Hi zeedman, hope everything is going well with you. Thanks again for the two kinds of "MN" cowpeas, they did wonderfully even with the bad growing season we had here. My project is making slow progress. I have more raw data to go through than I have time available. Much bigger project than I anticipated (as is usual for me). I thought it would be safer to have all my hard work on an offline computer so I acquired a second one that is dedicated just to the project. I linked a database to a spreadsheet. I settled on using the database for general information and I give every variety its own number. That number is referenced on the spreadsheet for further details and information. The spreadsheet offers a quick side-by-side comparison of varieties by using category checkmarks. Works pretty good. The thing is, the more time I spend and the more knowledge I acquire, the more obsessed I become. Beans sure are fascinating. A big problem is categorizing because of all the different terminologies and because many beans have multiple uses. The yellow/wax was one small issue, but there are more such as Romano beans versus flat beans, Lima (and Fava?) versus broad beans, French beans and filet beans, horticulturals and shellies, etc. Are cornfield beans distinctly different from typical pole beans or just regional terms for the same thing? Why are runner beans varieties of Phaseolus coccineus but 1/2 runner beans are varieties of Phaseolus vulgaris? That kind of confusing stuff. I am having to constantly go back into my "finished" data and correct errors or update information. Two steps forward, one step back. Second big problem is that I wanted a photo of each variety with beans set on as well as a photo of the dry seed beans. Not going to happen in my lifetime. ;-) Was such a distraction and time-killer that I dropped the whole idea for now. All in all I would say I am generally making progress, considering I only have time to work on it in the winter. I am a lot farther along now than when I last posted on this thread, but have a long way to go. I branched out into greasies, cutshorts, fall beans, teparies, tropical and subtropical beans, asian beans, foreign varieties available commercially, extinct varieties, etc. I also am working on cowpeas and soybeans just because I am so interested in them. When I get frustrated with the snap and dry beans I work on these categories instead. The biggest eye opener by far is how much duplicity is out there. I am convinced a great many varieties are actually the same ones with different names. I have come across seed companies and even growers and market sellers that arbitrarily change the names for selling purposes. Heck, I am even guilty. I got some bean seeds in a trade and the woman, an immigrant from eastern Europe, didn't know what they were so I named them after the nearest towns they came from in her homeland. What am I to do, call them "Unknown 1" and "Unknown 2" forever? I don't think what I did is quite as bad as changing a name to make a variety sound "cute" or make them more marketable, but the end result is confusion just the same. Finally, I hate to sound greedy, but I think this project may be worthy of publishing if I can get it finished, rather than free-sourcing it on the web. Several people I have shown it to have suggested looking into that possibility. Wasn't my original intention but because it is so complex I now feel I should try to get some kind of return on my investment of time and energy, if possible. This is nowhere on the priority lists, though, and if it ultimately doesn't happen it is no big deal to me. My personal collection is growing. With this year's orders and trades I am at well over 100 varieties of bush and pole snap and dry beans, asian beans, cowpeas, and soybeans. We have an informal little local club of hobby growers that are all interested in these so we coordinate and plant different varieties and swap seeds with each other. Pretty fun. Take care, -Tom I know it is improper to ask - wrong forum, wrong thread - but if anyone has any white wax beans would you be willing to part with a few seeds? I really want to acquire some. Thanks much.

A stable hybrid is an OP. Lots of professionals do hybridize beans but only for the purpose of creating new varieties. It is very labor intensive. Once a hybrid is created then it is grown out for multiple generations until it is stable. Just not feasible at this point to make hybrids (and we are talking F1) in mass. Fortunately if you can create a couple of lbs of seeds, then you can commence the grow out and selection process. 7-9 generations to get an OP.

A very interesting thread...my first had none of it, work of any kind was an anethma to her.....my second...we met online, and among her pics and bio were garden pics...and I thought, "wow, a gardener!"...well, turns out, DW of 3 yrs likes to look at the gardens , and look at the butterflies...and she is so patient about my endless hours outdoors, late winter evenings standing in the rain as I "draw in my head" with a shovel.....and spend summer weekends doing this and that....and she'll love the finished product.... Now...I always had the dream I'd fall in love in a garden...a chance encounter...finding that beautiful woman...feminine...yet unafraid to get her hands dirty... in overalls with her hair back digging a hole and planting something....I guess the real reason...is that if you look at true gardeners...(not the chemically sterilized flowers in rows) but a true gardener...who loves and lives all aspects and creaturs of the garden...who has an appreciation for the diversity of the web of life in the garden...then that person is a nurturer...and nurturers are the most loving people I have ever met... I always thought the creation story was in the garden for a reason...that we have left the garden...and until we return...we won't truly appreciate those things greater than we are...my garden is where I talk to my late father (who taught me the love)..it's where I see miracles and creatures great and small....and I have often thought of a relationship between a couple in the garden analogy....that love is like a garden....it will have sun shine, and will endure storms....wind...rain...weeds....but if the master gardener tends lovingly to the garden.....prunes, weeds, fertilizes.....s(he) will harvest something that is of such awe and wonder....for love is ultimately a great mystery....and one that never loses it's dynamics in a garden..and a tended garden never loses it's mystery....but ratehr grows more beautiful with the passing of each year.... And so I hope the same for my love and my garden...

Ha-- the wine has been a flowing since oh 1:30-- not really but in my head and once the kids are in bed...LOL.. Honestly up until today, this is the first time I have heard any of this.. The builder has been great (he is actually an acquaintance of ours - and we hadn't experienced any of this.. Funny thing is since this is a new build they have all been working together for some time and the house will be done on Wed.. I think they are all just at the end of the rope.. Problem is... we are the 1st house of 8 to be completed! I think they all better learn to get a long.. Seems to me that this all stuff that has been going on for some time (hundreds of homes) and maybe they all have had it... They all do really love to work for the builder, apparently just not with the builder.. AND.. as I am writing this my DH just told me that the builder just doesn't like this kind of confrontation between his subs.. but.. he kind of blamed us for the electrician/carpenter issue... NICE.... Oh it is only 5 pm here in the Northeast.. Wish I could put the kiddos to bed so I could begin the chugging!!! LOL