I want lots of seed for at least two reasons: 1) as a buffer against loss and 2) in order to be able to share with others.

Along this line, I've also concluded that I want to grow any given variety for a good number of years. Sometimes after a couple years I will make a discovery about the requirements of a given variety which totally changes how it does for me. I also wonder if I really know a variety if I haven't grown it long enough to observe it under a variety of conditions. For instance, the first two years I grew Tennessee Cutshort ('85 & '86) it didn't grow very tall, and dried down and quit after a relatively short time. At that time I concluded that it was not a very vigorous pole bean. Yet, after a number of years growing it, I realized that it is a VERY vigorous variety. It just sometimes needs a little watering to get through the late summer dry season, then it produces well until frost.

There are all sorts of advantages to growing a given variety for a length of time. What have you found?

George
Tahlequah, OK

My beans don't have a dry season. Three inches of mulch keeps the soil moist.

This year, there was so much rain, I didn't bother mulching. Vines were on average about 5 feet longer than previous years. I'm thinking the soil was warmer, and that this was the reason for the longer vines.

Gary

I might rethink what I've been doing and be more patient with some of the varieties if I do not have an overly obvious reason to not grow.

After several discussions, I think that we have similar positions regarding heirloom preservation. If a variety is grown only for the sake of preservation, or for its novelty, then its future is in doubt. On the other hand, if it is grown consistently (preferably by a large group of people) then its chances of survival increase.

Of course, for a large number of people to consider growing a particular variety consistently, it would need to have qualities that make it worth growing. Sometimes these are fairly obvious traits, such as flavor, yield, or disease resistance.

But other varieties might have traits that are less obvious. For example: the ability to excel in green-shelled stage, to hold quality when canned, for the dry pods to protect the seed from spoilage, to resist drought, or suitability for a particular application or cuisine. In these cases, unless the knowledge accompanies the seed, it may not be recognized for its merits.

This, I fear, is the shortcoming of those of us in seed saving organizations, including myself as a member of SSE. We have access to the seed, but seldom to the way in which it was originally used. That's why I try to test new varieties in several ways. For beans, that would be snaps (raw, fresh cooked, and frozen), green shelled (fresh & frozen), and sometimes dry. If a variety does well as one of these, I pass that knowledge on with the seed.

And yes, if a variety is trialed for only one year, you might not get the true picture. I really struggle with this one, because I am trying to evaluate a large number of varieties in a relatively short period of time. What if a variety does poorly in the year it was grown, but excels under different conditions? Unless I see a glimmer of potential, it may not get a second chance. That's why it is actually good to evaluate a new variety in a bad year.

For me, the best compromise between preservation & growing something annually is "type rotation". For each vegetable species, I grow a certain number of varieties each year of various types... just not the same varieties. For common beans, the types would be snap, shelly, dry, and wax. "Emerite", "Fortex", and "Pole 191" each take their turn as my canning (freezing) snap bean. "Ma Williams", "Bird Egg #3", and "PI 507984" take their turn as shelly. Each year, I find a few more "keepers" to add to the list. Eventually, I will settle on a 4-5 year rotation of the best performers in each category. I do the same for limas, runner beans, soybeans, cowpeas (including yardlongs) & peas.

With a rotation of favorite varieties, even if you grow only one each year, you can easily save pure seed from several varieties per species... and with no more garden space than is already being used. Over time, those varieties will be observed under a wide range of conditions, prepared in new ways, and hopefully passed on to others.

I can't recall where I mentioned it, but somewhere I mentioned that I see two basic kinds of seed savers: "superstars' and ... I can't remember the term I used for the other. Let's just call them "small growers." The superstars are those who organize, freeze, chart and manage to maintain very large collections. They are usually into swapping and collecting. Some actually end up with almost everything available in a given field. They're great, especially if one wants to find something hard to find. But when they quit, for whatever the reason, the loss is often immense. Plus, I contend that they are probably not able to intimately know a lot of what they grow. I'm positive that there are some great varieties out there which are practically unknown. Just look at the Seed Savers Exchange Winter Yearbook and note all the SSE offered varieties which never seem to be adopted by anyone. The right variety, in the right conditions for the exactly right use is likely to be priceless. Yet, when I follow the postings of many seed savers I observe a tendency to "flock" after a relatively small number of "up and coming varieties." (I recognize that this might come across as an overstatement.)

On the other hand, the seed savers of bygone generations mostly didn't seem to think about what they were doing. They simply kept, grew and consumed the varieties they had. They really knew them. But, often, when catalogs became popular, they neglected what they had and lost it. For example my wife's grandparents, back in 1984, gave me seed of a corn that their great great grandparents carried to Southern IL by ox drawn cart. But they hadn't grown it in over 15 years, and it was dead! They had grown Barksdale Wax Pole bean for decades, but when I gave them seed to another variety, which they found easier to pick, they dropped Barksdale altogether!

But there can still be seed savers, who understanding the bigger picture, might concentrate on just a few varieties, becoming their champions. Then they get to know them really well. And, hopefully they resist running with the crowd, at least to the degree that they keep those varieties going. It is EXTREMELY hard to do this with a variety which is not that good for one's given needs or circumstances. I have been maintaining a black greasy bean, from SSE member Mark Futterman (now deceased). It has not been very productive for me, though it tastes good. But I have yet to see anyone else offer it in the 10 years that I've had it.

I think the ideal is probably that we have a good number of the "superstars." They indeed do a great service. But for stability, we need those small domestic growers. I would like to suggest that regular gardeners become a bit more educated on seed saving, and adopt just one rare variety, preferably one which they really like. Also, when one has a really rare variety it would be good to do a bit of "PR work" on its behalf.

I never got to discuss it with Gardenlad, but he used to promote a conservancy, which had the goal of maintaining varieties by growing and using them on an individual basis. I liked that a lot. Sure do miss him!

Okay, 'nuff rambling for now!

George