First, I'll say you picked a very hard plant to cross.Beans are very self pollinating.You have to remove the anther(male part of the flower)and then you can pollinate the female part of the flower.Bush beans are recessive to the dominant pole bean.So if you pollinate a bush bean with a pole the F1 should be a pole.Thats a marker that lets you know that the cross took.I'll find the book thats shows you how to cross beans if you like.

Thanx! I was hoping for some easier things to cross for my first few tries, but everything else will most certainly die in this aweful attempt at gardening... :( I tried hard starting my seeds, they did ok, then not so ok, then suddenly got bigger, I tried hardening them off, then the day after planting (tomatoes and eggplant now), the sun got MUCH hotter and they are all crispy sticks of what the once were... Full sun my butt!!! Even with plenty of water, they all turned whitish and dried up.

I'm expecting the beans to do much better as they START life in the garden, so there's no drastic change or anything.

I guess the most important things I need to know is WHEN to remove the stamens and which pod color and/or shape (yellow vs. purple, and flat vs. round) are dominant as both are bush types. I intend to try both as mother and father to heighten my chances of success.

Try Carol Depp's book " Breeding Your Own Vegetables" for instructions on cross breeding . Corn, cukes, melons, squash, pumpkins and sunflowers are easiest to cross breed.Try favas soybeans of the North for beans ( actually a vetch ) .

what snakes do you breed ? how many types? Any in teresting results ?