Reviving old seed/ Cherokee Striped Cornhill Pole Bean
Apr 13, 2020 9:10:07 GMT -6
heavyhitterokra and rdback like this
Post by macmex on Apr 13, 2020 9:10:07 GMT -6
I've been trying to get Cherokee Striped Cornhill Pole Bean started up in my garden again for several years. I first grew this bean in 2008, when Tony West of the Appalachian Heirloom Plant Farm sent me some seed. I got it in late, I believe sometime in July, and only planted a couple seeds on some Mesquakie Indian Corn. This bean did exceedingly well. It really impressed me and my wife. Here's what I wrote in my notes, that fall:
9/23/08 Cherokee Striped Cornhill bean first dry seed. (forgot to make note when I planted this bean!) This bean was planted on two end rows of Mesquakie Indian Corn (second planting), on the West side. It grew up the corn very well, actually breaking the stalks down to only about 4’ tall by the end of the season. Yet it produced prodigious amounts of pods, each with seven or eight seeds per pod. The pods had heavy double strings and were easy to string. This bean seems to be right up there with the very best. Pods stay tender right up until one could shell the beans for shellies. I would really like to grow this one again, and, I have plenty of seed! Tony West, my source for this bean mentioned that it is very similar to Genuine Cornfield Pole beans, except it comes in a full two weeks early and the pods are larger. I can attest to the larger pods. But it’s been since 1985 that I’ve grown Genuine Cornfield Pole bean, and I cannot remember days to maturity.
This bean produced surprisingly well, especially for such a late start. We found that we absolutely LOVED the green beans, and I harvested a good amount of seed, to boot.
We saw all kinds of potential in this bean! The next year, Jerreth asked me to plant a "whole lot of that bean," and I willingly complied. I planted early and the vines were truly rampant. It was hard, even, to get in between the poles, as the vines were so voluminous.
What discouraged me, though, was that they hardly set any pods until fall. I don't remember, but I believe we had a small harvest in 2009; and, I didn't plant them for some years, because of this. 2009 was a HOT summer, and we had a number more super hot summers, in the coming years. Later, I concluded that the problem was that this bean doesn't set pods well when nights are really warm, just like Barksdale Wax Pole Bean. A couple years later I figured out, through Barksdale Wax Pole Bean, that such beans can be very productive, if planted in early July, in our climate. So, I decided to try this one again. At the time, I couldn't find my seed, so in 2014I got some from Dorothy Bowen, who had received some from me, only to discover that she had given me Borlotto seed instead. When I finally found my old seed, it no longer germinated, and, Tony West was not offering it in his catalog.
This year I started investigating how to revive old seed and, Rick Back, of our own forum happened to send me some Cherokee Striped Cornhill Pole Bean seed. The packet arrived replete with my own handwriting. I had sent it to him in 2009. So I set about trying to get it to grow.
April 6, I took store bought peroxide and mixed it one part to twenty of water. I placed the seeds in that solution and let them soak for about 5 hours. The purpose of this was to kill mold and bacteria which would be harbored in the seed coats. Then I soaked the seed in a nutrient solution which consisted of one cup of luke warm water, two teaspoons of sugar and a drop of Superthrive, which is a B1 plant vitamin supplement. I let it soak in there for 9 hours.
At that point I drained and rinsed the seed and placed it on a damp paper towel, inside a plastic bag, with one end left slightly open. Instead of using just water, I used a very dilute solution of Miracle Grow and a drop of Superthrive to dampen the towels. My reasoning was that the seed, if alive at all, was going to be weak and struggle to get going if it didn't get some nutrition immediately.
On April 9, I saw that one seed had started putting out a root. I was thrilled!
That evening I prepared a tray with good seed starting medium and planted all of the bean seeds. I planted them very shallowly, and with the one that had started to grow, I made sure to plant the root side down and the seed coat level with the surface of the starting medium. And, I waited.... I had to water once and used a Miracle Grow solution, at 1/4 the usual strength, to do so.
On April 12 I found that one bean had started to push up from the soil!
It was Easter morning, and... the day after my father had passed away. Somehow, seeing this old seed apparently revive, brought tears to my eyes. But then, at the time, it didn't take much to do that.
Here's a photo of the seedling, taken this morning.
It's preferable to save seed from more than one plant, but hey, I'll take it! You can bet I'll be careful with this plant! Here's hoping that it survives to maturity!
9/23/08 Cherokee Striped Cornhill bean first dry seed. (forgot to make note when I planted this bean!) This bean was planted on two end rows of Mesquakie Indian Corn (second planting), on the West side. It grew up the corn very well, actually breaking the stalks down to only about 4’ tall by the end of the season. Yet it produced prodigious amounts of pods, each with seven or eight seeds per pod. The pods had heavy double strings and were easy to string. This bean seems to be right up there with the very best. Pods stay tender right up until one could shell the beans for shellies. I would really like to grow this one again, and, I have plenty of seed! Tony West, my source for this bean mentioned that it is very similar to Genuine Cornfield Pole beans, except it comes in a full two weeks early and the pods are larger. I can attest to the larger pods. But it’s been since 1985 that I’ve grown Genuine Cornfield Pole bean, and I cannot remember days to maturity.
This bean produced surprisingly well, especially for such a late start. We found that we absolutely LOVED the green beans, and I harvested a good amount of seed, to boot.
We saw all kinds of potential in this bean! The next year, Jerreth asked me to plant a "whole lot of that bean," and I willingly complied. I planted early and the vines were truly rampant. It was hard, even, to get in between the poles, as the vines were so voluminous.
What discouraged me, though, was that they hardly set any pods until fall. I don't remember, but I believe we had a small harvest in 2009; and, I didn't plant them for some years, because of this. 2009 was a HOT summer, and we had a number more super hot summers, in the coming years. Later, I concluded that the problem was that this bean doesn't set pods well when nights are really warm, just like Barksdale Wax Pole Bean. A couple years later I figured out, through Barksdale Wax Pole Bean, that such beans can be very productive, if planted in early July, in our climate. So, I decided to try this one again. At the time, I couldn't find my seed, so in 2014I got some from Dorothy Bowen, who had received some from me, only to discover that she had given me Borlotto seed instead. When I finally found my old seed, it no longer germinated, and, Tony West was not offering it in his catalog.
This year I started investigating how to revive old seed and, Rick Back, of our own forum happened to send me some Cherokee Striped Cornhill Pole Bean seed. The packet arrived replete with my own handwriting. I had sent it to him in 2009. So I set about trying to get it to grow.
April 6, I took store bought peroxide and mixed it one part to twenty of water. I placed the seeds in that solution and let them soak for about 5 hours. The purpose of this was to kill mold and bacteria which would be harbored in the seed coats. Then I soaked the seed in a nutrient solution which consisted of one cup of luke warm water, two teaspoons of sugar and a drop of Superthrive, which is a B1 plant vitamin supplement. I let it soak in there for 9 hours.
At that point I drained and rinsed the seed and placed it on a damp paper towel, inside a plastic bag, with one end left slightly open. Instead of using just water, I used a very dilute solution of Miracle Grow and a drop of Superthrive to dampen the towels. My reasoning was that the seed, if alive at all, was going to be weak and struggle to get going if it didn't get some nutrition immediately.
On April 9, I saw that one seed had started putting out a root. I was thrilled!
That evening I prepared a tray with good seed starting medium and planted all of the bean seeds. I planted them very shallowly, and with the one that had started to grow, I made sure to plant the root side down and the seed coat level with the surface of the starting medium. And, I waited.... I had to water once and used a Miracle Grow solution, at 1/4 the usual strength, to do so.
On April 12 I found that one bean had started to push up from the soil!
It was Easter morning, and... the day after my father had passed away. Somehow, seeing this old seed apparently revive, brought tears to my eyes. But then, at the time, it didn't take much to do that.
Here's a photo of the seedling, taken this morning.
It's preferable to save seed from more than one plant, but hey, I'll take it! You can bet I'll be careful with this plant! Here's hoping that it survives to maturity!