On Thu, 6 Nov 2014 15:11:17 Bigal wrote:

A good crop of runner beans thanks to a 5 year old bed of biochar.
(sorry, I just had to put that in.) So much so that I got fed up with
eating them, freezing them and picking them. I tell my neighbour to
help herself, but she is a bit loathed to do so. So I just let them
grow, thinking to shell them later to use the beans some other way. I
grew White Lady from saved seed, and a few weeks ago saved some more. No
black ones. During the shelling I found one that contained jet black
beans. In all my years of gardening I have never come across a black
bean before, and I don't ever recall my father doing so.. (Taking
account of the fact that the beans are eaten green).. By the time I
had finished shelling (between jobs) I had found a total of eighty.
Two of the pods were still joined on the flower stalk, which makes me
think that it was a single plant that produced them. Comments
please, and I am sure that it wasn't the black leaking out of the
biochar.

I have had some black runner bean seeds now for over ten years. They
originally grew from the usual two-coloured ones but I thought that
black was unusual so I selected them and now always grow them.

Occasionally they revert to the normal two-coloured seed but mostly they
are all black. And a pod of two-coloured seeds would come from the same
plant that produces the black ones.

I've no idea what variety they are.

David

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David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK