# Bean That Produces The Most Food?



## Meerkat

Could someone tell me which bean plant can I grow for the most food?
And which peas produce the most?
I have speckled butter beans and limas growing now,but they don't seem to have a lot of beans per plant.Also the pole beans did'nt do too well or have many beans on them.


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## Meerkat

Hey, wheres the bean growers?I bumped this back up before it gets lost .


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## The_Blob

do you mean *calories* or *beans* for a certain amount of space?

calorically I would think soybeans

beans per plant I would think pole beans because they grow vertically & therefore use little 'floor' space

don't forget pole beans have to be harvested every 2 weeks to keep the plant productive & bush snap beans produce 2 or 3 times per season

you can grow more snap beans with multiple plantings/harvests also

beans need 6.0-6.5 pH (slightly acid)

I hope some of this helps... :dunno:


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## Emerald

I have to vote pole beans too... infact I have three very good producers for me... one is a dry bean called --
Speckled Cranberry, a very nice cream colored dry bean with maroon streaks and stipples. A nice cooking bean very plump and creamy at the same time. makes a great refried bean and great in chili. not that good green.

Cherokee Trail of Tears- a very good green bean that is mostly string-less when picked young but makes a very fine medium sized black kidney shaped dry bean that is very good in chili. it cooks up to a dark brownish red bean. This bean is a non-stop producer for me.

And my very favorite pole bean-Rattlesnake-very good fresh green bean eating and very prolific makes tons of beans.. I freeze quite a bit for our use during the winter. The speckled bean that it makes for a dry bean is indistinguishable from pinto beans and I use it the same. I just wish I could grow enuf to last us the winter.. I would need about 200 more feet of fence.

In Florida you might need to really amend your soils(try using an inoculate) and plant in the proper season. 
I've been growing pole beans for more than 20 years and have tried many different types and I still trade for rare pole beans every year.. many do not get planted ever year but the rattlesnake is here every year. If I had to grow only one it would be the rattlesnake.


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## Frugal_Farmers

We have been blessed by netwoking with some old the "old timers" in our area. We are doing away with many of the common seeds found in local feed stores and catalogs. We now have a wonderful collection of real heratige seed which have been in local families for hundreds of years.

My advice would be to take a trip to your county extension services office and get to know them. They love it when you show up with homegrown goodies to share. They should be able to advise you on what works best in your area. They also have lots of other informational pamphlets for free.


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## Meerkat

The_Blob said:


> do you mean *calories* or *beans* for a certain amount of space?
> 
> calorically I would think soybeans
> 
> beans per plant I would think pole beans because they grow vertically & therefore use little 'floor' space
> 
> don't forget pole beans have to be harvested every 2 weeks to keep the plant productive & bush snap beans produce 2 or 3 times per season
> 
> you can grow more snap beans with multiple plantings/harvests also
> 
> beans need 6.0-6.5 pH (slightly acid)
> 
> I hope some of this helps... :dunno:


 To:Blob,Emerald,Sunny Boy...Your replies really help me a lot.:flower:
I would love to get hold of some Rattlesnake and other non hydrids.I do buy from catalogs'Gardens Alive,and use to buy Gurneys but they don't have many non hybrids as they e to.
I will see about the county extension here ,I do use them a lot for info about chickens,canning and soil testing but not ask about seeds.
Is it too hot to start these beans now?It won't be cold here until October or November,plus my green house will be ready by fall.I grow greens all winter long here.


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## UncleJoe

Last year I planted 25 golden yellow wax beans (bush). I ended up canning 58 qts. I also had about 10 green beans (pole) which produced about 25 qts. So it looks like the pole beans win but we really like the yellow beans. I can't find them in a pole variety so I planted more bush.


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## Emerald

UncleJoe said:


> Last year I planted 25 golden yellow wax beans (bush). I ended up canning 58 qts. I also had about 10 green beans (pole) which produced about 25 qts. So it looks like the pole beans win but we really like the yellow beans. I can't find them in a pole variety so I planted more bush.


I don't wanna share what I don't have at the moment but I planted out the last of my heirloom yellow wax pole bean called "pencil pod"(it might be yellow pencil too.. I've lost the packet years ago) I am hoping for enuf seed to stock what I (stupidly)let get so low as to almost lose it. If I get enuf I'd gladly send you some.. Maybe some of the Rattlesnake too. Beats picking bush beans...


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## UncleJoe

Emerald said:


> I planted out the last of my heirloom yellow wax pole bean called "pencil pod"(it might be yellow pencil too...


Well now I have something specific to look for. But if you get good haul of seed this year, I would be happy to help continue the variety. Thanks


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## PamsPride

My yellow wax beans are already polluted with beans. I have a few blossoms on my pole beans. I was hoping to have them ready at the same time so I could mix them to can them.


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## Emerald

UncleJoe said:


> Well now I have something specific to look for. But if you get good haul of seed this year, I would be happy to help continue the variety. Thanks


May have to get a trading thread going this fall.. I often save more seed than I need. If I can get everyone here "hooked on heirlooms" and how to save their own seeds from the seeds I send out, we are well on our way to being a more "prepared society"..:flower:


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## Meerkat

UncleJoe said:


> Last year I planted 25 golden yellow wax beans (bush). I ended up canning 58 qts. I also had about 10 green beans (pole) which produced about 25 qts. So it looks like the pole beans win but we really like the yellow beans. I can't find them in a pole variety so I planted more bush.


 My goodness thats about a bushel each is'nt it? Sounds like my kind of beans.:wave:


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## Meerkat

Emerald said:


> May have to get a trading thread going this fall.. I often save more seed than I need. If I can get everyone here "hooked on heirlooms" and how to save their own seeds from the seeds I send out, we are well on our way to being a more "prepared society"..:flower:


 Good idea .:congrat:.I'm going to save my first grape tomatoe seed.This plant just keeps on producing tasty grape size toms.


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## Meerkat

PamsPride said:


> My yellow wax beans are already polluted with beans. I have a few blossoms on my pole beans. I was hoping to have them ready at the same time so I could mix them to can them.


 Pam,In this case is polluted a good thing or a bad thing?:dunno:
I don't know all the garden talk yet.


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## PamsPride

Good thing...but I was hoping they would ALL be ready at the same time. This is my first time ever planting beans.


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## UncleJoe

PamsPride said:


> ...but I was hoping they would ALL be ready at the same time.


Nope. The more you pick the more they produce. I canned beans every couple weeks last summer.


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## Immolatus

I would also happily reimburse you for some bean seeds. I have some fenceline not being utilized at the moment.


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## Meerkat

PamsPride said:


> Good thing...but I was hoping they would ALL be ready at the same time. This is my first time ever planting beans.


 My first season planting beans also,but so far not so good.The ones I planted in early spring never even hardly come up.These others came up but produced only a couple beans,now the ones I planted several weeks ago look good,but nt many beans on them either.
I read beans don't like much nitrogen,what do they like?


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## Meerkat

UncleJoe said:


> Nope. The more you pick the more they produce. I canned beans every couple weeks last summer.


 What kind of soil did you plant in?It has to be my soil because most everything else does ok.
I planted in raised bed that I took collards,kale and turnips out of,did nothing.Then new area where grass was removed soil was nice.


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## kappydell

The seed saver's exchange has many heirloom beans available through their grower's network. Every Jan they put out a list of available trades & wants. You get a sampling of seeds for price of postage, then multiply them for your own eating.


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## AlabamaGal

This is an old thread, but I'll put in my 2 cents.

For a dried bean (one you let dry on the vine) in a hot climate, the tepary beans are hard to beat. They can take the heat, take the full bore sun, take the humidity in the South, don't need watering and have almost zero pest problems. (Japanese beetles eat the leaves but not really enough to bother the plant.) Last year I got about 2 1/2 lbs. off maybe 25 Mitla Black plants. That's not a huge amount of dried beans but that's also not much space. They are insubstantial enough to grow up a flimsy farm fence or trellis without pulling it down. You let them dry on the vine and then pick the shrivelled brown pods and shell at your leisure.

They are Phaseolus acutifoliusm so they won't cross with regular Phaseolus vulgaris green beans.

Downside is they take a long time to mature, and you want to start them after the soil is very thoroughly warm. That means they take up a lot of growing space all summer long. They'd probably love Jacksonville or California, but I don't think they'd be very reliable north of the Mason-Dixon line and maybe not even that far.


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## kappydell

te Seed Saver's Exchange sells heirloom veggie seeds and members swap samples of seeds they are saving every january. I have seen many fine old varieties there, many of which are kept alive solely by them and their members.


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## siletz

As a rule of thumb, pole beans produce more than bush beans in the same space, but bush beans produce their crop more all-at-once instead of little by little like the pole beans. :flower:


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