|
Post by macmex on Jan 7, 2019 9:14:02 GMT -6
Over the last several weeks I have been sorting through the dried bean vines I pulled, back on November 9, just before the hard freeze. I finished shelling all the Tarahumara Pink Green Bean seed about two weeks ago. Though I only got a bit under a quart of seed, which is very little for so much that I planted, I am pleased. The 2018 seed is better than 2017, in that what I have fully dried before getting wet or frozen. It has the color that it should, and it is plump. A significant percentage of last year's seed had to be dried down before it was fully mature. This made for a lot of thin seeds and seed coats which were not the shiny pink that I've come to expect from this variety.
I'm sending about half of this seed crop to Native Seeds Search, and I may well plant again, this year, in hopes of a bumper crop. My desire is that we get enough seed to Native Seeds Search that they can once again offer the seed through their organization. They have followers who are interested in Southwest US and NW Mexico adapted seed. There may even come a time that they will need to supply a start to the very people who donated the seed to them, and they would know who they are and where they live.
Here's a photo of 1/2 of the seed crop for 2017. Off color seed (brownish) will probably still grow. That's just seed that experienced some wetness in the pod, while the seed still needed to dry.
|
|
|
Post by philagardener on Jan 13, 2019 6:35:41 GMT -6
Looks like a nice crop! Sharing seed around is the best insurance against losing a variety, and it would be good to get that variety growing again in the Southwest! Good luck with your 2019 season!
|
|
|
Post by macmex on Aug 18, 2019 5:07:06 GMT -6
Re-reading this thread, I just realized that I never mentioned that in 2017, I ended up with a decent amount of seed. There was a good amount which actually survived the first hard freeze, and dried in the pods. Later, when I was doing garden clean up, I discovered that as much as 25% of the pods, still out in the garden, contained viable seed.
|
|
|
Post by macmex on Nov 10, 2020 11:42:42 GMT -6
When in doubt, do a germination test. I'm stingy when I do germination tests on beans Generally I take 10 seeds and place them in a wrung out (damp) paper towel inside a plastic bag. I leave the bag unfastened, so that some air can get in and check it each day. With beans, it's common to have sprouts in 3 days. Stubborn (old, weak) seed might take up to 10 days. With 10 seed I can easily calculate percentage of germination.
|
|