Nice to hear your report as always, drloyd. Mine will be much more brief & less informative, since my gardening was very limited this year. Only my home gardens were planted; the rural garden - where I normally grow the majority of my seed crops - was fallow this year. The few legumes I was able to plant are all summarized below:

Bosnian Pole - a second attempt at renewing my 2009 seed, since a cross showed up in the 2017 crop & that seed was not saved. All 10 plants healthy & true-to-type this year. Fairly late, began blooming about the time Emerite began bearing. Flat 5" pods very flavorful as snaps, sweet bean-pea flavor. The shellies are very good, my favorite way to eat these. Ate one meal of snaps, two meals of shellies, and harvested 3# of dry seed. Seeds egg-shaped, nearly spherical, black & white striped when fresh, with a portion of the white changing to tan as the seed ages.

Emerite (pole) - my main snap crop. 2009 seed still had about 90% germination. Got them in early this year, and except for a few hills dug up by squirrels, they produced early & heavily all summer. 6-7" round pods, outstanding flavor, remaining firm & stringless until very large. Froze about 50 pints, canned 12 quarts of dilly beans, ate a lot fresh, and gave a couple buckets full away. About mid-July, I let one row go for seed... this variety takes an exceptionally long time to go from snap to dry, nearly as long as from seed to snap. I'm usually harvesting dry seed right up until frost, and this year was no exception. Fortunately, the maturing pods & seeds are very resistant to moisture, so very few losses, in spite of 16"+ of rain over the period the seed was maturing. The last pods are still drying, but well over 3# of elongated, shiny black seed shelled so far.

The irony is that the most likely parent for the 2009 cross found in Bosnian Pole was... Emerite??? :-0 It just worked out that those were the two varieties most in need of renewal, and were again planted in the same year. This year, though, they had over 100' of separation, with limas & runner beans between them; so another cross is extremely unlikely. That cross, incidentally, was one of the highest-yielding beans I've ever grown, over 1# of dry seed from a single plant... provided that the culinary qualities prove to be useful, I may try to stabilize the variety when I retire in a few years.

Lima, Cave Dweller (black seeded) - bush, with a few 18-24" determinate runners. Because of the unusually early warm-up in late May, was direct-seeded in two locations. One location was almost completely dug up & destroyed by squirrels immediately after germination, and was re-planted a little later with transplants. Both rows matured nearly all of their seed before frost. The yield was disappointing, much less than the last time it was grown; so except for two meals of fresh butterbeans, I let the rest go for seed. Small, shiny black seed, slightly larger than Sieva pole lima. These did not respond well to the extended September rainfall, much of the seed harvested after that period was sprouted or discolored. About 4# of dry seed, but I expect that after culling & sorting, only about 2# will be saved for seed, and the rest consumed.

Runner bean, Tarahumara Tekomari (pole) - this was the second year of attempting to stabilize a gray-seeded selection from the original multi-colored land race, since that selection was noticeably tender & flavorful as a shelly. Two large rows direct-seeded in late May were completely dug up & destroyed by squirrels as they were germinating. Replacement transplants were started immediately, and were successful. A few white-flowered variants were destroyed & replaced before they could bloom; I held back extra transplants for that purpose. The results of this year's selection were encouraging, since all of the remaining red-flowered plants proved to be gray-seeded. The vines were slow-growing until late Summer, at which point they sprouted new runners from nearly every leaf node & became extremely vigorous. Because of the extended heat this summer, flowering was intense - but pod set was late. A few pods still drying, but harvested about 20 ounces of dry seed, a meal of snaps, and several pounds of delicious shellies.

Yardlong bean, 3-feet-plus (pole) - another repeat grow out, since the 2017 planting failed to produce good seed. Due to the consistently warm weather, much better results this year. 18-24" long, light green pods with a nutty flavor, which stay exceptionally firm when cooked or frozen. Harvested a lot of fresh pods (including 8 pints frozen) and about 6 ounces of dry seed.

Yardlong/cowpea Thai Soldier - supposedly a "bush" long bean, but acted more like a vining cowpea. The pods were short (8-10"), purple striped, thin walled, and had a fairly soft cooked texture. The yield was early & plentiful; but the roaming 6' vines took much more space than I expected, and the pods had a very short harvest window before they became hollow & fibrous. Froze several pints of the pods, and harvested about 10 ounces of dry seed before voles took an interest in them... the black & white seed resembles flattened black eyed peas. But other than its novel appearance & short DTM, the variety has little else to distinguish it, and is very susceptible to rodents. There are better varieties already in my collection, so I will probably not grow this one again.

Soybean, Natsu Kurakake - edamame type, very early, short plants (15-18"), medium-large bi-colored yellow & black seeds. All seed matured. The yield was lower than I expected, given that I planted two long rows... but we still had one meal of edamame, and 20 ounces of dry seed. For my soybean grow outs, anything over 8 ounces is a good year.

Soybean, Gardensoy 24 - edamame type, late, very tall plants (36-42"), large yellow seed. One of the two rows had a severe aphid infestation just as the plants were flowering; but after two applications of insecticidal soap, natural aphid predators took over (ladybugs, and larvae of lacewings and hoverflies) and the aphids were wiped out two weeks later. The dry seed for this variety just barely matures here before our usual frost date, and this year was no exception. With little else in the garden to feed on, voles began to harvest the maturing seed, and took about half before I noticed - in spite of mouse traps catching a dozen of them. So all the plants were pulled, and are drying in my basement. It will probably be a week or so before the pods are dry enough to shell, but it appears there will still be at least 1/2 pound of dry seed.

Thanks for sharing great reports...I'm also south of Seattle and trying to learn about growing beans...will try several heirloom varieties next year to see which ones like it here:)

Due to my health issues my bean growing was limited to just a few varieties.

PIEKNY JAS finally got my hands on a few of the right ones, this is a runner so couldn't grow AERON PURPLE STAR this year, I got a good crop of dried seed and this has been spread around :)

SARAH'S OLD FASHIONED BLACK After many years of searching I finally found someone who shared some seed with me. This blackish colored seed very much like Cherokee Trail of Tears produced a very nice snap with a touch of sweetness. A green bean flushed with a bit of red. Have shared the seed in hopes it is more widely grown.

ONLY THE LONELY was supposed to be RALPH'S ITALIAN HEIRLOOM, I have a thread on this elsewhere. A cross or a mutation is yet to be determined. The long dried pods were very thin with the white seed spaced out in the pods, also this turned out to be a wax bean.

EMELIA'S ITALIAN my good old faithful, kept a few seeds but ate most as snap beans.

BUENOS AIRES ROJA new to me grown for seed.

CHEROKEE TRAIL OF TEARS ate most of them :).

JUANITA SMITH, BRECK'S ITALIAN and POLISH FREIDANK, only grew samples so not too many seeds in fact if I haven't shared Polish Freidank with anyone the half a dozen seeds I harvested may be the last in existence.

Annette

drloyd, I'm in Renton and trying to grow heirloom beans...actually I am growing them, trying to be successful. Could we talk? PM me if you get message.

After random gardening for a number of years I have learned new words, like "Open Pollinated" and "Heirloom seeds" and even "Seed Saving" that threaten to change my life! So now instead of recommended F1 Hybrids my garden will be full of old varieties that have been sold or gifted to me with promise of great things.

Gardening in Pacific Northwest, most of the bean varieties are new to me and 2019 will be trials.

• NT half runner did well here last year and I will plant more of those than the others.
• New ones are Purple Pod Pole, Lazy Wife Greasy, Tobacco Worm, and Red eye fall bean
• Bush beans Provider which has done well in the past and Dragon tongue for entertainment
• Last year my yard long failed, mostly because plants were too close and overwhelmed by NT half runner. Have seeds for purple thai yard long to try this year.
• 2 runner beans, also for entertainment, Black Coat and Painted Lady

Would love feedback from experienced gardeners about what to expect from these beans. And will report at end of season what happens!