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Today, joyously, the broad beans I ordered from Siskiyou Seeds arrived. Two named varieties, and a colourful pot luck from the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Andes.
The yellow variety, named 'Elio' by its guardian family, is synonymous with 'Aztec Gold'. Strangely named as the Andes were never part of the Aztec Empire.
The brown and cream speckled 'Surcan' is from the same region as ‘Elio’. There's quite a bit of diversity in the pack, some with an almost completely brown testa and wildly different sizes.
Thirdly, 'Andean Mix', described as an interbreeding mixture with 'green, gold, brown, speckled, thumbprint, and red-spot patterns and colors'. I bought two packets of this mix in the hope to improve my chances of getting the thumbprint and red-spot patterns. No such luck.
The mix I received is mostly beans of yellow, brown and maroon colouration. Nevertheless, there are some interesting forms. An individual green faba that is particularly chunky. At 13mm thick, I have never seen a dry broad bean so voluptuous. Then there are a few small dark tic-bean types, a yellow with buff hilum, a small green with blue-black speckling, and a 29mm long by 20mm wide leviathan.
I'll definitely be attempting some selection with these. 'Elio' is quite mixed up. Unsurprisingly, I’d like to select for the vibrant sulphur yellow and eliminate the buff-green testa phenotype. Earliness, heat tolerance and disease resistance will be something to watch closely. Biomass production also.
I plan on growing some of the seed in isolation, and letting the rest mix with a collection of European broad beans I will be growing this year. Longpods, Windsors, dwarf plants, rainbow flowers, rainbow seeds, ancient varieties, new varieties, the lot. As much variability as possible.
The yellow variety, named 'Elio' by its guardian family, is synonymous with 'Aztec Gold'. Strangely named as the Andes were never part of the Aztec Empire.
The brown and cream speckled 'Surcan' is from the same region as ‘Elio’. There's quite a bit of diversity in the pack, some with an almost completely brown testa and wildly different sizes.
Thirdly, 'Andean Mix', described as an interbreeding mixture with 'green, gold, brown, speckled, thumbprint, and red-spot patterns and colors'. I bought two packets of this mix in the hope to improve my chances of getting the thumbprint and red-spot patterns. No such luck.
The mix I received is mostly beans of yellow, brown and maroon colouration. Nevertheless, there are some interesting forms. An individual green faba that is particularly chunky. At 13mm thick, I have never seen a dry broad bean so voluptuous. Then there are a few small dark tic-bean types, a yellow with buff hilum, a small green with blue-black speckling, and a 29mm long by 20mm wide leviathan.
I'll definitely be attempting some selection with these. 'Elio' is quite mixed up. Unsurprisingly, I’d like to select for the vibrant sulphur yellow and eliminate the buff-green testa phenotype. Earliness, heat tolerance and disease resistance will be something to watch closely. Biomass production also.
I plan on growing some of the seed in isolation, and letting the rest mix with a collection of European broad beans I will be growing this year. Longpods, Windsors, dwarf plants, rainbow flowers, rainbow seeds, ancient varieties, new varieties, the lot. As much variability as possible.
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