Yes, my opinion is that it will be fine. I bought a bunch of it a couple of years back because I found it for $1 on clearance. I stored it in the freezer and the roots last year had plenty of nodules, so I'm sure it worked. I figured it would, because I buy bread yeast in 2 lb bulk packs (much cheaper this way), and then divide into smaller packages and freeze, and it seems to last at least 2 to 3 years in my freezer this way with good "rise" to the bread. So, I doubt that an overnight freeze or two will hurt it.

going with all pole beans again this year. new for me this year are maria amazilitei mennonite purple stripe tobacco worm mr tungs annettes italian or auntie vi north carolina speckled long greasy cutshort tennessee greasy back again are grandmas black grandmas brown grandma ginas meraviglia di venezia neckargold blue marbutt a red eye greasy bean from a tennessee lady uncle steve italian uncle steve red i may have to get creative to grow everything on this years list. peas sugar snap oregon sugar pod aldermans the uncle steve red is a variety i thought i lost for good after several years of failure in the U.P. it got resurrected from some old old seeds that i planted to see what would happen. i got about 5 or 6 seeds from a plant that grew. i finally had a successful grow out last year here in the bean belt of michigan in the thumb area. it is ok as a snap bean if picked early. it may be a good shelly or dry bean. i have never had enough seed to try them that way. i have tried a few raw out of the pod, and they tasted pretty good. keith

All things considered - such as getting a late start - my beans did pretty well. I hadn't posted much about them previously, so this is the summary for the season. Hope I don't give anybody scroll cramps. ;-) "Fortex" gave me a great yield of snap beans, even planted late. Filled half of a freezer, and still literally gave buckets away. I also attempted to increase several heirloom beans this year, with at least limited success on all of them. "Austrian Soup" (from a GW swap last year) proved to be a very high-yielding half-runner, with very fat seeds about the size of "Cranberry". A 10-foot row of gave me a tray full of dry seed, and half of a 5-gallon bucket of ripe pods. "Blue Blockeye" (from a departing SSE member) was also a productive half-runner. It is a wax variety, with very straight, somewhat flattened 4" yellow pods. They held their quality for a long time on the vine, although the older ones did require stringing. Nearly all of the pods ripened, except for the taste-test. "Blue Marbutt" (from Fusion) was a very aggressive climber, but rather late to bear. It is supposed to be a snap, but I was away for awhile, and missed testing them in that stage. The pods are 6" long, rounded, with varying shades of purple-on-green. They are borne in great profusion from top to bottom. I was able to harvest a fair amount of dry seed; but with frost threatening, the vast majority were ripe, but not yet dry. The black seeds proved remarkably easy to shell, they virtually fell out of the pods. I'll be cooking some up this weekend. "Bosnian Pole" was from a GW seed swap. There were only 5 seeds in the sample, of which 3 germinated. These were transplanted into large pots, after which squirrels dug them all up - twice!!! Only one plant survived this ordeal, and produced 5" flat pods, which developed very fat seed with black-on-white coloration. No testing was done, since the object was to save seed... I'll grow it out in a larger quantity next year. It might be a good shelly. "Kentucky Wonder White #191" was once my favorite snap, but I hadn't grown it since the mid-90's. It has become hard to find commercially, and was not even carried by SSE, so I wanted to return it to circulation. The seed had a 50% germination rate when tested with a nitrate soak, but only had a 10% germination rate in the ground. Then rabbits destroyed all but 4 plants! From those 4 plants, however (two of which appear in the "Bean Spacing" thread) I harvested nearly 3 pounds of dry seed. "PI 507984" showed great potential last year as a shelly; and since it was too late for most pole shellies, I did a large-scale planting. It did amazingly well; several pounds of dry seed, and 20+ pints of frozen shellies. I am a big fan of pole beans; but for a short-season shell bean, I have not seen it's equal. "Rose" was obtained in a swap from Gardenlad. It is a very late pole variety; even started early as transplants, it is just now beginning to bear seed. Unfortunately, they could freeze tonight... if they survive, I'll get a lot of seed. If not, they'll be shellies tomorrow. The snaps are really tasty, but it does not appear well adapted to Northern climates. "Sangre de Toro" is a pole dry bean. Rabbits nipped all but 3 plants, setting them back by several weeks. The 3 intact plants, however, bore heavily. The narrow 5" pods turn bright red as they mature, and hold 8-9 small red seeds. The seed was direct-planted late, and only about half of the pods have dried... I will grow it again next year on a larger scale, provided that I can plant it earlier (and keep the rabbits away). Of two "runner beans" that I grew this year, one ("Olteanu's Romanian Yellow") was not a true runner bean at all, but a purple-seeded common bean (and a wax bean at that). I didn't find it pleasant as a snap, and while the seeds are attractive, they are too small to use as shellies. "Tucomares Chocolate" was a seed increase, since almost all of my stock had been traded last year. It is a brown-seeded runner bean, with beautiful bi-colored blossoms. It is the red-flowered vine in the photo posted in the "Bean Spacing" thread. The pod set was very high, probably due to our cooler-than-normal Summer. Unfortunately, it was also direct-seeded late, and only a handful of pods have matured. There is enough seed for me to maintain it, but not enough to trade... so I hope they survive the frost. There were two heirloom limas this year. "North Star" is a pole variety, medium-sized white seed with a prominent maroon eye. It was started as transplants, and most of the pods ripened to dry seed. "Hopi Pole" was also started as transplants... but still only matured a small percentage of its seed. The yield potential of this lima is incredible, and I really enjoy its rich flavor; but like "Rose" above, it appears poorly adapted to my short seasons. Cowpeas: "Pink Eye Purple Hull" (from Jimster) was grown primarily as a seed crop; but I tried a meal of shellies, which I enjoyed. Still quite a few fat pods hanging... I just ran out of daylight, and had to leave them to the frost. :-( One of the stars of this year's trials was an unnamed Chinese bush yardlong sent to me in a GW swap. The plants are true bush habit, completely runnerless. The 12-18" green pods are borne very early, 50 days from planting... much earlier that my earliest pole yardlong. This would probably succeed in short-season areas where other yardlongs fail, such as into southern Canada. All pods matured & dried before frost, and I had a large seed harvest. Getting late, I will try to post some photos soon.

There are many legumes which grow wild. Most that I know about are not vining plants. Just for starters: Lupine Vetch (various kinds) Bird's Foot Trefoil Alfalfa Beach Peas I'm not sure which are native to North America. Jim This post was edited by jimster on Fri, May 3, 13 at 17:08