Topic: Bean and pea swap

[chriscross1966]

Brightstone (French)
BridgeWater (French)

One of the last 2 is dwarf the other climbing - but I can never remember which is which without looking it up.

Bridgewater is a climber... or at least the ones I have are.....

[Robert_Brenchley]

Mine are climbing as well.

[chriscross1966]

I should be able to put in quitre a few shelling beans:

Climbers

Box
Polish Climbing
Egyptian Pea-Bean
Bridgewater
Minnesota Purple Mennonite Stripe
Blue Lake
Marvel of Venice
Birds Egg
Borlotti
Giganda (Giant butter bean but it's not the same species)

Dwarf
Soldier Bean
Yin -Yang
Ernies Big-Eye Bean
Arranesco

plus the green beans
Cobra and Speedie..... might not have many of the Speedie so don't count on it.

Don't envy you the counting out job BTW, it might make sense if we all pre-split them into tens?

chrisc

THe harvest is pretty much on for the Soldier and Speedie though the plants are trying to struggle out a few more flowers..... I can't see that there'll be more than a dozen spare speedies unless they start flowering again and maybe twice that of the Soldiers..... I'd recommend both though as the Speedies do live up to their name, tiny plants that crop with a handful of leaves on weeks before anything else does.... I thought they'd provide beans earl;y from a polytunnel before the Cobra's got going, but what actually happened was that they were finished as green beans over a month before the Cobras, thankfully I'd frozen some as I wasn't in a posaition to eat them all at the time (they kept coming through when I was going away). Next year I'll be more aggressively early with them in a greenhouse and sow something else to bridge the gap..... I don't think it would be asking too much of them to crop by the middle-end of May from an early March sowing.
I also recommend Soldier, I only had a handful of plants this year (six or so of the 10 sown) but they've been earlier than the rest of the shelling dwarfs and it's a great bean, qquite large and quite handsome, imagine an oversize cannellini with a smudge of purple around the scar....

chrisc

[lottiedolly]

I think it has not been a wonderful bean year, i have spoken to many people who are not harvesting the amount they normally would be, probably due to the rotten drought we had earlier in the year.

I am trying to preserve as many for seeds as possible whilst still being able to get a good munch as well as it is not really worth growing if you cannot eat it. once i get everything dried, then i can start to work out what beans i will have available.

K  ;D

[Digeroo]

I have not got anyvthing to dry yet at all.  But here are lots of flowers going on.

The runners have finally started so some of the french might get a chance to seed now. 

Hoping rain might bring a few things on.  I have 27 difference varieities of beans I cannot eat them all!!!  I can't keep up with Mrs Lewis and the Hungarian waxes.

Looks like I might have plenty of czechoslovakian.  Only had 10 beans which I got in a seed swap.  but they have gone into overdrive.  Pods much too furry to eat green.  I think Chris you will like this one, a very fast beaner and huge beans. 

Also have Sarahs Climbing Black they are so delicious I doubt there will be many of those left after I have eaten them.  The best ever eaten raw. 

The ones in the garden are not doing well, but a mile away in the lottie things are excellent.

[chriscross1966]

I'm well into the cropping now.... having a bit of a problem with the Mennonite stripes.... They're lovely beans and they're early if not huge yielding, the issue I've got is trying to get them to dry out for seed, that massive fleshy pod is prone to rot rather than dry in our conditions.... just about to go down there now and will take what I can get, itll have to dry out under cover....

Also another discovery... both Box and Egyptian Pea-Bean are lovely to east, as is Ernies Big-Eye, and BLue Lake makes a cracking canellini with a big yield for me.... I've managed to have a few of the Gigandas too... massive great things, you couldn't mistake them for anythign else, leaving the crop now and praying that I get some to dry out for seed.... will be takign all the currnet flowers off this weekend to force the food into already set beans....


Soldier beans are all out now, nice bean but disappointing yield... will try again next year on the new plot....


The Czech beans sound intriguing.... 

[Digeroo]

How are you eating pea beans  As green beans they seem to be rather stingy.  Box not doing well all my beans apart from one in the front garden suffering from some kind of mosaic problem on the leaves  Thought it was the soil but squashes fine and the bindweed is doing magnificently.   

My mennonite stripes have huge square cross section pods.  They are still on the plants looks like a radiator job.  Seem to have yielded well.  The pods are huge and the beans are still quite small.  I shall leave mine on the plants another month.

My problem will be keeping all the different ones separate. 

I certainly do not want to spend the whole winter counting beans, I was thinking that everyone would send them in already counted.

[ruud]

You can count me in.I have an own created one,not by purpose.Try to save enough beans and than we will see. ;D ;D ;D

[1066]

I've managed to have a few of the Gigandas too... massive great things, you couldn't mistake them for anythign else, leaving the crop now and praying that I get some to dry out for seed.... will be takign all the currnet flowers off this weekend to force the food into already set beans....

I've been wondering what to do with my Gigandes, so think I will follow suit - it has loads of flowers on at the moment, a few huge pods at the bottom of the plants and some smaller ones near the top. Bit confused by it, but very happy to see the pods   :-\

[goodlife]

I'm getting ready to harvest some beans for seeds soon.. ;D Majority of the bush sort are nearly there. Pole sorts are not even near ready..mind though..my little mystery ones have produced first dry pods and there is loads to come and it is still flowering as well...such a hard cropper..and it is shelling variety of some sort ??? What throws my research into trouble is the size of the pods..they are so small..there is plenty of 'lookalikes...it is not the size that matter but the perfomance.. ;D If anybody else is interested to try these..I'm sure I've got plenty available soon.
I've also got some sulphur beans now... ;)

[chriscross1966]

I might have my very own new variety as well.... looks like I've got a melanic sport in the pea-beans..... I only planted two black-seeded varieties and it's neither of them.... can't be black pencil-pod wax, that's a dwarf and the pod is very different to both that and the Cherokee ToT's... it looks like a black-podded, black seeded pea-bean.... if it comes true to seed next year then I announce the creation of "Crosskey's Nubian pea-bean"....

Had a big picking session this evening, stripped the Box and Blue Lakes (note to self, these are pretty early varieties), picked a lot of Bridgewater (a sort of earlier, not quite so productive Borlotti) and got a lot of the Polsh CLimbing (ditto),,,, took some BOrlotti's but there's loads on the plant still. Took a fair few Marvel of Venice (won't bother with it again as no advantage over BLue Lake and BL is more productive) and got some Yin-Yang, pea-beans and the last of the soldiers and Ernies Big-Eye.... left the Birds Egg alone cos easy to confuse with too many others, got a few Mennonite Stripe and left a few.....love this bean but it's no epic cropper despite the size of both bean and pod.... it's very early though....

chrisc

[Digeroo]

I think what I would like to do is to create a spreadsheet of all the beans on offer and then email round the list so people can see what is on offer and make choices.

One of the other problems with beans is that they move so if the package passed thought the PO nasty little slot when it was sent it might be too large and get a surcharge when it arrives because all the beans have slipped down one end.  Would be grateful for suggestions about this.  I very much resent paying the package rate myself for something which only missed by a mm.  It is almost twice the price.

[1066]

a spreadsheet sounds like a very practical idea Digeroo

re the postage, I know how annoying that is - but is there any way we could take the packets into the envelopes, so they don't move around?

[goodlife]

One way to keep the parcel even is to package the seed into small portions and stable these small packages on a piece of card... ;)

[chriscross1966]

CD/floppy disk transit boxes?

chrisc

[Jayb]

What about padded envelopes and if needed a little spare bubble wrap sent in case it is needed?

[chriscross1966]

ONe thought on the packaging front.... we'll all be sending them in precounted in tens I assume?... why not sellotape the beans to a piece of cardboard, with the type written on the cardboard.  Masking tape might make more sense than sellotape thinking about it cos it floats off with water.... and easier to write on too if you want. Should make it easier for the central redistribution.

chrisc

[chriscross1966]

Now have some dried gigandas, thetre's lots still green on the plant, same is also true of the borlotti's and the San Antonios, but it looks like all bar Mennonite Stripe should appear in the swap, possibly the gigandas in a half-sized set though. the plants are massive and the crop is starting to look huge. There might be a few Mennonite Stripes but they'll be for strictly the discerning specialist, sent out in plain wrappers....

[galina]

I might have my very own new variety as well.... looks like I've got a melanic sport in the pea-beans..... I only planted two black-seeded varieties and it's neither of them.... can't be black pencil-pod wax, that's a dwarf and the pod is very different to both that and the Cherokee ToT's... it looks like a black-podded, black seeded pea-bean.... if it comes true to seed next year then I announce the creation of "Crosskey's Nubian pea-bean"....
chrisc

I had to look up what a melanic sport is :-) Hope it will breed true or rather come back.  I once had a dark pod in rattlesnake beans, just the one, the others on the same plant were normal, but that trait did not come back.  Although in my case the seeds were the same as normal. 

Interesting.  Was the original a black and white yin-yang type?  I am not familiar with this pea bean.  If it is a genuine mutation, then it will breed true and the trait will be fixed without needing generations of selection, like with a cross.  Keep us posted how it goes next year.  And good luck with your own bean.

[galina]

ONe thought on the packaging front.... we'll all be sending them in precounted in tens I assume?... why not sellotape the beans to a piece of cardboard, with the type written on the cardboard.  Masking tape might make more sense than sellotape thinking about it cos it floats off with water.... and easier to write on too if you want. Should make it easier for the central redistribution.

chrisc

Sounds very sensible.