lima beans
janet said:
I love fresh lima beans, but I never seem to get more than a few meals
worth from a dozen or so plants around a bean tower. I planted
Burpee's Big Mama pole limas this summer and the flavor is wonderful--
very sweet, but they're just not very productive. Romano beans
planted several feet away have so many beans I can't keep up with
them. Is this just the nature of lima bean plants, do they need
special conditions, or should I try another variety? Any other lima
bean growers out there?
Lima beans need to be pollinated. Snap beans (like Romano) are
self-pollinating.
I used to grow pole limas. "Christmas" was a good producer of
speckled beans. Cooked up sort of pale purple as a fresh sheller.
"King of the Garden" was a good producer of white beans (cook
up pale green as a fresh shell bean).
Grew the two together and ended up with a bunch of odd colored
lima beans of varying sizes.
I'd also tried a different pole lima at one point, with smaller seeds
than "King of the Garden" but it was far less productive.
Maybe I'll grow some pole lima beans again next year...
--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)
After enlightenment, the laundry.
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