The horrible wet start to the season kept me from planting much of what I had planned, and much of what I direct seeded rotted in the ground. Still, there have been successes (and a few more failures).

I was able to plant three beans on time in my home gardens, and all have borne seed:
- "Serbian Pole" bore seed early & plentifully, and is a wonderful shelly... so it is a keeper. The dry pods & seed also show very good resistance to moisture, there was virtually no spoilage even in our very wet summer.
- "Grandma Roberts" was grown in pots last year; this year it was a large row for eating & further seed increase. It did remarkably well - a couple meals of snaps, and over 4 pounds of seed thus far. The only down side is that the seed has a strong tendency to sprout in the pod, even in dry weather... at least every other pod has 1-2 sprouted. The upside: after letting the vines go for seed, nearly all of the pods have dried and been picked... and all of the vines are re-sprouting! I might get another few snaps before frost. Generally, beans drop all their leaves & die as the seed ripens, so this degree of re-sprouting is remarkable.
- I lost 4/16 plants of "Flamingo" to disease, but the remaining plants were rampant, and completely covered the trellis. The flat pods are tender & sweet, outstanding eaten raw - DW & I snacked on quite a few. Unfortunately, once pods began to ripen, only two plants showed the bright red coloration... the rest were pale, or red spotted. Dry seed came late, but since it does not appear to be stable, I will not be saving seed, and will not grow it again.
- "Garafal Oro" is the only bean that survived the June flooding in my rural plot - and even the lowest 1/3 of that row was lost. Fortunately, the plants that remained are lush & full of pods, which are just now beginning to ripen & dry. The color change is widespread, so I should get a good seed harvest before frost.

Runner beans:
- "Insuk's Wang Kong" has done exceptionally well; due to several cool snaps & the absence of really hot weather, it set a full pod load early. The majority of that seed has already dried (about 3.5 pounds so far) with maybe another pound or so still on the vines. All of that seed is either purple or pure black. I had been looking forward to seeing if any of the white seed reappeared, since I had not planted any of the white seeds the first time I grew it & wondered if it was hidden as a recessive gene. There are over 20 plants, and no sign of white flowers or white seeds... so it appears that the white was eliminated in one generation.
- "Gigandes" is adjacent to "Garafal Oro" in my rural plot, and also lost part of the row to flooding. The plants were set back, and flowered later than usual. There are a lot of pods on the vines now, and a few are beginning to change color... but unless the frost comes late, I doubt I will get much dry seed.

Limas:
- "1880's Butterbean" (in my home plots) was transplanted late, but still set a heavy pod load fairly early. I've been picking handfulls of dry pods daily for a week now. The color change has become widespread, so I should get a good dry seed yield, and freeze quite a few shellies.
- "North Star" is a large lima that I have never grown in quantity, so I was really looking forward to it this year... but it was transplanted very late into the rural garden. It has set quite a few pods, but is probably too far behind to make it. For some reason it was the plant that was nipped the hardest by a weak frost last night, which could be a mixed blessing... it might cause some of the pods to ripen faster.

I've already posted about my success with a bush, non daylength sensitive hyacinth bean that I acquired in a trade. There is already a tray full of dry seed, and the bushes are still setting immature pods... so it too appears to be a "keeper". I have a Filipino friend who used to eat the dry seeds, so I will be getting more info on proper preparation.

It's late & I have to get up early, I'll cover the rest of the legumes later.

My 'Mrs. Fortune', 'Major Cook's' and 'John's Purple Pole' beans are not quite dry enough to pick yet but soon, I only grew 4 or 5 plants of each. The same with 'Royal City Cannery', 'Selma Star', 'Selma Zebra' and 'Grandma Robert's Purple Pole' only 4 or 5 plants, these are finished, seed collected and plants pulled. I'm still picking 'Berta Talaska', 'Tennessee Cutshorts' and 'Emilia's' as the pods dry.
'Poletschka', I finally got around to growing the few seeds I kept :) looks like they have produced a bumper crop, I'll start harvesting seed today.
'Flamingo's' were planted late, I'm getting pods now, most of the pods I can see are mottled and streaked no solid hot pink yet, they'll get the taste test tonight along with 'Ryder's Best'.
I planted 'North Carolina Long Speckled Greasy Cutshorts' in too shady a spot, they are just starting to form beans now, so we'll get to eat some but there's not a hope.... I'll get seed from this pole, but, hey, all is not lost I think what I thought was a cross on my 'Mr. Tung' is actually a 'NCLSGC' vine. I had to replant a couple of seeds that rotted and I think a seed must have fallen out of my pocket when weeding around 'Mr. Tung'. I've already picked a dry pod off this vine and the seed looks identical to 'NCLSGC'. I sure hope so because this is one delicious bean. I'll definitely grow it again next year in a sunnier spot, and plant early, I read this is a later variety.

The 'Aeron Purple Star' turned out to be tender and stringless, with a really good flavor. Not all the pods turned a black purple as the dried down so only kept the seed from the ones that did. I only grew four plants, but next year I hope to grow a whole row. I also really like 'IWK's' but can only grow one runner a year. I have a neighbor a couple of houses up who also grows scarlet runners so I've talked her into growing the same one I do, I supply the seed :).
The bush beans I grew with the exception of 'Woods Mountain Crazy Beans' are finished seed picked and dried. 'Comtesse de Chambord', 'Dutchesse de Chambord', 'Little White Rice', 'Crystal Wax/Ice' are headed for the freezer, don't plan on growing them in the near future.
I had one disappointment, I bought 'Little White Ice' advertised as a pole bean, it wasn't, it tuned out to be a twining bush. Another 'Little White Ice' from another source was also a twining bush but this was advertised as a bush, both of these had different shaped seed coats. I doubt if I will grow these again.
I only had a few 'Soissons Vert', they germinated but except for one they looked sickly so I tossed all but that one, the vine it produced looked healthy enough and I have collected a handful of seed so it looks like it will go on the grow list for next year.

I bagged a lot of flowers this year and kept the seed separate from the rest, just in case I get some crosses.

I ended up growing a few 'Cherokee Trail of Tears' after all. I did a germination test on some older seed I had, they all sprouted so I said what the heck and planted them, we actually get to eat these :).

I don't get huge amounts of seed from most of these but get enough for my seed stash and a few to share :).

Annette

George, would you like to try a few "Poletschka" I grew it for seed this year and got a bumper crop of pods which are at the drying down stage now. This is a supposed to be good at all stages, snaps when young, shellies and dry, again another one grown for seed so haven't tried them yet. The reason I'm asking is we had an unusually long spell of hot dry weather this year and they just might work for you. I just sent you an email.

Annette

Okay! I received the e-mail before I saw this posting! I was trying to figure out why you were offering me that bean! Okay, I'll try a sample. Do you still have my mailing information?

George

George, off 15 plants I've already collected 12.45 ozs of seed and there looks to be the same amount still to be picked. I'll let you know when they're on the way, most of the pods were dry and crispy when picked but will let them dry another week before sending. If you haven't moved I still have your mailing addy :).

Annette