I've grown vegetables, especially beans, for about 50 years. I keep bean seeds every year for next years garden, and also try new varieties every year. As far as I can remember I've never had any cross pollination between legume species or (specifically) bean varieties.

This year I planted a bean known as a scarlet runner/pinto hybrid. The hybridization was done by an old farmer up the coast from here. It's a wonderful bean for cooking and I wanted to keep seed for next year. It was planted in a garden with at least 10 other bean and pea varieties.

Last night I shucked all the bean pods and was really surprised at the resulting seeds. The original, that I planted, was a very large bean that was a mid tone brown color with many darker, small splotches on it. Very uniform in coloration.

The the beans I found last night took three different forms - there was one the same size as the original but white with a few dark splotches; another was similar to the parent but the colors were lighter, the splotches smaller and more numerous; the third type was a pure black bean, but much larger than any other black bean I've ever seen. Each pod produced a uniform type - ie, there were no black beans mixed in with the splotched beans.

My questions - is it normal for a hybrid bean to produce such deviation? if I plant each of these types of bean, what would be the chances of them breeding true to their current size and coloration? what are the chances of their progeny being even further mutated from the original I planted this year.

It really doesn't make too much difference, but I just don't have the science to judge what's going on and decide if it's worthwhile to plant any of the new seeds.

Thanks

jr