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Post by macmex on Jan 11, 2020 7:28:37 GMT -6
Folks, Ron emailed me about a fascinating interaction he had with a customer who had purchased okra seed from him. I will paste the part of the interaction which is pertinent to seed saving.Thank you , I've read a lot about your okra from what ive found online very interesting .some my clemson i planted last year put on another branch instead be jst straight stalk. thank you for taking the time for me to get some your okra seeds.Have you ever heard of hamby pole beans? I've always growed them and still do. always wonderin if their was another name for them.they get bout 6 to 8 in long bout 3/4in wide green and big brown bean
Ron asked me if I had ever heard of this bean, and, I suspect I haven't. At any rate, though the name sounds vaguely familiar, I don't believe I have. But I did do a bit of searching on the internet and found some information on them. Here's the link: Labyrinth Farm: Hamby Pole Beans .
So now we know of THREE parties growing this bean, at least as of 2018. That's a rare bean! This illustrates a number of important truths about seed saving.
1) Sometimes a really good variety is really uncommon. It has the quality to be popular, but why isn't it? Perhaps lack of exposure is the cause, I'm not sure. 2) True seed "saving heros" are often obscure, themselves. None of these parties are well known in seed saving or gardening circles, yet they are doing a valuable service by growing and using this bean. 3) Plant explorers look for and then try to preserve rare plants. You can do this. If, in the course of your interactions with others, you come across something like this, you can seek to obtain seed, grow it and then re-offer it to others.
If you were to seek to preserve this bean, how would you go about getting some seed?
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Post by macmex on Jan 11, 2020 18:08:02 GMT -6
Yes, the Labyrinth Farm blog post comments mention the contact info for a hardware store in Tennessee which had the seeds (and hopefully still does). That's definitely one way of getting the seed. Another way might be to contact Jesse, the fellow who Ron Cook has been dealing with. He specifically stated that he grows them. That's two possible ways to get the seed.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 16, 2020 9:34:01 GMT -6
George,
Were you able to contact Jesse?
I imagine he would be very happy to know someone was interested in growing his Hamby Pole Beans. NSU has an Indigenous Studies Course. I'll bet you would have enough 'pull' there to talk someone into donating bed space on campus in order to work on a seed increase of this variety. There are quite a few remote locations on their 80-acre campus. The white, concrete block building beside the Church, where we parked our trucks last Sunday is one of those places. As long as you didn't plant beans in the parking lot (which is that entire grass field) you'd probably be okay. The Grounds personnel there are easy to get along with. When I worked on the Grounds Crew there, we attended other folk's gardens as part of our duties on campus. I really enjoyed that job. Too bad it paid so little I couldn't afford to keep it. I would have been happy doing that for the rest of my life, but I a had a wife and 4 kids to feed.
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Post by rdback on Jan 16, 2020 10:29:51 GMT -6
I haven't heard of this bean, so I thought I'd check Seed Savers Exchange. There's no bean listed, but there is a watermelon! Described as:
"85 days, Green striped rind, delicious sweet red flesh. 10-18 lbs. Quite productive Grown commercially by a Mr. Hamby, Cedar County, Missouri in the 1930s"
Wonder if it's the same fella?
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Post by macmex on Jan 16, 2020 19:01:39 GMT -6
It would be interesting to find out if it's the same Mr. Hamby. I need to contact Jesse about this bean. I was kind of hoping someone else would take this project on, as I KNOW I'm going to be struggling this summer, keeping up on everything. But this bean really does intrigue me
Ron, I may well look into something with grounds. I'm friends with a number of those guys. Okay, well, it's your "fault." I'm probably going to acquire another bean!
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Post by macmex on Jan 17, 2020 9:01:35 GMT -6
Bon,
Kentucky Wonder was my parents' favorite bean, but it, like a fair number of Appalachian beans, doesn't like our extreme summer heat. It generally won't set pods here until the cooler nights of late summer arrive. If one plants it in April or early May, the plants will probably be wore out, just from surviving, by the time they might be able to produce.
This is a challenge with a good many beans. I've come to the conclusion that one just can't know until they try them. Some varieties, on the other hand do just great in our summer heat. Rattlesnake, Cooper's Running Snap (which might well be Rattlesnake) and Cherokee Trail of Tears excel in our heat,.. until it gets really extreme (mid July). Even they will take a break from production from then until at least the third week of August. Tennessee Cutshort handles the heat well too.
WIth Hamby, only experimentation will tell how it might handle our heat. I wrote Jesse last night. I might yet end up with some seed.
I get the impression from that blog post, that they only had one year under their belts, of growing experience with it. It could be a really short and sweet producer, but then it might not. The first year I grew Tennessee Cutshort, it came on fast and finished production in about 3 weeks. It produced a lot, but it was done in about three weeks. This was in NJ, with a very temperate climate and plenty of moisture. It never did that again. The vines grew taller from that year on, no matter where I grew them, and production was much longer. Why? I have no idea.
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Post by macmex on Jan 17, 2020 13:39:50 GMT -6
For Kentucky Wonder, I'd recommend planting at the beginning of July, watering very well, and hoping for a good crop, starting around the end of August. If all goes well, they should bear well until frost.
Another suggestion would be to plant another variety as well, one known to produce well in heat. That way you get beans for sure.
Woods Mountain Crazy Bean is a bush, but it produces "like crazy." I don't have enough seed to share, right now, but Sandhill Preservation Center sells the seed.
Woods Mountain Crazy Bean
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 18, 2020 21:26:57 GMT -6
I'm glad you started this tread, George. Until I read this, I thought I was just a terrible bean grower. When I was a kid, summers were much milder than they have been for the last decade or so. Winters were much colder then too.
Maybe the heat is what the problem has been lately? Growing up, we picked beans by the bushels and canned them all summer long. I used to grow enough Bush Blue Lake green beans to donate a considerable amount to the Tulsa Food Bank. But since about 2010, I can hardly get any of them to set fruit.
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Post by jesse on Jan 19, 2020 22:14:57 GMT -6
the hamby beans were grown at least 70 years were i live most either growed hambys or kentucky wonders.from the labyrinth farm looks to be same as i grow.ones i grow do well even in summer heat and they bear heavy .i use from snap to shell beans as well.their only two places sells that i know. one i know still does other i havent check in while. the beans can get up 8 inches in length as well.
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Post by macmex on Jan 20, 2020 6:32:26 GMT -6
Jesse, THANK YOU for dropping in and contributing here! It sounds like you have a real winner. What you, and others, have done, growing, using and saving seed of this bean (and others) is far more important than most think.
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Post by mountianj on Mar 7, 2020 21:05:37 GMT -6
couple pictures of some hambys harvest and hambys growing behind the tomatoes planted.
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