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?

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.