lima beans

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janet - 31 Aug 2008 10:59 GMT

I love fresh lima beans, but I never seem to get more than a few meals
worth from a dozen or so plants around a bean tower. I planted
Burpee's Big Mama pole limas this summer and the flavor is wonderful--
very sweet, but they're just not very productive. Romano beans
planted several feet away have so many beans I can't keep up with
them. Is this just the nature of lima bean plants, do they need
special conditions, or should I try another variety? Any other lima
bean growers out there?

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Pat Kiewicz - 31 Aug 2008 12:32 GMT

janet said:

>I love fresh lima beans, but I never seem to get more than a few meals
>worth from a dozen or so plants around a bean tower. I planted
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>special conditions, or should I try another variety? Any other lima
>bean growers out there?

Lima beans need to be pollinated. Snap beans (like Romano) are
self-pollinating.

I used to grow pole limas. "Christmas" was a good producer of
speckled beans. Cooked up sort of pale purple as a fresh sheller.

"King of the Garden" was a good producer of white beans (cook
up pale green as a fresh shell bean).

Grew the two together and ended up with a bunch of odd colored
lima beans of varying sizes.

I'd also tried a different pole lima at one point, with smaller seeds
than "King of the Garden" but it was far less productive.

Maybe I'll grow some pole lima beans again next year...

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Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

After enlightenment, the laundry.

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Homeowner Forum / Lawn and Garden / August 2008

lima beans