Which bean grows the fastest

For gardeners who love that buttery lima taste, there are a few lima bean varieties requiring less heat and a shorter season. It is worth consulting seed catalogs or seeking out a garden center with a wide seed selection to find the best varieties for your garden. Choose either pole or bush plant habits and grow limas just as you would common beans. While the ideal soil for common beans is a well-drained clay loam, lima bean plants grow best in a coarser-textured, sandier soil.

Harvest for fresh-shelled beans when the seed color has changed from green to cream or white, and the pods are starting to bulge in the shape of the seed. For dried limas, allow the pods to dry completely, and then thresh as you would common beans. Raw lima beans may contain small amounts of toxic glucosides. Although most modern varieties contain little or none of the toxins, cooking lima beans removes any that are present.

Do not eat raw lima beans. Yard-long beans Vigna unguiculata , also known as "asparagus beans," are popular in Asian dishes. You can grow them in Minnesota, although yields are likely to be low. This species requires very warm weather to produce pods, and the pods can suffer chilling injury from temperatures in the forties.

Some varieties produce pods up to 18 inches, others more than two feet. Watch the developing pods, which may appear puffy or inflated while growing. They will appear tight or constricted when they are over-mature, so pick when they are long, tender, and slightly puffy-looking, before the seeds expand.

Black-eyed peas and cowpeas Vigna unguiculata are the same species as yard-long beans, and have similar requirements for warm soils and warm air temperatures.

In cooler parts of the state, the growing season may not be long enough or warm enough to mature the seed fully. Gardeners grow these varieties for the mature dried seed.

The plants usually are bush-types, rather than tall vines. One short-season variety to try is California Blackeye Fava beans Vicia faba , unlike other beans, require conditions similar to those needed to grow peas: cool temperatures with highs only into the low eighties.

In most of Minnesota, favas will set only a few pods before the weather turns too hot. In cooler areas, such as along the Lake Superior shore, fava bean growth may be successful. Grow as you would peas, planting early in the spring. The sturdy, erect plants do not need support. The pods will first grow upright, and then begin to droop as the seed matures. Pick the favas while green, as the seed starts to bulge a bit in the pod.

Shell the beans from the pod, and then remove the white outer coating of the seed either before or after cooking. You can also use fully mature favas as dry beans. Some people are sensitive to raw favas and can become quite ill if they eat them. Although sensitivity to the raw seed is most common among people of Mediterranean ancestry, it is impossible to predict who is sensitive. Always fully cook favas before consumption. The hyacinth bean plant Lablab purpureaus , Dolichos lablab with its beautiful purple flowers, is common as an ornamental vine in Minnesota.

You can also eat the green pods. Harvest as for snap beans, when the pods are juicy and tender. Always cook hyacinth bean because it will remove the toxins that the seed can contain. You can pick snap beans at any stage of pod formation, until the shape of the individual seeds inside becomes apparent, causing the pods to bulge. After this stage, the pods are typically less juicy and more fibrous. Snap beans will hold their quality after picking for several hours at room temperature. It is best to refrigerate them if you do not cook them immediately.

Pick filet beans when they are very slender. For other types, picking pods before they have gained more size can decrease yield. Harvest shelling beans when the pods have become thin and tough, but not dry. The beans within will have developed their mature markings, although their color may still be pale.

The pods should split open easily, and you can easily remove the beans. Harvest dry beans when the pods are dry and the beans inside are dry enough to rattle.

Cut or pull the entire plant if the cold, rainy weather of autumn comes before the beans are fully mature. Then hang upside-down indoors to dry. Once the pods and beans are completely dry, strip the pods from the plants and shell out by hand. For a larger crop, place the pods in a burlap sack and thresh by hitting the bag with a stick. Winnowing is the process of removing little bits of plant material from the seed.

Take the seeds outdoors on a dry, windy day and pour them from container to container, allowing the wind to blow through the stream of seeds. The wind will remove lightweight plant fiber. All rights reserved. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer. Home Yard and garden Find plants Vegetables Growing beans.

Quick facts Edible beans include snap beans, shelling beans or dry beans. Bean plant growth habits include pole beans, bush beans and half-runners. Bean plants do not need as much fertilizer as other crops. Plant seeds directly in the garden once the soil has warmed. Install pole bean supports at planting time. Bush beans are very quick growing and may be sown every three or four weeks from spring to give a succession of pickings throughout summer.

Beans can be further categorized by their pods. Green beans generally have smooth, slender pods. Runner beans tend to have slightly coarser pods and continue cropping a few weeks later than string beans.

Then there are the beans exclusive to warmer climates including soya beans, lima beans, and the appropriately named yard-long beans! All beans prefer a sunny spot in well-drained soil that was improved with compost or well-rotted manure the autumn before sowing.

A clever technique to boost growth is to create a compost trench. Dig out a trench about a foot 30cm deep where your beans are to grow. Fill it up with kitchen scraps and spent crops, top with leaves then cap it off with soil. By spring the ground will be beautifully rich and moisture-retentive, and your beans will thrive in it. Sow beans where they are to grow, against their supports or, for bush types, four to six inches cm apart with 18 inches 45cm left between each row.

Use a hoe to scratch out rows or dig individual planting holes with a trowel. Pole beans varieties tend to mature in about 65 days or more. Not only are they quick, but also bush beans are some of the easiest beans to grow and require little work for a large yield of beans.

Bush beans were once called string beans due to the fiber that grew on the seam of the bean. Breeding has eliminated this trait. The quickest of the bush beans to mature is 'Topcrop' which is ready to eat in as little as 48 days, notes the University of Arkansas.

There is also the 'Provider' cultivar with its high yield or the 'Resistant Cherokee' bush wax bean that matures in 50 days and has bright yellow pods. Some cultivars of lima beans are considered bush beans with the quickest to maturation being the 'Jackson Wonder' cultivar coming in at 65 days to maturity.

Bush beans prefer soil that is well draining with a pH of 6. Your bean yield will be optimized if you plant your beans in the sun, though they will survive in partial shade at the expense of a smaller crop.