I've mentioned before that I am working on a
landrace of beans that grow on short climbing vines. One of the foundation seeds I used is a bean called Refugee. It is a very old variety. I got my seeds from a collector but it is also sometimes available from the shop at Monticello,
The shop at Monticello. The are great little green bean. The vines are short and throw off lots of side shoots so they produce for a long time. They are quite productive, short season maturity and disease tolerant. Supposedly the first bean used in commercial canning.
I originally got fifty seeds and in the first year they produced some off-types. I've since discovered they seem to be more prone to crossing than most beans and that is great for my goal of making a diverse
landrace of my short vine beans. Along the along the way though I quickly found an even better green bean in the descendants from those first of type seeds.
These beans are have less side shoots, get a little bit taller and produce even better than Refugee. And they are even more disease resistant. This was a bad year for beans at my place with lots of disease issues but these beans had far less than any others. I select for disease resistance largely by saving seeds from pods that are less blemished. Right now I'm calling them "short vine clean pod" beans but since I have pulled some out of my overall dry bean mix to use as green beans I'm thinking of giving them a name.
I don't know the origin of the name Refugee but it keeping some what with that theme I'm thinking of "Escapee". Or maybe to reflect the disease resistance "Clean Escape". Also under consideration to reflect my some what curmudgeon and rebellious nature I'm considering, "Insurgent", "Defiant" or even "Zealot" Comments and suggestions greatly appreciated.
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