# Pinto beans?



## derek78

Im thinking of trying beans this year. Id like something i can make to refried beans. I heard pinto are the best but i dont see pinto in catalogs. Which beans are pinto? Are they pole or bush beans? Can these also be eaten as green beans and or dry stored? Thanks everyone


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## JustCliff

I plant Pinto's from the bags I buy at the grocery store. They come up well but are not treated. I guess you could relate them to a bush type bean. 2' tall would be a heavy plant. (Don't add a bunch of nitrogen. You will get too much leaf growth) I have never heard of anyone trying to eat the unmature beans. They store great when fully mature and dry. 
Give yourself a good 3 frost free months for growing them.


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## Emerald

My Uncles were both farmers and often grew pinto beans or the white northern beans and we often picked them as green beans for supper.. the only thing to remember is that they were not meant to be harvested as green beans and were often stringy and had to be "strung" when you snapped them.. which means you just had to pull the strings off each side when snapping them. Most commercial beans that you buy by the bag are going to be bush so that they can be mechanically harvested.
Now I grow a pole bean that is great for green beans and for shelly beans( the immature dry bean) and for dry beans they look just like pintos.. it is the Rattlesnake pole bean. And Burppee is now selling it by the packets in the big box stores in their "heirloom" selections. since it is an heirloom/open pollinated you can keep seed for it from year to year.
I grow it on welded wire fencing that is 6 foot tall and it goes up and over every year. the best thing is that you can pick the beans for green beans till about the end of August here (MI) and then let the plants go and they make the dry beans too. but I do grow them out in relays, I plant one bunch as early as possible about 25 feet worth and then about 2 weeks later I plant another 25 feet.. about the time to let the first batch go to seed the second batch is ready for picking green beans.


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## derek78

Good info. That was going to be my next question, if i could plant dried bagged beans from the store. Im also in michigan (southeast). Is there a difference on the amount of beans ill get from bush or pole? Ill probably be planting only about 5-10 plants after i decide which way to go. Have u ever made refried beans from the rattlesnake variety? I might just try both types.


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## Emerald

derek78 said:


> Good info. That was going to be my next question, if i could plant dried bagged beans from the store. Im also in michigan (southeast). Is there a difference on the amount of beans ill get from bush or pole? Ill probably be planting only about 5-10 plants after i decide which way to go. Have u ever made refried beans from the rattlesnake variety? I might just try both types.


I get as many dried beans from my pole beans as I do from bush but at least with pole beans I get tons of green beans for the freezer and for standing there chowing down in the garden. I don't bother with bush beans any longer.. but if you are only growing them for dried beans bushes are not too bad as you can just pull the whole plant when dry and thrash them that way. pole beans have to be pretty much hand picked when dry. but I just pick them and put them in a bag and then while sitting and watching tv at night I shuck them.


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## goatlady

Many of the smaller seed companies carry all kinds of drying beans, Vermont Bean and Seed company has many, many varieties. But remember they need most usually a loong growing season to include drying on the bush, like many need 100+ days and no rain at the end when they are trying to dry on the plant. About the only "treatment" beans can have are an inoculant which helps them sprout faster and use nitrogen better, has no effect on the final bean product, just makes faster sprouting after planting to avoid seed mold/rot if the ground is too wet/cold.


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## frisian

Can the grocery store beans be planted right from the bag or is there some sort of preparation to do before planting them??

Also do you plant them in mounds or sow them in a row? Thanks


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## Emerald

frisian said:


> Can the grocery store beans be planted right from the bag or is there some sort of preparation to do before planting them??
> 
> Also do you plant them in mounds or sow them in a row? Thanks


I have been known to soak them in lukewarm water for about 15 to 20 minutes and then drain and add inoculant if you have never grown them before. it does make a big difference.. once I use it tho it does tend to live in the soil so I don't add it again unless I make a new bed. 
and depending on how you garden most folks put them in rows or blocks. I detest long skinny rows so I tend plant in rows but short and blocky.


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## derek78

You said the inoculant tends to live in there, does that affect other nearby plants?


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## Emerald

derek78 said:


> You said the inoculant tends to live in there, does that affect other nearby plants?


nothing unless you have peas and peas like the inoculate. it is a live micro organism that lives in the soil and helps legumes take nitrogen from the soil onto their roots.(or something like that) you want your soils to be alive.. 
round up is a nightmare to real live soils.. it is a gene disruptor and do you really want that anywhere near you? or your food sources? ick.
I get all kinds of mushrooms growing in my yard and garden.. nice live soil..
The more organic stuff (like leaf mold and compost) you can get in your soil the better it will retain water and the minerals and other goodies will not wash out as quickly.


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## Davarm

I grow a lot of pinto beans, I get the seed from bags at the grocery store also. IMO, they make the best tasting green bean but as stated, they do get stringy so you have to pick them fairly young. To my knowledge, they are what the "Refried Beans" in cans at the grocery store are made from.

The Pinto does make a good shelled bean, we eat a lot of them that way, they take less time to cook and have a "fresher" taste than the dried pintos. If you decide that you like shelled pinto beans, you can plant "Improved Pintos" but you have to get the seeds from a seed house as they are a hybrid, they're not sold in grocery sores. They have a much larger pod than the regular pintos and almost shell themselves.

For green beans, we plant a verity called "Roma", they are a bush bean that produce a flat green bean that gets about 8+ inches long and you can almost let them go to seed and they will not be tough or stringy. They are heavy producers and will produce just about as long as you keep them picked if they have adequate water.

I dont know if the Roma beans are a "true heirloom verity" but you will get a Roma if you plant a saved Roma bean.


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## kappydell

one other difference between bush & pole beans - bush beans bear earlier, then peter out in the hot months. I plant both - putting the bush beans at the base of the climbers. By the time the bush beans peter out the pole beans are going strong and will go all season. I like the pole beans a tad better - easier to pick with arthritis!


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## Davarm

kappydell said:


> .
> 
> I plant both - putting the bush beans at the base of the climbers. By the time the bush beans peter out the pole beans are going strong and will go all season.


Now thats a good idea, I think I am going to try that one. I was going to plant beans today but I think I will go to the feed store today and buy some pole beans and give this a try tomorrow.

Arthr is getting to be a close friend of mine so this may wind up being a pretty good way to help deal with it.


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## Emerald

Davarm said:


> Now thats a good idea, I think I am going to try that one. I was going to plant beans today but I think I will go to the feed store today and buy some pole beans and give this a try tomorrow.
> 
> Arthr is getting to be a close friend of mine so this may wind up being a pretty good way to help deal with it.


good idea if you don't save seed.. bad idea if you are trying to keep your pole bean seeds pure.
But as long as they sell seed doubling it would double your production.


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## Davarm

Emerald said:


> good idea if you don't save seed.. bad idea if you are trying to keep your pole bean seeds pure.
> But as long as they sell seed doubling it would double your production.


And you would have to throw a wrench in works, now wouldn't you?:scratch

I guess for this year as an experiment, I will just not worry about seeds where I have them mixed.

A note on the "Bush Beans", The reason I stuck with the "Roma's" was because they produce well into the summer before they start slowing down. Then if you keep them watered will survive until cool fall weather when you can get a final few pickings before he cold gets them.

I have not found any other bean, bush or pole that would perform like that.


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## derek78

Thanks for the info everyone, watch out beans... Here i come!


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## HillbillyPrep

I planted 1/4 lb of Pinto beans last year and that produced just under 13 lbs of beans to eat. I just let them go and at the end of the season i picked the dried pods from the plant. I dried the beans on a big section of screen, mixing them up some to dry better.
Never had refried beans but these made good soup beans. My cousin kills a couple hogs every year and he gives me some ham. Wifey makes some corn bread and I'm a happy man.


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## dunappy

I gave up Pintos for Anasazi beans. MUCH better taste!
http://www.purcellmountainfarms.com/Anasazi Beans.htm

Taste these and you won't go back to Pintos EVER.


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## CVORNurse

JustCliff said:


> I plant Pinto's from the bags I buy at the grocery store. They come up well but are not treated. I guess you could relate them to a bush type bean. 2' tall would be a heavy plant. (Don't add a bunch of nitrogen. You will get too much leaf growth) I have never heard of anyone trying to eat the unmature beans. They store great when fully mature and dry.
> Give yourself a good 3 frost free months for growing them.


Oh My Goodness, if you have never had a fresh pinto( picked before they dry out) you really don't know what you are missing. This year, pick a mess of them when the pods are plumped out and just starting to turn yellowish, but before they have time to start getting dry. I usually pick mine when the pod feels kinda lose around them(weird description I know, but don't know how else to describe it )Try it, I bet you will like them.


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## Davarm

dunappy said:


> I gave up Pintos for Anasazi beans. MUCH better taste!
> http://www.purcellmountainfarms.com/Anasazi Beans.htm
> 
> Taste these and you won't go back to Pintos EVER.


We have eaten the Anasazi beans and they are quite good, but, How can you afford to eat them all the time?

Do you grow them yourself, we tried and they do not produce near what pinto's or other beans do.


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## goshengirl

Davarm said:


> Do you grow them yourself, we tried and they do not produce near what pinto's or other beans do.


We grew them last year (our first bean-growing experience), and they were by far the most prolific of the beans we grew (Anasazi, Aztec, Hutterite, Mayflower, Canellinni). I don't know how they compare to any other beans, though... (we also had a really bad growing year last year in our region).


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## dunappy

They are grown locally and we pick them up in 50 lb bags. They are much cheaper than that website suggests. I just picked it to show the look of the beans not to recommend you buy from them. Direct from the grower you can get them for around a dollar a LB or less for bulk purchases. They taste better, cook up faster and don't require the same king of soaking that Pintos do.



Davarm said:


> We have eaten the Anasazi beans and they are quite good, but, How can you afford to eat them all the time?
> 
> Do you grow them yourself, we tried and they do not produce near what pinto's or other beans do.


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