Are the large white dried lima beans, the sort you
buy in the grocery store for soaking, cooking, and
eating, fertile? Or do they do something to them
to keep them from being viable? I have a particular
brand that I buy in 1-lb bags for cooking and eating,
that I particularly like. Can I plant these and
expect to get enough to germinate that I can grow
them and then have a source of fresh seeds? Or do
they irradiate or heat them or something else to make
them sterile?

Assuming these very-dried beans are viable, what is
the best way to proceed? Just bury them, or soak
first?

best regards,

Martin

On 2 Mar 2003 10:49:26 -0800, (lagniappe)
wrote:

Are the large white dried lima beans, the sort you
buy in the grocery store for soaking, cooking, and
eating, fertile? Or do they do something to them
to keep them from being viable? I have a particular
brand that I buy in 1-lb bags for cooking and eating,
that I particularly like. Can I plant these and
expect to get enough to germinate that I can grow
them and then have a source of fresh seeds? Or do
they irradiate or heat them or something else to make
them sterile?

Put a few in a damp paper towel or a little pot of damp potting mix
and see what happens. It's not going to cost you much. :-)

I was always growing beans out of the kitchen when i was a kid. Go
ahead and give it a try.


On 2 Mar 2003 10:49:26 -0800, (lagniappe)
wrote:

Are the large white dried lima beans, the sort you
buy in the grocery store for soaking, cooking, and
eating, fertile? Or do they do something to them
to keep them from being viable? I have a particular
brand that I buy in 1-lb bags for cooking and eating,
that I particularly like. Can I plant these and
expect to get enough to germinate that I can grow
them and then have a source of fresh seeds? Or do
they irradiate or heat them or something else to make
them sterile?

Assuming these very-dried beans are viable, what is
the best way to proceed? Just bury them, or soak
first?

best regards,

Martin

·.·´¨ ¨)) -:¦:-
¸.·´ .·´¨¨))
jammer
((¸¸.·´ ..·´
-:¦:- ((¸¸

lagniappe wrote:
Are the large white dried lima beans, the sort you
buy in the grocery store for soaking, cooking, and
eating, fertile?

I think ALL of the beans of the sort you're talking
about are fertile. I have had lots of them sprout.

When I cook with dried beans, I do the usual picking
and sorting, to get rid of pebbles and also most of the
split beans. Even the split ones have germinated and
begun to grow in my compost pile. In fact, I have some
going right now that I need to pull out.

Or do they do something to them
to keep them from being viable? I have a particular
brand that I buy in 1-lb bags for cooking and eating,
that I particularly like. Can I plant these and
expect to get enough to germinate that I can grow
them and then have a source of fresh seeds? Or do
they irradiate or heat them or something else to make
them sterile?

Assuming these very-dried beans are viable, what is
the best way to proceed? Just bury them, or soak
first?

Bury a couple of them. I just about want to guarantee
they'll sprout. What I can't promise is that you'll
get the same quality of bean you get in the bag.

Good luck with it! Give it a try, and let us know how
it works.

"lagniappe" wrote in message

Are the large white dried lima beans, the sort you
buy in the grocery store for soaking, cooking, and
eating, fertile? Or do they do something to them
to keep them from being viable?

They are probably fertile and just naturally dried as that is the easiest
(and also the cheapest) way of getting them to the consumer.

I have a particular
brand that I buy in 1-lb bags for cooking and eating,
that I particularly like. Can I plant these and
expect to get enough to germinate that I can grow
them and then have a source of fresh seeds? Or do
they irradiate or heat them or something else to make
them sterile?

Assuming these very-dried beans are viable, what is
the best way to proceed? Just bury them, or soak
first?

First you really do need to know whether they were F1 hybrids. As others
have already mentioned, these do not come true to type but that is not
especially important if you just want to have go at growing them. What IS
important is that many members of the bean family (and this included Limas)
can contain cyanogenic glucocides which is a poison. This can be
ameliorated by the common practice of repeated adding and discarding water
during cooking.

Now the offspring may just be a good bean and cause no problems but if the
F1 turns out to have a lot of the poisons then that is obviously not a
desirable outcome for you.

I would advise that you find a source of open pollinated beans and stick to
them or ask/search/do a googe hunt for the American Seed Saver group.

OK, you convinced me. I've got about a dozen beans soaking
in a cup of water, tomorrow after work I'm going to bury them
and we'll see what happens.

Someone brought up an interesting question though ... are
simple lima beans a hybrid? Are they likely to "make true"
from the seeds?

Martin

(lagniappe) wrote in message . com...
Are the large white dried lima beans, the sort you
buy in the grocery store for soaking, cooking, and
eating, fertile? Or do they do something to them
to keep them from being viable? I have a particular
brand that I buy in 1-lb bags for cooking and eating,
that I particularly like. Can I plant these and
expect to get enough to germinate that I can grow
them and then have a source of fresh seeds? Or do
they irradiate or heat them or something else to make
them sterile?

Assuming these very-dried beans are viable, what is
the best way to proceed? Just bury them, or soak
first?

best regards,

Martin

Fran, I guess I'm confused. Surely the cyanide compounds would only be a
problem if she was sprouting beans for the sprouts themselves?.....I would
think that any plant that matured and produced beans would have the normal
ratio of poisonous compounds, but maybe I'm not correct in this
assumption?....
"Fran Higham" wrote in can contain cyanogenic
glucocides which is a poison. This can be
ameliorated by the common practice of repeated adding and discarding water
during cooking.

Now the offspring may just be a good bean and cause no problems but if the
F1 turns out to have a lot of the poisons then that is obviously not a
desirable outcome for you.

I would advise that you find a source of open pollinated beans and stick
to
them or ask/search/do a googe hunt for the American Seed Saver group.

"lagniappe" wrote in message
om...
Are the large white dried lima beans, the sort you
buy in the grocery store for soaking, cooking, and
eating, fertile? Or do they do something to them
to keep them from being viable? I have a particular
brand that I buy in 1-lb bags for cooking and eating,
that I particularly like. Can I plant these and
expect to get enough to germinate that I can grow
them and then have a source of fresh seeds? Or do
they irradiate or heat them or something else to make
them sterile?

Assuming these very-dried beans are viable, what is
the best way to proceed? Just bury them, or soak
first?

best regards,

Martin

My feed store guy told me to do the same thing. Unless you have a
particular variety (i.e. blue lake green beans) this works fine. We use
pintos for green beans and Jacob's Cattle beans for dried beans.

I buy lima beans and sprout them for my bird. She loves beans which have just
been germinated.


On 2 Mar 2003 10:49:26 -0800, (lagniappe) wrote:

Are the large white dried lima beans, the sort you
buy in the grocery store for soaking, cooking, and
eating, fertile? Or do they do something to them
to keep them from being viable? I have a particular
brand that I buy in 1-lb bags for cooking and eating,
that I particularly like. Can I plant these and
expect to get enough to germinate that I can grow
them and then have a source of fresh seeds? Or do
they irradiate or heat them or something else to make
them sterile?

Assuming these very-dried beans are viable, what is
the best way to proceed? Just bury them, or soak
first?

best regards,

Martin

"gregpresley" wrote in

Fran, I guess I'm confused. Surely the cyanide compounds would only be a
problem if she was sprouting beans for the sprouts themselves?.....I would
think that any plant that matured and produced beans would have the normal
ratio of poisonous compounds, but maybe I'm not correct in this
assumption?....

AFAIK most of the dry beans need to have the steeping, rinsing routine but
that applies to already known bean varieties.

Thus current beans he/she is using are a known entity but if they are F1
hybrids then they could produce anything when he/she breeds them on. Open
pollinated varieties are pure strains - every bean is like every other bean
in the crop. When hybridisation occurs the plant breeders use genetically
different varieties in order to gain what features they think is important.

It the beans he/she is currently eating are F1s and then he/she grows them
again they will be F2s and they could have all sorts of different features.
A common one already mentioned is that they may not grow or sprout at all,
other features could include reversion to a very weedy ancestor or even a
super booper new variety whcih is even better than the old one, or they
could contain very high amounts of the toxin that is present in wild bean
strains. Basically it's alottery if you use F1s as all the good bad and
irritating could occur in differing plants within the one row. To my way of
thinking, it is not a good return on energy expended as you want to know
what you are going to get when you plant and then spend all that time
tending them up until harvest. That is why I think it is worthwhile trying
to find out if they are F1s or if they are open pollinated.

If they are open pollinated then I see no point in buying seed as he/she has
found a variety they like, but if they are F1s then it isn't worth the
effort of growing them.


"Fran Higham" wrote in can contain cyanogenic
glucocides which is a poison. This can be
ameliorated by the common practice of repeated adding and discarding
water
during cooking.

Now the offspring may just be a good bean and cause no problems but if
the
F1 turns out to have a lot of the poisons then that is obviously not a
desirable outcome for you.

I would advise that you find a source of open pollinated beans and stick
to
them or ask/search/do a googe hunt for the American Seed Saver group.

Hi Fran,

It's "he". I have no way of determining whether the dried beans are
hybrids, and time is fast running out for getting beans planted in
Dallas. What I've done is soak about 10 of them overnight and plant
them in a row in some unused garden space. It's not that much trouble
to tend them for a few months as see what develops.

best regards,

Martin

Fran,

It's "he". I have no way to determine whether the beans I have are
hybrids, and no time for research. It's rapidly getting late in the
bean season here in Dallas. What I've done is soak about 10 of them
overnight and plant them in a row in some unused garden space. It's
not too much trouble to tend them for a few months to see what develops.

Martin

Talking about beans - Our store near us used to have butter beans but
they no longer have them. They taste better than lima beans for me.
Wonder where to get them.

(lagniappe) wrote in message . com...
Fran,

It's "he". I have no way to determine whether the beans I have are
hybrids, and no time for research. It's rapidly getting late in the
bean season here in Dallas. What I've done is soak about 10 of them
overnight and plant them in a row in some unused garden space. It's
not too much trouble to tend them for a few months to see what develops.

Martin

Vs,

It's strange, down south the big white beans are called "Lima Beans"
and the smaller green ones are called "Butter Beans". Up north, they
reverse the usage of the generic terms and call big white beans "Butter
Beans". Which are you talking about?

BTW, I'm planting big white Lima Beans.

Martin

(vsiddali) wrote in message . com...
Talking about beans - Our store near us used to have butter beans but
they no longer have them. They taste better than lima beans for me.
Wonder where to get them.

(lagniappe) wrote in message . com...
Fran,

It's "he". I have no way to determine whether the beans I have are
hybrids, and no time for research. It's rapidly getting late in the
bean season here in Dallas. What I've done is soak about 10 of them
overnight and plant them in a row in some unused garden space. It's
not too much trouble to tend them for a few months to see what develops.

Martin