Spangler Pole Bean

[macmex]

I'm going to start this thread now. All I've done at this point is read about this bean and purchase some seed. Both Sample Seed Shop and Sustainable Mountain Agriculture sell this bean. Sustainable  Mountain Agriculture simply states: "This is a large cornfield bean with cream and brown colored seeds hailing from West Virginia, especially good for canning." Sample Seed Shop states: "This variety has very fat green beans. They are still good for a green bean at stage pictured. It is a great bean, but not good for northern short season growers for seed saving. Bill Best says this is a cornfield type bean."  

I liked the photos, especially on the Sample Seed Shop. I also gravitate toward cornfield beans. "Cornfield bean" simply means that the bean can be (or has been) grown on corn. Cornfield beans strike me as having good vigor as a rule. Anyway, I'm planning to grow this one out. I'll keep records and see what it's like. At this point I have no way of knowing how it will do in our mid summer heat, but I do know how to grow beans that don't do well in our heat, by planting later and taking advantage of our long, mild fall, to get production.

Here's a photo of the seeds I received from Sample Seed Shop.


If anyone reading this has input on this variety, I'd love for you to post it in this thread.
  

[rdback]

Interesting looking bean George. My guess is Remy got her original seeds from Bill Best, since she started attending his seed swap in Berea several years ago. Don't know for sure.

There's not a lot of info out there about Spangler that I could find. The only thing I found was mention of it in a study whose objective was to select superior phenotypes of half-runner and pole beans for potential commercial markets in West Virginia and Appalachia. The one line of info was:

Type = Pole, Seed phenotype = frosted. Huge pods may be a novelty, easy to locate, good flavor and appearance.

There was no other mention of Spangler.

So, there you have it lol.

Good luck with it. Keep us posted on its progress.

[macmex]

That is good info Rick. Thanks. That at least tells us that the bean is a good one, and that, by Appalachian standards (They want a meaty bean with a tender hull). The rich variety of heirlooms always amazes me. This bean, for instance, must have had significant contact with someone called Spangler. For all I know, they had it for many years or generations. Presently we lack this information. That's important info, yet the bean is what it is.

I hope to get to know this variety and document more about it. In the process, I may help to restore/add to its heirloom quality by adding to its history. I wrote about this in To Make and Heirloom. 

Your info also points to another potential use for this variety: breeding. What I have observed with my bean cross experiment is that a cross between two stable varieties may be like stirring a pot of whatchagot stew. Not only will the f3 generation manifest characteristics from the two parent strains, but all kinds of hidden genes may come to light. I probably won't live long enough to explore a fraction of the possibilities here!

[macmex]

Just want to update this thread a bit. Spangler has grown vigorously for me. I have it growing on both poles and corn. It seems to do equally well on either. It's exceedlingly vigorous, so, beware of trying to grow it on a "wimpy corn," like most sweet


corns, or planting too early before the corn gets a head start. I really need to get a photo showing this plant's vigor.

Here's a photo of the first flower bud, I spotted on August 15, 61 days from seed.

[ericchildersnc]

George, I can really appreciate the tracking of days from seed. This is so important for the planning phase to harvest. Although I am a newby, I appreciate all details found in this forum. Great contributors here. I am ramping up for my first post.😃

[macmex]

I never "arrive" when it comes to keeping notes and making observations, but I keep working at it. Some of our members do very well at it. Some start a thread and use it like an online garden journal, which not only helps them, but also helps the rest of us!

Here's an article I wrote on "A More Focused Approach to Seed Saving."

[macmex]

Seventy-six days from planting, here are the pods I found on Spangler this morning. Been looking forward to seeing what this one looks like, as the only description I had said that it had "fat pods." They're fat, alright, but only in comparison to beans like Blue Lake. They are very much comparable to Tennessee and Childers Cutshort. I like beans like this as it doesn't take as many to get a meal and they are lower labor for stringing, in comparison to the amount of food one gets. The opposite extreme would be Red Peanut Bean or John Morgan Stumbo Greasy Cutshort, which are delicious, but require many more beans to make a "mess."


This bean ran up the poles, which are probably over 9' tall. They seem to like to hang out up high, leaving the bottom of the poles (and corn) less occupied. If I was primarily growing these for food it would have been a mistake to put up such tall poles, as I'd have difficulty picking beans. I will probably eat some, so as to be able to record observations on their quality, but otherwise this crop is for seed.


Here you can see how fat the pods are. They are nice and large. I suspect this bean will be very tender and quite similar to Tennessee Cutshort in eating quality.



Maybe next year I will plant a few of these in April to see if they are late because they just take longer to bloom, or if they are somewhat day length sensitive. It would also help me to observe their heat tolerance. I've already seen that this bean handles heat as it grows, but it only started flowering as the nights began to cool some. 

One single growing season is inadequate for making hard and fast conclusions about a variety, but I'm suspecting this bean would be simply wonderful as a fall crop in Oklahoma. Comments from The Sample Seed Shop indicate that in New York State, it came in late, yet we know it did produce seed there.



  

[macmex]

One last picture for today. This is one plant of Spangler, growing on Mesquakie Indian Corn. It's 52 days from when I planted this bean plant, my last planting. I'm about positive it has time to make seed. Good deal! I love the vigor and profuse flowering of this bean, as well as that of Cherokee Striped Cornhill.

[macmex]

I went out Friday and looked at Spangler, taking some notes and photos. Production is okay, not anything to brag about, but that could well be because it's shaded for part of the day. This is definitely a cornfield bean, doing quite well in these conditions. I want to post a few more photos of the pods. They are distinctly FAT as they fill out, yet they stay tender for quite a long time.







I picked just enough to cook up for a meal and found that my expectations were right. This is an exceptionally tender yet meaty bean. It was a treat!

[macmex]

I planted some more Spangler on corn which was starting to dry down, later in the summer. It used the corn for support, without pulling it to the ground. This is a GOOD cornfield bean. The fatness of the pods is most noticeable as they are approaching maturity and ready to dry down. Then they are really fat and develop a pinkish tint to the them. It has been a great pleasure to go out and inspect this planting. In its own way, it is truly beautiful. I LOVE cornfield beans. 

Here's a photo I took about a week ago (10/22/2020). I think it epitomizes this bean. What's so very nice is that this bean is tender and good to eat right up till the pods dry.




Another thing which I really enjoy about this bean is that whenever I look,  it always seems to come up with more pods. I even find them at ground level, hiding in the weeds, at the base of my corn. This is a real food producer.

[macmex]

One last, year end observation on this bean: though production started out slowly, it ended up being a heavy producer, producing well into November. Remy, at the Sample Seed Shop described it as a late bean. Perhaps Spangler is one of those Appalachian beans that behaves like a fall bean in our hot climate. I've noticed there is a significant percentage of Appalachian beans that do not produce well when things heat up here, yet do great later on in the season when cooler nights arrive.

I hope to grow this one again. I'm pretty taken with this bean. Photos I took of it on corn epitomize what I love about cornfield beans. Its flavor and texture are outstanding. The seed is large and attractive.

I suspect this bean is the same as a variety called Logan Giant. Also, I've read that there is a Turkey Craw bean which fits the same description. I believe "Turkey Craw" is a name that has been given to several different beans.

Bet this is a really old bean which was widely grown by Native Americans and adopted by settlers wherever they encountered it.

Houz thread on Logan Giant

A Bean Collector's Window Image of Logan Giant Seed

[macmex]

Here are some links which show how Spangler could be one of the Turkey Craw beans. When I searched for images of Turkey Craw Bean Seed I found some which looked identical and some which were very distinctly different from Spangler. This is to be expected of a bean which has been wide spread and grown over hundreds of years.

The Seed Savers Exchange bean is very similar, but to my eye, slightly different.

Seed Savers Exchange: Turkey Craw

Here's an Etsy Store selling Turkey Craw Bean Seed. It looks identical to Spangler.

I even found a listing for someone selling a bean which looks identical as a dry bean. That would be an economical way to get A LOT of good bean seed!

[macmex]

Yesterday, December 29, 2020, I went out and looked again at the Spangler planting. I found yet more pods. The pods had protected the seed very well, so I picked them and brought them in. This morning I started to shell the seed, while having my coffee. Then I decided to take a picture. I love this aspect of seed saving. Spangler, additionally, is quite pretty.

[macmex]

Yesterday's gleaning yielded about as much seed as is found in a normal commercial packet of bean seed. It's worth while. Eventually, though, rain and weather degrade the seed.

[hank]

I planted these beans about a month ago.