X-3

Bush, dry bean. Small, oval-shaped, white seeds. Plants grow up to 15" tall. Straight, green pods, 2.5-3" long. Pods mature to yellow, with a few pods developing a light red blush. Leathery podded dry pods. 3-5 seeds per pod. White flowers. Highly productive. Very uniform variety. Early maturing. Donated to SSE in 2014 by John Meader of Maine. This variety was developed by John's father and famous plant breeder, Elwyn Meader, in 1963 while working for the University of New Hampshire. John described its development: “In the early 1960’s, my father, Elwyn, was engaged by Burnham & Morrill Bean Co. of Portland, Maine, to develop a pea bean suited for growing in the short season of Maine, for their use in producing canned baked beans under the label of B & M Baked Beans. X-3 resulted from this, in or about 1963." John added: "X-3 was never formally introduced, nor ever used by Burnham and Morrill." More recently, ‘X-3' was obtained by the Fedco seed company from John and was sold under the variety name ‘Saturday Night Special.’ John has maintained the variety since 1972, in large part to his preference of it as a baking bean. SSE Accession # 132329