Tag Archives: Landrace

Northern Runner Bean Grex

Last winter I sourced 16 of the earliest varieties of runner beans / løpebønner (Phaseolus coccineus), a bean that is marginal in maturing (for seed) in my area. I decided therefore to try and create an earlier maturing landrace for my area. The varieties I grew can be found at the bottom. They were started indoors and transplanted out in the Væres Venner Community Garden in Trondheim in early June, all planted close to each other. Here they are in flower in mid-August:

Despite a very wet autumn there was quite a good yield of mature beans; a good start!

As with my broad bean grex, I will select for earliness and diversity of colour. 
These varieties were used:
Polestar (Chiltern Seeds)
Celebration (Chiltern Seeds)
Jackpot (Chiltern Seeds)
Sunset
Ruusupapu (Finland)
Hammond’s Dwarf Scarlet
Preisewinner (PHAS 8592/ German) IPK Gatersleben
Bicolor (PHAS 212/ Slovakia) IPK Gatersleben
(PHAS 8106/ German) IPK Gatersleben
(PHAS 8158/ Slovakia) IPK Gatersleben
Albiflorus (PHAS 8121) IPK Gatersleben
Stengebohnen (PHAS 8143/ Netherlands) IPK Gatersleben
Albiflorus (PHAS 8117/ German) IPK Gatersleben
(PHAS 8124/ Austrian) IPK Gatersleben

Local runner bean landrace

I’ve started work on a local landrace of runner beans / blomsterbønner (Phaseolus coccineus). I sowed yesterday 15 varieties that are the earliest varieties I could find from commercial suppliers and the German genebank IPK Gatersleben! Runner beans are marginal here, only ripening with warm frost-free autumn weather, preferably against a warm south facing wall!
Thanks to Raphael Maier who told me that the IPK Gatersleben have phenological data for part of their collection of over 400 runner beans. I therefore looked for early flowering and early ripening data when selecting varieties.
The assumption is that it will eventually get warm enough to plant them outside at the community garden Væres Venner where I will run the trial! Currently still only maximum 8C and the 10 day forecast shows much of the same with low pressure dominated weather and only a slight increase to 10C.