My only photo is of the ripe shelly. It is the seed on the upper right.

When dry, the seed has the same coloration, but with a dull, slightly wrinkled appearance. The colors do not change as the seed ages.

Zeedman I was wondering about the color, I found them listed up our way and they looked like the colored portion was different. It looked light brown so I ordered a pkg. to compare with the seed I have.

Annette

I think these are two different varieties as the one I sent for is just called "Uzice", a large dried bean from the Uzice (oo-zeet-chay) area of Serbia. Excellent for baked beans or soup. A bush type bean, very productive. Produces some short runners.

Annette

Dick, thanks for the detailed information, it helps a lot when deciding when to start them, what kind of support they'll probably need and when I can expect to harvest. I only have half a dozen seeds so will be growing them for seed this year, well maybe a taste if one or two just happen to get knocked off by accident :).

I hope to get to our seedy sunday tomorrow, I may be able to pick up a little more information on the other "Uzice" there.

Annette

Annette, if you need more seed, let me know. My seed is from 2007, but I've still got about a pound or so. I will be growing a seed crop this year to replace it.

Dick is right about USW being late. I started mine from transplants, and was racing the first frost for dry seed. It's probably about the same DTM for dry seed as BE#3.

"... half-runner habit. While a few runners reached the top of the trellis, the majority of the yield was borne near the ground, where branching was heavy."

It's worth pointing out that my results were obtained with very wide spacing. If my memory serves me, I used over 12" between plants, to encourage maximum seed production from the small amount of seed that I used. The plants were not stunted; yield was heavy, but primarily within 2-3 feet of the ground. Spaced more closely, or with partial shade, I would expect the plants to grow more vertically.

Then too, beans perform much differently in the long cool climate of the PNW than they do in the brief, warm summers of the Midwest. I have had several beans demonstrate the "half runner" habit (which I now categorize as "weak climber") that performed as pole habit when grown elsewhere.

Zeedman, thanks for the offer but I think all going well I have enough to get me started, if not I know where to come begging, I'm getting really good at that :).
I'll start them early in the greenhouse and treat them as I did the Bird Egg #3.

Annette

Annette- Are they the seeds from Two Wings Farms? I think I remember the description saying Aleksandar brought them, I assume the same time as he brought seeds for "Uzice Speckled Wax".

Nick, yes from Two Wings Farm, I'm hoping they will be at our 'Seedy Sunday' tomorrow, I'll try to get more information then. They mentioned they got 'Tetovac' from their friend Alex so it's likely he also gave them 'Uzice'.
The 'Uzice' they have and 'Uzice Speckled Wax' are different, one has brownish markings the other black.

Annette

"Uzice" sold by Two Wing Farm IS the same as the serbian bean Zeedman has named "Serbian Porcelain" it came to them unnamed so they gave it the name of the area it originally came from.

Annette

""Uzice" sold by Two Wing Farm IS the same as the serbian bean Zeedman has named "Serbian Porcelain" it came to them unnamed so they gave it the name of the area it originally came from."

The plot thickens. Annette, I sent you an email just before reading this... which was, among other things, about this very topic. Now I have my answer. You are the only one to whom I have thus far sent that seed, and it seems that was a fortunate accident. Well, maybe fortunate isn't the right word...

For me, this further complicates an already complicated situation. In the 2011 SSE Yearbook, I had listed the unknown brown & white bean (sent to me by Alex in 2006) as "Serbian Pole"... only to find out after my listing was submitted that there was already a bean with that name grown by collectors in Canada & the U.K.. So I deleted that listing, and chose to change the name to "Serbian Porcelain" when I offered it again in 2013. That name, while also reflecting the source, is more descriptive of the seed size, use, & coloration. Only now I find out that the same bean has already been given a different name by Two Wing Farm who, like me, received it nameless.

What a mess! I've never had such a situation come up as long as I have been seed saving. The sad thing is, we are both trying to do the same thing - which is to introduce a great heirloom bean into wider circulation. We're just not on the same page.

This illustrates the danger of distributing a seed with no name attached. Everyone who receives it will, unless they coordinate with all other recipients, (or know the real name) give it a name of their own. You end up with seed in circulation under many different pseudonyms. In this case, both Two Wing Farm & I apparently have similar conventions for applying regionally-derivative names - but independently gave the same variety two different names (and used very similar names for two different varieties).

It should be noted that seed appearance alone is no guarantee that two varieties are identical. In this case, we know that both my seed and Two Wing Farm's originated from the same source - Alex - so our seed is (or at least should be) genetically identical. There is a slight possibility that our strains have diverged slightly, given our different climates; but with so few generations, there would be only minor differences, if any.

As a collector, one of the rules for re-offering seed is that if a name already exists for a variety, or is first given by others to seed from the same source, that name must be used. "Uzice" has been offered under that name (commercially?) prior to my introducing it publicly as "Serbian Porcelain", so I am bound to use the prior name in my future offerings. I am growing a large seed increase this year, and hope to offer this bean widely starting this Fall. I feel, however, that the name "Uzice" is sufficiently vague that it will only lead to more confusion in the future... because there are, apparently, quite a few beans from that region.

On a side note... "..."Uzice", a large dried bean from the Uzice (oo-zeet-chay) area of Serbia. Excellent for baked beans or soup. A bush type bean, very productive. Produces some short runners."

Strange. It performed more as a pole for me, with weak runners 5-6' long. Which was, incidentally, the same way that USW performed for me... and as already noted in this thread, what performed as a "half-runner" for me demonstrated true pole habit elsewhere. Now what is bush elsewhere, is pole for me. I guess I'm just contrary. ;-)

Zeedman, not only is Uzice Speckled Wax a pole bean here but I listed it as heavy foliage. Unlike, say, Cornfield Striped with its almost wispy vines, Uzice Speckles wax makes a heavy and dense tangle of vines along the top of the trellis. Interesting what you wrote about DTM and yet I can save seed here. I did note that it climbed well in our chilly June last summer. Perhaps both Uzice Speckled Wax and Bird Egg #3 thrive in cool spring and summer conditions. Others like Rose or Monteges del Ganxet seemed impossible to grow to maturity here and Chester/Flagg is difficult. Those appear to like more heat than we have. - Dick