Last October I blogged about beans that seemed to be crosses between Black Coco and Zolfino (Turin) drying beans and Black Magic Runner beans. Red flowered plants, presumably F1 crosses, appeared in both drying bean varieties in 2009 and yielded Runner bean type seeds (F2). There weren't many seeds and only seven of them germinated, of them only five flowered. All the F1 plants had red flowers but of the f2 plants one of the Zolfino crosses had pink and and the other white flowers. The three f2 black coco x plants had red flowers.
None of the pods had more than three beans and many had only one. One of the Black coco crosses was a climber. The rest were dwarf. Some of the plants are still green and the pods on the white flowered and beaned Zolfino cross plant have still not really ripened while one of the Black Coco plants was completely dry.
This is all very interesting Madeline and it would be good to transfer some of the runner bean characteristics into French beans
ReplyDeleteIf you can bear to wade through the technical jargon - have a look at this: http://www.springerlink.com/content/5423032230r401r5/
Wow! I would love to come upon a chance crossing like this one.
ReplyDeleteDo you plan on growing many of these lines out next year? I hope so. I look forward to hearing more.
There are a lot of big words in that link, Owen, but it is interesting, that it is easier to make the cross with vulgaris as the mother. One plant had almost all undeveloped embryos and only 2 developed seeds which I accidently stood on while taking the photos. Perhaps I will get my paintbrush out next year and try a few deliberate crosses.
ReplyDeleteSome of the plants have more seeds than I could grow out myself so I am happy to share if anyone wants any.
Apparently "Moonlight" runner bean, now commercially available, is a cross of French and runner beans - it might be interesting to compare your plants with it, or maybe use it to produce some new varieties of your own :)
ReplyDeleteyes, it is definitely on my wish list for next year. I have read that it is self pollinating which would be good as it shouldn't cross with other beans too much
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