – tan seed

Tobacco Worm – white seed

Valley Bean – white seed ½ trellis

My list is still the same for now with the exception of 'Bull Hunk', I don't know how old the sample was when I got it, it wouldn't germinate so scratch that one. 'Candy' has germinated and ready to be planted in a tub along with 'Blue Goose Chowder.'

'Barksdale' and 'Brita's' will be planted out soon. The 'Aeron Purple Star' runners are already planted out and doing great. Lots more started in the greenhouse to be planted out as soon as they get there true leaves.

Spring has finally arrived here nice warm sunny days although we had our token hail fall the other day, usually have this in April, about 5 minutes after I put all the tomatoes out to harden off. Needless to say the air was blue for a few minutes, got them all covered up in time, no noticeable damage.

Annette

I ended up doing a tremendous amount of trading over the past few months, so my list has changed quite a bit. I had to finally concede to reality and cut down on the pole beans list, but thanks to container growing have upped the bush beans. I hadn't grown many bush types before and am liking how quickly they mature. I also got Otis Stewart and Early Brown Harvest but likely won't be able to grow them this year, so I'll be interested to see drloyd's harvest report.

Fall-planted Peas: Austrian Winter Pea (still not even flowering!), Bijou, Biskopens, Charmette, Crown, Flour, Krimberger, Opal Creek, Orange Delight, Pischeldorfer, Purple Pod Parsley, Tom Thumb, Triple Treat. These are all done and drying now except for the very late ones: Crown, Flour, & Biskopens.

Spring-planted Peas: Amplissimo Viktoria, Mammoth Blue, Mrs. Lei, Onward, Red Podded, Tom Thumb

Pole Beans: Barnes Mountain, Barrier Girls (from Frank Barnett), Brazilian Carioca, Grey Wolfe Greasy, Jembo Polish, Lazy Wife Greasy, Milk and Cider, Mona Lisa, Swiss Landfrauen, 'Rosita,' Taos Red, 'Trionfo de Taos,' Turkey Craw (names with quote marks are promising crosses/sports that I'm trying out)

Bush Beans: 'Blossom Valley,' 'Bluetick,' Canadian Wild Goose, Clarendon Wonder, Fort Portal Jade, Gunlik, 'Inkblot,' Koronis Purple, Lavender Bush German, Mariazeller Bush, Mitla Black, 'Pied Python,' Piros Feher, Santa Maria Pinquitos

Mixed Beans: Anasazi, Arikara Yellow, Blue Lake 274, Cherokee Wax, Domingo Rojo, Good Mother Stallard, Indian Woman Yellow, Jacob's Cattle, Hidatsa Shield, Hutterite, Mayacoba, Moro, Orca, Painted Pony, Pebble, Purple Queen, Rattlesnake, Snowcap/Porcelain, Swahili Grey/Kijivu, Tiger's Eye/Pepa de Zapallo, Tongues of Fire, Vaquero, Zuni Shalako

(Those are all in one bed, 1-3 plants each. They're all beans that I can easily buy at the store so I'm not planning on saving seed from them; I'm just curious to see how the plants grow and if any are dual-purpose.)

Runner Beans: Ayocote Amarillo, Hestia, Tarahumara Tecomari, Tucomares Mixed

Lima Beans: Calico Willow Leaf, Henderson Red, Madagascar, unnamed pan-Pacific B&W (worried that last one isn't going to come up)

Southern Peas: Atchafalaya Swamp, the rest TBD

Fava Beans: Violette Lochstahler, Wizard. Peruvian Red Cheek came up undeniably 100% virus-infested and had to be pulled and burned :(

Soybeans: Gaia, Natsu Kurakake

Adzuki Beans: Blue Speckled, Buff, Dainagon

Chickpeas: generic grocery store ones, Hannan Popbean

Lentils: Beluga, French Green, Green, Pardina. Just a few of each, for curiousity's sake.

Misc Legumes: groundnut (Apios americana), pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan), lupini (Lupinus albus), Andean lupine (Lupinus mutabilis), bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea), rice bean (Vigna umbellata), and hyacinth bean Beh Pien, which is regrowing from its giant stump that overwintered. Not much hope for it since last year it flowered too late to set mature seed, even though we didn't get frost until Christmas!

I just got my beans planted, I'm growing-

Bush Beans

Marconi Nano Romano Snap

Mayacoba dry from store

Pisarecka Zlutoluske yellow wax

Tolosna dry

White Kidney dry from store

Yer Fasulyasi Romano snap

Unk brown-seeded snap

Pole Beans

Annellino Giallo

Grandma Roberts' Purple Pole

Hazard Fall

Jembo Polish

NC speckled cutshort

Rattlesnake

Red Eye Fall

Super Marconi Romano

Tennessee greasy mix

Unk Black-seeded with white streaks, pods green with purple blush

Zelma Zesta

Runner Beans

Bond's Orca Lima

Insuk's Wang Kong

Polestar, very long

I had to scrap another one, the few 'Climbing Pea Beans' wouldn't germinate so that and 'Bull hunk' were duds. I had a few 'Fagiolina del Trasineno' bought from Richters in 2010 so I planted those in a tub, several different colored seed they all germinated, and since it looks like we are going to have a decent summer I popped in a few 'Yard Long Black Seeded' beans. The only one I haven't got in off my long list is my 'Blue Jay' bush beans, they're going in tomorrow and the other is a pole bean 'Valena' if I can find an empty space :). I've never grown so many varieties before but a lot of these needed renewing so it looks like I'll be bagging a LOT of flowers, not a problem if I get the bags off before the beans get too big then it's one big PITA.
Annette

I have one plant so far that is producing pink flowers with roughly 100 plants flowering from the row of Fortex that were interplanted with Oaxacan 5-1 last year. This is one cross in what should have been the most intense environment for crossing. The beans last year were in a row 30 feet long with 15 hills of Fortex alternated with 15 hills of Oaxacan 5-1. I expected to find a dozen crossed seedlings, but turns out that I have only 1 so far. I watched carpenter bees working the beans last year with at least 50 bees at any given time daily on the 30 foot row. You get some crosses, but they are few and far between!

Thank you for the interesting report. It seems like there are some varieties that resist crossing even when you interplant like that. Hopefully most varieties of common beans are like that. I think a combination of Jeminez/Jimenez and Goose might be on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Only limited progress to report so far... but some of those results are encouraging. Sargas (from the Schoolmaster collection) was killed by the flooding in my rural garden last year, but had nearly perfect germination in my home garden. So did Jembo Polish - from 2007 saved seed. The Gigandes runner bean got in early & has a good stand, so I am hopeful that I'll finally get a good seed increase this year. Both Limestone & Sugar Magnolia peas had great germination, and are growing vigorously.

Solwezi was started in pots, and I have 15 healthy seedlings which will be transplanted tomorrow. The Pan-Pacific Black & White lima (from Mav72) was also started in pots, and continues to germinate... 10 so far, with more starting to emerge. Scotia is from pre-2006 traded seed, and had only fair germination last year - then died waiting to be transplanted (it had a lot of company). Only two seedlings so far this year, but even that would be enough to refresh the stock... which would be good, since no one from SSE offers it any more.

My rural plot was tilled during a dry spell & is ready to plant, but extended working hours prevented me from taking advantage of that before rains moved in. So while waiting for the ground to dry out, I am starting at least 16 cells each of all the beans intended for that plot, to increase my chances of getting seed should direct seeding be delayed.

Zeedman, got my fingers crossed you have a better growing season this year. I planted 3 of the varieties from you, Yancheng Bush, India Bush and the Blk. Seeded Yard Long, all are up and looking good. They say we are going to have a hotter summer this year, if so I should get something out of them.
I planted a pole of Grandma Nellie's Mushroom bought from a commercial source, I'd had it for awhile so thought I'd better get some in the ground, I found one seed that looked different from the rest, wish I had taken a picture but I didn't, anyhow I planted it in a container it will be interesting to see what it produces whether it's a mutation, a cross, or just another variety that got mixed in the batch of seed who knows :).
I still haven't got my Blue Jay in yet something always seems to come up when I'm about to do it, we had a good rain last night so maybe tonight's the night LOL.
Annette

A further update. As mentioned above, I started 16 peat pots (Jiffy strips) of all of my beans, 2 beans per pot - except Fortex and Giant Red Tarka (which were direct seeded). All of those had nearly 100% germination; better than I had hoped for, since most of the seeds were from 2006-2008. Those transplants went in today, and because of their numbers, there was no further need to direct seed.

Only one issue with beans, which was King Horticultural. I've grown it twice before, and while the yield was OK, the plants always seemed to be in poor health. It was seeded in pots this year the same time as the others, and the problem is really pronounced. I went back to 2006 seed, and got about 80% germination... but the seedlings are just now emerging, more than a week behind the others. I hope they will do well, this is a bean with great flavor - and the shellies turn white as they cook, rather than the muddy colors of many other horticultural beans.

For limas, German Butterbean was started in a tray of Jiffy 32's, and all germinated; they were all transplanted yesterday.

All of the cowpeas that I direct seeded have had great germination. I held off starting transplants for those intended for the wetter areas of my rural garden (which unfortunately includes most of my yardlongs) but they are beginning to emerge now, as are the mung and adzuki.

A pleasant surprise has been the bush rice bean, obtained years ago from someone on this forum whose screen name I've forgotten (Mitzi, if you are out there, thank you!). Quite frankly, I had doubts about whether this might really be a cowpea, and whether it was too old to germinate. But started in pots, germinate they did, at nearly 100%... and the seedlings are hypogeal. Really odd looking too, the first leaves are almost grass-like. I'm really looking forward to growing these.

I still have a few soybeans to put in tomorrow, and then all of my planned legumes will be planted. There was one failure already, though, Oosodefuri. I over seeded heavily, and still had none germinate. Not sure what could have happened; I've never had 0% germination from any of my saved legumes. All of the other soybeans planted at the same time came up in acceptable numbers - sometimes requiring thinning - so I hope there are no other failures.

It has been really dry since my last post, which is the reason I've been able to (nearly) finish planting. But flash flooding is predicted for tomorrow... I hope nothing gets washed away, as it did last year. Wish me luck.

Fingers crossed for you Zeedman, I do hope you have a decent growing season this year.
Another no show for me, tried twice but the 'Chevrier Vert' just wouldn't germinate and the 'Flaro French Flageolet' only one seed germinated so I'll grow that one in a pot. Not that I grow many bush beans but these two don't seem to be in circulation so thought it would be nice to get them available to someone who wanted to grow them, oh well you can't win them all. Other than that everything else is looking good so far, 'Blue Jay' finally planted and are up already we are having an unusual June sunny and hot, usually our Junes are wet and cool. it's in the 80 most days I hope this isn't a sign it's going to be hotter in July and August. As a rule we have a few stinking hot days the first two weeks in July and then it settles down to something more comfortable.

The runners 'Aeron Purple Star' (planted out Apr 30th) are over the top of their netting, flowering like mad but the foliage is sparse which concerned me but was told not to worry the leaves will come, these runners are flowering right from the very bottom of the vines, still it looks rather strange seeing all this flowering without the usual amount of foliage. These runners had a special bed prepared for them throughout the winter, trench dug, manure and lots of good compost piled in. Fingers crossed being it's so hot right now these flowers will set beans, I have hit them with the hose a couple of time, this is said to help, we'll see. I'm glad I took a change and planted some yard longs out in the garden it looks like this year they'll actually have a change to produce something. The Yancheng Bush and a short row of 'India Bush' are also up and looking good as are the 'Blue Goose Chowder' and 'Fagiolina del Trasimeno' these two are samples planted in tubs.

I'm sure glad I mulched my bean beds with straw before planting, if we're in for a hot dry summer with strict watering regulations this should help retain some moisture, besides it's sure keeping the weeds down the odd oat that germinates is easy to pull. I'm trying the no dig method in one bed this year, earlier in the spring I weeded but didn't till, laid down a bale of straw. When the time came pushed the straw away from the poles that had been driven in, planted the beans that had been germinated in the greenhouse, so far so good they're climbing the poles and looking good.

A little OT but I'm trying some Yacon, Oca and Crosne for the first time, all I can say is so far so good, all being grown in tubs so they can be moved to the greenhouse in the fall to finish off if needed. Keeps life interesting trying something different :).

Annette

I'm
probably not going to get everything in, that I wanted. We underwent
weeks of rain and flooding. But Woods Mountain Crazy Bean has been a
real champ. Pops up quickly, in spite of everything and grows like
crazy (why does that word keep cropping up?!)

I
have some Poletschka Pole Bean and Black Jungle Lima on a
panel, growing well. Cherokee Striped Cornhill is going wild,
flowering profusely. Within a week, we'll be eating these. Here's a
link to a write up I did on this one, yesterday.

http://seedsavingnetwork.proboards.com/thread/114/cherokee-striped-cornhill-pole-bean

If
our summers were a little milder, this one would become a mainstay
for us.

Tennessee
Cutshort is doing well. I have a tripod (well, one leg of a tripod)
of Barksdale. I had to replant it last night.

I
have some good looking Calico Willowleaf Pole Limas (opposite end of
the property from the Black Jungle). And, I planted a patch of Fowler
Bush Bean, one of only two bush beans, that I know, to flower and
produce until frost, if not killed by heat and drought.

I
planted some Tarahumara Purple Ojos, in a bed at work. But I actually
watched birds snip off the seedlings and kill every last one of them.

I
planted Mecatlán Black, last week, from unlabeled, undated seed. My
seed stock was in perilous condition. I was very happy to see several
seedlings pop up. This is a non-vining half runner, which we obtained
from a friend in Mecatlán Veracruz. It's very hardy and very
prolific. I've been meaning to multiply the seed, as we are in need
of a dependable dry bean for this area.

I
still need to plant Kahala Soy, Berta Talaska, Georgia Long, and
Frank Barnett Cutshort. We'll see. It's getting late and I have more
sweet potatoes to get in. Still haven't successfully started my
winter squash.

George

Hi George,
When I grew Poletschka I just grew it for seed so haven't eaten any, from what I've read it can be eaten as a snap but better as a shelly and a good dry but needs a long soaking before cooking when used as a dry bean.

I'm doing a Tennessee Cutshort trial this year seed from my 2011 crop where it really looked like a cutshort, the ones you just sent me and some from last years crop, just to see if there are any differences, it should be an interesting comparison along with some good eating. Also growing a tripod of Frank Barnett. I don't know how I found the space to grow all the varieties I'm growing this year, a tight squeeze but I did. I'll have to bag the flowers I want to keep for seed to make sure they don't cross. It looks like we and the neighbors will be eating a lot of beans this year LOL.
Annette

I harvested 130 of the Fortex X Oaxacan 5-1 seed today. There was only
one plant that was clearly from the cross in the entire row of Fortex
seed planted. The flowers were pink, the beans pods were green with a
pale purple lineback. Mature bean pods turn rich deep petunidin red.
Pods tend to produce 7 seed each and are about 8 to 9 inches long with a
distinctive curve near the tip. The seed are black with brown
undertones that can be seen on immature seed. The plant is very healthy
with little to no damage from Japanese Beetles where the Fortex plants
on each side were heavily damaged. There are at least 50 more pods on
the plant so I expect to wind up with about 500 to 700 seed total for
next year.

It will be interesting to see how these F2 seed segregate when I grow them next year.

Sounds like you just might have a winner there, especially the resistance shown to the Japanese beetle, which can be so devastating. The bean itself sounds very interesting, have you tried them as a green bean?
Annette

As an F1 hybrid, they will segregate heavily for traits including flavor and strings. I tasted a few of them. They are comparable to Fortex but with slight strings. Oaxacan 5-1 is a small but otherwise decent flavored bean. It brings exceptional disease tolerance into the cross.

Abstract:
Seven races of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. phaseoli Kendrick and Snyder
(Fop) cause Fusarium wilt (FW) disease of common bean (Phaseolus
vulgaris L.). FW occurs worldwide and has recently become a serious
disease in the central and western USA. The objectives of this research
were to identify new sources of resistance to Fop, characterize the
Central/South American (CA/SA) Phaseolus Core Collection for reaction to
races 1, 4, and 5 Fop and determine if a previously reported sequence
characterized amplified region (SCAR) molecular marker would be useful
to identify resistance among accessions that make up the CA/SA Core
Collection. Seedlings from the CA/SA Core Collection were screened for
reaction by a root dip inoculation procedure. Among accessions evaluated
for reaction to race 1 Fop, 21 were resistant, 47 intermediate, and 126
susceptible. Fifteen accessions were resistant to race 4, 61
intermediate, and 114 were susceptible. Nine accessions were resistant
to both races 1 and 4, and five of the nine (PI 207373, PI 307802, PI
308908, PI 309877, PI 310842) were also resistant to race 5 Fop. All
accessions resistant to races 1, 4, and 5 of Fop were characterized as
Middle American, which suggests that resistance to multiple races of Fop
should be more prevalent in germplasm from Middle America. The SCAR
marker previously developed to identify a quantitative trait locus (QTL)
associated with resistance to Fop was not associated with resistance in
the Core Collection.

Here is a link to the full article.

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/240787185_Reaction_to_Three_Races_of_Fusarium_Wilt_in_the_Core_Collection

It's still hot here, supposed to be a little cooler next week, I'll believe it when I see it. We've just had the hottest June in recorded history (over 100 years). I took a chance and planted a few 'German Red Lima' in a tub earlier on, they're blooming their fool heads off right now, the 'India Bush' are starting to flower, so it looks like we'll get to taste a few. 'Yancheng Bush' were planted a little later, looking good but not flowering yet.
In the main garden, 'Brita's Foot Long' still has lots of flowers and this pole is loaded with beans, doesn't seem to mind the heat at all, this was the second bean planted, 'Aeron Purple Star' were the first to go in, we'll be eating both these in the next few days. Some of the other poles are starting to flower, others are at different stages which is good in some ways as they won't be producing at the same time.
The big threat right now is fire, we've had two recently just north of us and one south. The whole place is tinder dry, makes one a little nervous, hoping for rain but this time of year that usually means thunder and lightning :(.
Annette