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Post by macmex on Jul 9, 2020 6:46:02 GMT -6
Good beans make for a sense of well being. Ron, I have plenty of TN Cutshort seed, if you should need any more.
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Post by macmex on Jul 10, 2020 6:25:03 GMT -6
Bon, some beans produce better than others when they are left to make seed, but most will produce up to a certain point and then stop. If they don't stop, they really slow down on production. When I am after seed I let them dry their seed at their own natural pace, usually without picking green beans for our use. When I want green beans I generally try to keep the vines picked clean.
Exceptions:
I will miss some beans and find them later, when they are really well filled out, with pods beginning to yellow. These, more often than not, I then pick and let dry for seed. This is how I get seed of Woods Mountain Crazy Bean. That bean never just dries down with a load of seed. In our climate, in fact, if I try to let it produce a lot of seed, most of the seed gets spoiled. The pods don't protect the seed from moisture when it rains, and, of course Wood Mountain Crazy Bean just never stops setting new pods. Seeing as Woods Mountain Crazy Bean is what they call a "full bean," old fashioned string bean, the pods are quite palatable right up until they have yellowed. So, when I pick for food, I just save the most yellowed pods and set them aside to dry, for seed.
With most pole beans I will miss some pods, here and there, when picking for food. It seems that the vines don't slow in their pod production, as long as they don't have a high number of drying pods at any one time. So, occasionally, I will leave a couple pods on a promising plant, even if it is in a food production area.
My system for growing for food and seed is thus:
1. Beans planted on a single pole or cattle panel are for food. 2. Beans planted on a tripod are for seed.
I make exceptions to this rule, but it is helpful, especially if someone else, other than myself, goes out to pick beans for supper! It's easier to give them that rule and let them have at it.
Finally: with most pole beans I have grown for food and kept picked, they don't simply stop producing at a given point. Production slows until it is not worth picking. If this is at the end of the season I simply let them be until nearly frost. Then I pull them and feed them to our goats. When I do pull them I almost always go through them carefully, finding some dried pods. I value these pods, as they add a lot wider genetic base to my seed supply. Instead, say, of getting seed from a dozen plants in total, I probably get seed from 40 or 50 plants.
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Post by macmex on Aug 1, 2020 12:26:36 GMT -6
Thirty-nine days after planting Cherokee Striped Cornhill Seed from Appalachian Heirloom Plant Farm, Here's what the plants look like. There are no flowers at this point, but I suspect they'll appear right on time for a wonderful fall harvest (barring tornadoes, floods, hail, or other Oklahoma weather phenomena).
On the 28th (4 days ago) I pulled the pole of this bean, which had to two plants from my 2009 seed. It definitely had two plants, so if the darker seed with fainter stripes is genetic, then it was in two out of about 25 seed and only those two survived to grow for me. I pulled that pole(s) since, though they were truly lush and beautiful, they were not producing new pods at the time. I knew that my later planting would start flowering soon, and I didn't want them to cross. I already have about 100 seed from that 2009 seed planting. So, with some sadness, I pulled them and fed them to one of our rams.
The next day I planted some more in the very spot. These are from the Appalachian Heirloom Plant Farm seed. Today, they were already up. Things grow so fast this time of the year, with all the heat. We've also had rain for several days.
Don' t know if I can get seed from these newbies, but I'm pretty sure we'll get to eat beans.
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Post by George's Administrator Hat on Aug 15, 2020 7:46:50 GMT -6
Posted in the wrong thread July 3, 2020 and moved here on August 15. By Macmex
The seed I received from Appalachian Heirloom Plant Farm has shown excellent germination! My understanding is that they are growing this one out in 2020 to offer for sale in 2021. I heartily recommend this bean! The one pole I started with my two old, but viable seeds is producing like gang busters. The pods are gorgeous. I won't eat any of them, though, as I want the seed. Here's a photo of some of the seedlings from my June 24th planting. Since that time I've also planted a pole and two more tripods of Cherokee Striped Cornfield. We're counting on getting a batch for eating too.Meanwhile, within the week I could probably harvest my first ripe seed from the April planting. There are some pods yellowing on the vine now.
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Post by macmex on Aug 15, 2020 12:26:12 GMT -6
This morning I took time to examine a number of crops in the garden and to take notes and pictures. I was excited to find the first flowers and even a small pod or two on the June 24 planting of Cherokee Striped Cornhill pole bean. This is from the seed I received from Tony West of the Appalachian Heirloom Plant Farm. He was the original source of my old seed, back in 2008. Now I am glad I yanked the pole from my April planting (from the 2009 seed which had survived in storage). The April planting produced white flowers. Here's a photo of the flowers on the June planting.
Notice anything? They're not white and yellow like those of the April planting. They're violet colored! All along the row, they are uniformly violet colored. This makes my head spin. I checked my old photoes of this bean and the only image I had which included flowers looks like they were white and yellow. I have had some doubts about my April planting, since the pods didn't mature the way I remembered them (memory can fail) and the mature seed only has the faintest of stripes, not even like the seed I planted in April. I'll keep notes and mull on this. Either way, I'll have seed from both.
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Post by macmex on Sept 3, 2020 18:47:40 GMT -6
In the last week or ten days the last two plantings of this bean have burst into profuse flower. The first flowers I observed were violet colored, yet, as all of the plants started to flower, I discovered that the majority have the white and yellow colored flowers.
The plants have truly run rampant. They are "mugging" the adjacent Polish Pastel tomato plants, in their cages.
See the tomato plants in that mess? No? Neither do I. But they're in there!
I love rampant growth in food crops, especially beans and squash.
Today I went out and picked enough of this bean for a meal.
Notice that some have faint purple streaking. I strung and cooked them for my own lunch, noticing that they have pretty heavy strings when the seed is filling out. Before that, they have no strings. When cooked, the pods are pure green and truly tender and delicious. This one ranks right up there with the very finest of the full beans (old fashioned string beans).
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Post by macmex on Sept 4, 2020 6:46:38 GMT -6
This is a photo of pods which are almost ready to dry down seed. Notice the bumpy appearance? Yet, when strung, these pods cooked up tender and delicious.
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Post by macmex on Sept 25, 2020 6:43:19 GMT -6
Well, the vine with the violet colored flowers was a cross. Last week I harvested two dry pods from my June 24th planting of Cherokee Striped Cornhill seed, the seed sent directly from Appalachian Heirloom Plant Farm. I wish I had saved the pods, but I discarded them once I shelled out the dry seed, last night. The dry pods were quite slender. I believe the pods which are true to type will be thicker. Here's a photo of the seed which came out of them.
It's black! When I see violet flowers pop up in a planting of beans which normally has white flowers, I wonder if I'm going to have black seed. Not all beans with violet flowers have black seed, but I think it's possible that all black seeded beans have violet flowers.
Anyway, this was obviously a cross. A couple of observations: 1) The cross did not occur in my garden, but rather at the place the Appalachian Heirloom Plant Farm produced the seed. I believe they produce almost all their own seed, and I believe that they only grow old fashioned string beans of high quality, so this cross has potential. 2) I suspected we'd see black seed, when, several weeks ago I picked a colander Cherokee Striped Cornhill Pods, to cook, and a few, which were far advanced and ready to be used as shell beans, had purple colored seed. Even at this stage the pods were tender and delicious. 3) I am pretty sure that if planted, this F2 hybrid seed will differentiate, producing at least a couple of variations, among which, seed color is a likely variable. 4) Cross pollination of beans is more common than most gardeners think. Therefore greater isolation distances are recommended as well as larger plantings of seed crops. 5) Constant selection is called for in order to maintain pure varieties.
I really doubt I'll grow this one out in 2021. I have my hands full, already, working on stabilizing the cross between Tennessee Cutshort and Cherokee Trail of Tears.
Another note: The two plants which I planted from seed on July 27 now have snaps and are covered in flowers. These too, are from Appalachian Heirloom Plant Farm seed.
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Post by macmex on Sept 26, 2020 6:28:48 GMT -6
Here's a photo of this black seeded cross at the shell stage. The pods in the pot are not all from that variant. But the one in my hand, for sure is. At this stage of development the pods still cooked up tender and delicious.
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Post by macmex on Nov 12, 2020 12:54:56 GMT -6
I haven't reported on Cherokee Striped Cornhill for a while. Now it's basically the end of the season for 2020. So here are some more observations.
Though we had some hot weather this summer, it was not nearly as hot as some summers. Perhaps for this reason, this bean produced straight through, with the exception of the very hottest weeks, which is normal with any bean, here.
I strongly suspect that the two seeds I managed to grow, which had been produced in my garden in 2009 were crossed with Tennessee Cutshort, as this year's seeds will produce F2 generation plants. The seed barely shows any stripes at all. They are a darker brown in color than the true Cherokee Striped Cornhill, which Appalachian Heirloom Plant Farm (Tony West) sent me. Everything else about the beans they produced seemed the same as the real deal. So, I saved seed. They're in my freezer. Maybe sometime I'll grow them out and see if/how they differentiate. I made sure they couldn't cross with the pure seed, by pulling the plants before they could.
The Appalachian Heirloom Plant Farm seed performed almost exactly as I hoped. Pods were of the right color and shape. They produced a large crop and, only frost stopped them. In fact, as of this writing, I think I could still go out and pick enough for a meal, even though the vines look shot.
I went out on November 9, after have had a couple of light freezes, and found that I could still pick green pods, all of which were of excellent eating quality. Most of the vines were dead and dry, but a few had escaped the freeze.
There were lots and lots of dried pods on the vines. Here's a photo I took, which I labeled "Where's Waldo." Can you pick out the pods from the other debris?
There were a LOT of dried pods, with seed in the tangle. Many of the dried pods looked so shriveled and stained that one might be tempted to pass them by. How could there be anything worthwhile in those pods? Yet I found very few beans which had been damaged by moisture.
There seemed almost no end to all the shriveled little pods. I bet I could still go out there and find some more! But chores were calling and there's wood to process, etc. I had to quit with a large milk pail full of green beans (for supper) and dried pods (for seed)
Sometimes I'll harvest seed, like this, and then neglect to finish processing it. But that evening (Nov. 9, 2020) I stayed up shelling out seed, until I finished. There a few of the black seeded cross, though fewer than I expected. I'm sure it was just one plant.
Overall my impression of this bean is the same as my 9 year old memories. It's a wonderful variety. I need to grow it on corn next time. Can't be happier to have the seed again, and in quantities to be able to share.
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