Butterbeans!

[Southern Gardener]

Hey! Somebody with the same opinion of lima bean, er, butter bean flavor as me! My dad loves lima beans, so guess what we got served a lot of. I still get that feeling in the back of my throat when I see them.

Sorry Wendy, yours are nice. Probably if I grew them my opinion would improve and I could eat them willingly.

Yeah, my dad used to make us eat them when we were kids. I hated them! My ex-hubby loved baby lima beans so he always cooked them - I was brave enough to try them one time and they were very good. I'll only eat the small lima beans and with ham cooked in.

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

My thumb is a permanent green from "shelling" small butter beans, and yes they taste like dirt. But when your favorite Uncle likes fresh butter beans for his famous vegetable soup, you have to make concessions.

 

[bjanet]

I must be doing something wrong. I live in central Oklahoma (zone 7) and have tried butterbeans for the past 2 years. The plants grow just beautifully, completely covering an 8-foot trellis, with plenty of blooms. We just never get any bean pods off of them. We just decided this week that we won't try butterbeans again, although we love eating them.
Any ideas why we can't get them to produce? Thanks for any input!

 

[Jared77]

Only got one mess of peas before the heat took them. Then the deer and rabbits munched off 1/2 the grean beans before they got a good start, now the Japenese beetles, heat and drought are fighting us for the remainder. (We have not gotten any to pick yet. )

Join the club. Mine came out strong and I thought I'd get a huge crop of them. Drought hit and then the Japanese beetles took their turn. Its been a VERY poor year for green beans here too. Now my cucumbers thats anotehr story!

 

[wsmoak]

... and they are STILL going! I picked half a pound (shelled) this morning and DH had them for lunch and dinner.

There are more beans out there coming along, and more blooms that the bees are working. I think it'll keep going until killed by frost.

Of course... it's taking up quite a lot of space for half a pound of beans every few weeks. It probably makes more sense to plant a bunch of them, get the big harvest in and then pull them down.

But as nothing else wants to grow right now, at least it's something green to look at that is not grass and weeds.

And if you need a privacy screen, these would be a good choice!

-Wendy

 

[897tgigvib]

Beautiful crop of Limas, and in multicolors!

I planted a patch of Hopi Beige Lima and they have really hit their stride too. Hopi Beige is a 4 foot climber. About 3 fourths of them are pure beige, and about 1 fourth are beige with black calico or pinto markings. They are definitely larger than baby limas, but generally not very large.

I also planted a patch of "Large White Lima", a commercial variety, and on, and all thosely got 8 good plants from the seed I got from a bag of Limas. That's alright. I tucked in some other bush beans between them. These did turn out to be a bush lima. They are making large pods that should be ready in a week or so.

I planted a few commercial baby limas too, also poor germination, but I'll get a few good seeds from them for next year.

Christmas Limas are doing great as usual.

I did not think I planted any golden limas, but there was one in with the odd mix I planted. Golden lima is not really a lima, but the pods look like lima pods, and the golden pinto flat wide beans look and cook like limas. I always keep several odd mixes.

Oh, I like Lima bean soup, with ham hock and all those secret ingredients like celery salt n stuff!

 

[wsmoak]

Before and after photos. The first is when we picked the original 3+ lb harvest, and the second is a month later.


120721_6749 by wsmoak, on Flickr


120822_6851 by wsmoak, on Flickr

-Wendy

 

[baymule]

I fell in love with those pretty beans! I ordered 2 packets, one for me and one for my best friend that loves to garden too. I will be impatiently waiting all winter for spring so I can plant them!

 

[897tgigvib]

I keep coming back to look at these Limas, so beautiful.

 

[wsmoak]

This crazy plant is *still* growing new leaves and flowering. If the grasshoppers weren't eating it nearly as fast as it can grow, I bet it would produce until it was killed by frost.

It makes me want to build a huge arbor and let it grow up and over next year.

I got a cup of fresh beans and another pile of dried ones today. (Clearly, letting beans dry on the vine does not make it stop producing.) There are surely going to be volunteers in that area next year. When the pods get very dry, they curl up and snap open, scattering beans several feet away.

-Wendy