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How did you manage to get a French Bean - Runner bean Cross?

You are both so very clever. I would get mixed up with them all. ;D

Quote from: Digeroo on February 02, 2012, 18:31:41
How did you manage to get a French Bean - Runner bean Cross?

A bee or wasp did it.  I noticed an odd french bean plant with red and white flowers like 'painted lady' runner beans.  I asked a friend (experienced seed saver) and he told me what it was.

French beans with red flowers, like the one Saddad reported, are most likely french/runner interspecies crosses.  My red/white flowers point to a cross with painted lady runner bean, which I had indeed grown the previous year.

Such gorgeous looking beans Galina, I particularly like the look of the s bean. Keep us all posted  :)

Lots to look at and think about  :)

I very interested in the french/runner bean crosses.  The commercial ones on sale are white flowered though I have seen reference to a red flowered one.

I have been wondering if there is any way of getting it to happen.

It will be interesting to find out how stable these crosses are.

I have saved some seed of moonlight so I will be interested as to what the second generation wll be about.  There were loads of other beans about particularly Mrs Lewis;s purple podded so I am hoping for sime interesting results.

With all this talk about beans I'm now more interested in the fact that my home saved Painted Lady seeds are now paler than the original ones I started off with. Wonder If I'll get paler flowers this year??? ;) Robert sent me some seeds so we'll see what a little matchmaking does...... ;D

Makes me want to plant a whole row of mixed tall growing French beans and see what happens.

I am planting a mixed row of runners this year anyway

Maybe we will get a bean orgy!!

XX Jeannine

You will with the runners. You might get the odd French cross, but I grow different varieties next to each other, and haven't had one yet.

I think I feel a new project starting  :P
I did look at cross pollinating beans last year but took the easier route of crossing peas  ;D

Some varieties seem to be more prone to crossing than others.   I grow major cook and find a small percentage each year are different.  I grew them fairly close to some Borlotti and some of the seeds in year two were larger borlotti shaped.  Cherokee Trail of Tears on the other hand seem to come up the same everytime.

Sounds a good combination Digeroo, are you going to grow out your Major Cook x Bolotti again this year?

It seems that the worse the summer is the more french bean crosses I get - if the parents look interesting and different then the offspring might be something unique - sometimes the beans themselves are the lookers - I have one that looks like polished fancy jasper when it is fresh, unfortunately nothing special when it is dry.

One thing I will be looking out for is a low-climbing bean that will coexist with my other two mini-sisters (sweetcorn and cucumbers). Some dwarf borlottis put a climbing spurt on after the first set of beans but none of my crosses do so far.

Cheers.