So, I have a polebean variety called Dasinger Blaue that I like very much. As the name implies, it is a purple variety. I love the dark veins on the leaves, the purple flowers and the fact that I actually find the beans on the vine! I got this variety in 2021, so I have planted it for 2 years (this year is the third) and so far it has been reliable. It has stayed healthy in 2021, a very wet summer here, when the bushbeans really struggled, it took last years drought in stride. In short, I really love this bean and I donāt want to mess it up. Since it is already so great I feel it would make a great base for a landrace. Do I try other varieties in isolation and if I like them, add them to the Dasinger and just have a population mix of varieties I like? Or do I just add some varieties next year and plant them all intermingled? I definitely have enough seed saved of them that i can come back to the original if I donāt like where the landrace is going. The beans had some green pods in 2022, I donāt know if it was environmental or genetic. I just picked all the green pods (not very many) early and only took seeds from pods that kept the color. Additionally, the bean pods loose some color when drying down. This is no problem for me, since they get lighter in color (white base with purple streaks, which is also very visible against the foliage).
I know that beans have a low crossing rate, but if the individual varieties are great, should I care that the actual landrace is developing very slowly?
One way to make the development of the landrace faster would be to choose varieties with distinct seed, so I can find the F2 and give them preferential treatment in repanting. For example, the Dasinger has beige seeds, if I plant for example an Cherokee trail of tears which has black seeds, I should be able to find F2-plants, no?
My goals for use:
- a bean that is good for fresh eating ( Dasinger )
- a bean that is good for dried pods (testing this year for the Dasinger)
- a bean with good seeds for stews etc (testing with the Dasinger)
- can you think of another use?
My goals for plant:
- healthy, vigorous plants ( Dasinger , but can always be improved)
- ripens over a long time, so we are not overwhelmed with beans to process (Dasinger )
- stringless pods (Dasinger semi- , could certainly be better, young they are very tender, when the pods get broad, they get some strings)
Criteria breeding partners:
- Purple, blue or red beans with white, black, brown etc. seeds (just not beige)
- Ideally multi-purpose
- Ideally stringless
Potential breeding partners (has to be available in Switzerland):
- Cherokee trail of tears: more infos needed
- Blauhilde: stringless, seed color quite similar to Dasinger
- Berner Landfrauen: green/purple striped, seed color unknown, for fresh eating and drying
- Borlotti: red striped, red and white seeds, for dry beans
- Blaue von Adliswil (Pro Specie Rara, purple pods, brown seeds, stringless, for drying, freezing and cooking the pods)
- Kaiser Friedrich: pink pods and dark seeds (black and dark brown), fo cooking the pods
- Fasƶi Grisoni: purple striped on green background, seeds black speckled on brown, maily for cooking the pods
Questions:
- Has anybody an polebean variety they can recomend to me?
- Have I forgotten something important?
- Are there more uses for the beans?