source for butter bean seeds?

[wsmoak]

Butter beans (sometimes called lima beans, though this is a hotly debated topic!) are highly prized around here, selling for $4-5 a pound (shelled) at the farmers market. I'd like to grow them myself next year but I'm having trouble finding a good source.

So far I haven't ventured far from Park Seed, Gurney's and Johnny's, none of which sells them. (There is a _soy_bean called butterbean, but that's not what I'm after.) The local feed store usually has Ferry Morse seeds in bulk during planting season, but no luck there either.

Has anyone seen butter beans for sale from a source that you trust?

So far I'm looking at http://www.southernexposure.com and what looks like an interesting program at Clemson: http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/seed/heirloom.htm .

Thanks,
-Wendy

 

[ninnymary]

Wsmoak, I just received a seed catalog from the Vermont Bean Seed Company. There are some in there, but I admit I don't know squat about butterbeans! I don't know how to do links but the website is vermontbean.com. Hope this helps.

Also, thanks for the tip about using soda bottles to keep my chicken wire off the ground. Hopefully this will help my plants grow some before I take the wire off. Those darn cats drive me crazy!

Mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you are boycotting Monsanto seeds, it may be a problem, but in Georgia you should have a gardening center around that has lots of choices. I'm not talking about Lowe's or Home Depot but a real gardening center. You can check out some nurseries too or maybe ask them for local ideas.

I've had better success with bush lima's, Fordham specifically. I keep trying pole limas since I have a great garden fence for them, but they just haven't produced as well as the bush. Of course, the Fordham bush was a couple of years ago when I had a good bean season. The last two years it has been so hot and dry no beans have done well.

Muggins has not posted for a while, but you might try PM'ing him/her. I have not tried the Dr. Martins, but they sound real interesting.

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=32154

 

[bjanet]

I tried Burpee's "Big Mama" pole bean this year, which grew like crazy. However, we had such record heat that I had lots of flowers, but no beans ever set. I'm going to try it again this next year, because we love butter beans too.

 

[hoodat]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I always thought butter beans were just the smaller varieties of Limas. If you have the room and want regular limas I always had great luck with King of the garden limas but they need a BIG trellis. They're open ollinated so you can save your own seed.
I can't tell you anything about this company but I ran across it in browsing and they seem to have a good selection of butter beans.
http://www.victoryseeds.com/beans_lima.html

 

[Ridgerunner]

This is from Wikipedia, but "butter bean" is another on of those terms that can obviously mean different things to different people. To me, it is a Lima and I'm originally from the South.


The term "butter bean" is widely utilized for a large, flat and yellow/white variety of lima bean (P. lunatus var. macrocarpus, or P. limensis[2]).

In the Southern United States the Sieva type are traditionally called butter beans, also otherwise known as the Dixie or Henderson type. In that area, lima beans and butter beans are seen as two distinct types of beans.

In the United Kingdom, "butter beans" refer to either dried beans which can be purchased to re-hydrate, or the canned variety which are ready to use. In culinary use, lima beans and butter beans are distinctly different, the former being small and green, the latter large and yellow. In areas where both are considered to be lima beans, the green variety may be labeled as "baby" (and less commonly "junior") limas.

 

[bjanet]

I love the way everyone helps out on this web site! The "Big Mama" seeds we got were in the lima bean section...they are advertised as a really huge bean for fresh eating or leaving on the vine for dry beans.
I was so looking forward to seeing what we got, but like I said, we'll try again next season.

 

[April Manier]

The government gives out free seeds to those who are working on ascension.

Our results have been varied with the various repositories, but it's worth a look!

 

[Carol Dee]

wsmoak check out the post on Dr. Martin pole lima beans posted by muggins, looks like something you'd like.

 

[Hencackle]

wsmoak--if you wish, I can share some pole butterbean seed with you. My FIL doesn't know the name of the variety, but his father grew them for years and years. My FIL is 76, and I've been raising and saving the seed from what was gifted to me 24 years ago...so that tells you whatever variety this is, it's been in the family a long time. It may be a Carolina type, but I don't really know for certain...it is definitely well-suited for growing in hot & humid east TN summers. I've been after my FIL about sending some seed to SeedSavers, Clemson University, etc and give it a name. He still hasn't done it.

I wish I had taken photos of the vines, pods, seed, and what my pole lattice system looks like. I use the green metal fence posts from Lowe's to anchor bamboo (or green poles), more poles placed horizontally along the top and bottom--that's what holds the strands of baling twine that I weave into a sort-of mesh. Sorry, I can't really describe it well. If you use this method, you'll find that it's easy to see the ripe pods and squash bean beetle eggs and larvae. The vines grow long, about 12-14 ft long and are heavy producers, so you'll need a make a sturdy lattice of bean poles to support them. Once the vines reach the top of the lattice, they start to droop back down towards the ground with their weight. The pods hold 2-4 small white beans and the pointed tip of the pod is sharp--you'll have to take care to avoid the sharp tip when picking the pods. The fresh beans can be blanched and frozen as they freeze well. The vines produce up until killing frost, so your harvest period should be a nice long time where you live.

My FIL uses a tee-pee method to support his vines. It takes longer to pick the pods and he sprays for bean beetles. I don't.

IMO, you can't go wrong ordering stock from Southern Exposure or Clemson's Foundation Seed Program. I've ordered from them before.

I did a quick Google of Dr. Martin's Lima and found these pictures. His variety produces larger pods and seeds than the variety that I raise.

PS, If you're interested email me because I don't get on this website that often.