christmas limas and pinquito beans

[okie dodger]

Happy New Year, everybody, from Seminole County, Ok. I have a question for you dry bean growers. This past year my christmas beans grew to 8 feet tall, very lush with lots of blooms. None of the blooms germinated until late fall, too late to mature. I planted these in early May. My bush pinquito beans did the same, filling a 4'x20' raised bed. What happenned?

[imafan26]

You planted them at the right time and they did flower. I can only think that it either got cold or there were not enough pollinators.

[okie dodger]

Thank you for your reply, Imafan26. I don't think it got too cold here in Oklahoma in the summertime As for the pollinators, I do think there is a shortage of these everywhere. Some years all I see are bumble bees. However, I have read that most beans are self germinating, but a few more pollinators would not hurt a thing, right? Could a bed that was heavily fertilized with aged goat manure 2 years ago be too rich for the beans? Both beans were in this bed with the trellis on the north end. And like I said, the plants were very lush. I don't remember if the blooms were falling off or just not pollinating, but it was the middle of October before I saw pods. They froze out in November. I will try again in 2019 in a different bed, of course. I do rotate my crops. I've got a dumb question for you, imafan. How's the weather? lol. It is 32 with freezing rain, supposed to change to snow later today with 4"-8" possible. Don't answer that question! I've got a nephew stationed in Hawaii (Air Force) on a 4 year tour. What a duty!!

[applestar]

Aaaaah. So sorry but I’m in a picky kind of mood — rather than “germinating” which is when the seeds first start growing and send out the first tip of root, you are thinking flowers “setting fruit” or “being pollinated”

But, AAAANYWAY — I might be wrong, but I’m thinking Christmas Lima’s might be day-length sensitive? No matter how I try, I can’t get Lima’s, and particularly Christmas Lima’s to start bearing pods until it’s late and too late, just as you said. In my case, just as they start producing pods and are filled out enough, about ready to be picked as green shelled beans, we start getting first frost in the extended forecast. I’m lucky if I can manage to harvest a handful of fully dried mature beans.

[Gary350]

This is interesting. This summer just for the heck of it I planted about 25 Lima bean seeds in a small spot. It has been 40 years since I grew Lima beans I was just curious what plants look like not really caring about a good harvest of beans. Plants grew and looked different than Blue Lake and Roma beans. Plants got taller and taller about 5ft tall they were looking like runners for pole beans but they were standing straight up with no poles. Tops got heavy plants became a tangle mess by Nov plants looked like they must be 10 ft long each. I saw no blossoms and plants made no beans. I know if you save seeds from certain hybrid plants they will grow plants with no harvest. Not sure this is true with beans but I think it is with certain hybrid tomatoes. I was wondering why plants had no beans this should be a 65 day crop, 3 months 1 week later no beans and no signs of trying to grow beans. I planted late in the season about last week of July instead of May 1st.

Lima beans I planted 40 years ago did good. Only thing I remember about this crop, it worked me to death removing beans from pods.