Assessment of My Plant Breeding Season

[Ferdzy]

I've posted an overview of how my year went, plant-breeding-wise, at my blog. Alas, not a single sweet potato seed to be seen but some other good things happened.

https://seasonalontariofood.blogspot.com/2020/10/placeholder-oct-08.html

[spacecase0]

thank you for sharing,
I like your blog

[Steph S]

Nice to see that.  Your bean projects look like a lot of fun...  love the looks of that super productive light brown one.  And the blue-black is good looking... why not green pods and black seeds?  You are growing for the dry beans, right?  So the bean's the thing, never mind pod color.  Hope to see them next year.

[Ferdzy]

Hi Steph; no it's the other way around - for the green pod/black seed one they were excellent eaten as green beans. However, most green bean varieties have white or at least pale seeds. The argument I read is that even undeveloped black seeds let off anthocyanins that discolour the cooking liquid in canned beans, or even just frozen or eaten fresh, and people are put off by this. I'm not convinced that's a factor - this would be bean for home growers, not commercial, so canning is unlikely and that's the one place where I can see where you wouldn't want a murky purple liquid. But this is just me guessing; I don't actually have any idea what people think about it.

[Steph S]

Aha.  TBH I am not a big bean grower because we have too many seasons that turn out 'not a bean year'.  Beans simply hate it cold and wet, and now more than ever we can't guess when that might rule a summer month.   But of those that I have grown, my favorite by far was the Pencil Pod Black Wax Bean.   Yellow pod, black seeds.   We had zero problem with any discoloration from the black seeds, if there was such a thing?...  and they were tender and delicious and relatively productive and resistant to the ills of beans.
That is an old variety that remained popular, so IMO it's unlikely to be an issue.  If anything it's a plus because the cut beans have the surprise color to show.  And we do love surprises. 
Also forgot to mention, it's very exciting to hear about disease resistance in beans.
As with tomatoes, there's a limit to how much time and space you can lavish on something that wants to turn into a pile of grey slime.
I would even consider to grow beans with the (disease resistant selected) tomatoes in the greenhouse, if I didn't expect them to contribute to a foul brood of the same.

[nathanp]

Ferdzy, regarding your question about the potatoes you grew from true seed. I believe Purple Viking is male sterile, so it can't be the pollen donor of your purple potato.  It must have been another potato with the P gene that was the pollinator.

[Ferdzy]

Ah, thanks, Nathanp. I don't think it was Russian Blue or the flesh would be purplish too, in my admittedly limited experience. So I think the answer is "no idea". Oh well! It's a nice potato which is what matters.

[nathanp]

Russian Blue would actually be a very likely pollinator.  You can have purple skin without purple flesh.  A cross of a yellow or white with Russian Blue would give you potatoes that segregate for color in both skin and flesh. 

[Woody Gardener]

Aha.  TBH I am not a big bean grower because we have too many seasons that turn out 'not a bean year'.  Beans simply hate it cold and wet, and now more than ever we can't guess when that might rule a summer month.

2 years ago I had a cold, wet spring. I was growing more than a dozen varieties of pole beans for comparison. Turned out there was no comparison. Most never germinated and only 1 grew productively, Kew Blue:
https://www.adaptiveseeds.com/product/vegetables/beans/pole-snap-bean-kew-blue-organic/
It grew productively thru summer heat and drought. Delicious, beautiful, and high in anthocyanin; it's the only pole bean I now grow.

[Andrew Barney]

2 years ago I had a cold, wet spring. I was growing more than a dozen varieties of pole beans for comparison. Turned out there was no comparison. Most never germinated and only 1 grew productively, Kew Blue:
https://www.adaptiveseeds.com/product/vegetables/beans/pole-snap-bean-kew-blue-organic/
It grew productively thru summer heat and drought. Delicious, beautiful, and high in anthocyanin; it's the only pole bean I now grow.

Thanks for the tip! Looks like an excellent variety, and from the HSL in England no less!

I suspect that plants that have anthocyanins in the leaf/stem have added ability to resist cold. Anthocyanins do work similar to chlorophyll but not as efficient, but they have the advantage of working in temperatures that are too cold for chlorophyll to function. I suspect that is why they often show up in plants that do not normally have them when they are "stressed". If the stress is cold temperatures in the spring I think these varieties will do better than ones without. But it is mostly speculation.

[Steph S]

Ditto, many thanks for the mention of the good Kew bean!   Love the description, it's a match made in heaven. 

I've heard it said of peas, that the seeds with anthocyanin are hardier to cold planting conditions.   Still better reasons to eat colourful!