Fort Portal Jade Bean, Package Question

[blueadzuki]

Hi,
This is for anyone out there who bought this particualr bean. Is your seed as green as that in the photo/ I ask only becuse I have bought two packages, and based on the coloring I think there may have been a labeling mixup. The beans in my packets are green, but there are a much browner green than those in the photo. In fact they look exactly like the green beans in the photo of the Bantu bean, hence leading to my suspicion. That suspicion is re-enforced by the fact that one of the packets also contained one seed that was purple (same shade of purple as the Bantu's) and one blue (ditto). So I'm just wondering if anyone else noticed this in thier packets. also, If there is anyone out there who actually bought a packet of the Bantu, and would be willing to open it and see if the seed inside is in fact the Jade bean, I'd love to hear from you.

[richters]

Hi,
Thanks for posting your query. It does seem that Fort Portal Jade and Bantu are very similar. We did a side-by-side comparison with a large sample of seeds of each and decided that while the seed lots are very close they are not identical. Fort Portal Jade is mostly dark green shades with a few odd purplish seeds thrown in. Bantu has more purplish and tan seeds and few of the dark green seeds. The original photo of Fort Portal Jade on the website misleadingly showed the seeds to be bright green. We don't know how that photo got to be so distorted but we did a little bit of a colour correction to bring it closer to reality. We have also gone through all of our remaining seeds and picked out the purple outliers so future customers will be getting a mostly pure green product. While we do not believe in modifying SeedZoo seeds as they are presented to us, in this case, we feel that, from the customers' point of view, the purple seeds are unexpected and should be removed.

If anyone is unhappy with either the Fort Portal Jade or the Bantu seeds, please contact Richters Customer Service at www.richters.com/show.cgi?page=CustomerCare/CustCareCustServ.html and we will replace them with other SeedZoo seeds or issue a credit that can be used for future orders.

[blueadzuki]

Oh no I'm not unhappy, but I wanted to make sure that what I had was what I was supposed to have. After all, this forum was sort of created for the distribution of the seeds, and I would probably not be a good idea to start sharing said seeds with the wrong variety marked on it. And who knows, if there were enough purples (and they breed true) you may have a whole new veriety to offer! You could call it For Portal Amethyst (they do mine amethyst in Uganda, in fact they are somewhat famous for it)

[richters]

Feb 26, 2012 16:35:06 GMT -5 blueadzuki said:

And who knows, if there were enough purples (and they breed true) you may have a whole new veriety to offer! You could call it For Portal Amethyst (they do mine amethyst in Uganda, in fact they are somewhat famous for it)

An emerging 'Precious Stones' line of beans! Fun!

[marshallsmyth]

I have a hard time getting colors of my own Beans exactly right in photos too. Add to that, dry Beans often do change shade, mostly darken a bit, over the course of months after harvesting even crispy dry pods.

Beans are sometimes used in jewelry. A precious stones line is not at all far fetched.