New to planting dry beans

[Red Horse]

I've always grown snap type beans and blanched/frozen them, but this year I'm hoping to plant some dry types to try out. How long does it take for the beans to dry on the plants after they mature? Can you still do successive plantings of bush varieties throughout the season, or does it just take all dang year for one plant to mature and dry? I'm in zone 6 so I don't have a super long season.

 

[Sally PB]

I'm in zone 6 so I don't have a super long season.

I've harvest some dry beans in my zone 5 season. I didn't grow them for dry beans, I was saving seed to grow the next year.

These were planted to "fill in some space," around mid-June, and I picked them in late September.

 

[nao57]

Many vegetable plants
Many vegetable plants if you leave them on the plant then the plant will slow down producing new vegetables. This is why when you are trying to harden them out or what not you may want to consider taking them off and at what point to take them off.

Further, you can also partly tell in that the some types of beans the husk may start to yellow out. If its yellowing then you've left it there too long. You don't have to leave it on a long time; that's my thoughts.

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I'm also curious if others have done experiments to 'prove' the fact that beans are nitrogen fixers for the soil, and if they noticed noticable increase of soil fertility the next year afterwards? Thanks.

 

[Red Horse]

I've harvest some dry beans in my zone 5 season. I didn't grow them for dry beans, I was saving seed to grow the next year.

These were planted to "fill in some space," around mid-June, and I picked them in late September.

That sounds like maybe enough time for a second round of chickpeas here! I think I read they're only 65 days... definitely gonna need a lot of those, we put away some hummus in this house.

 

[Red Horse]

Many vegetable plants
Many vegetable plants if you leave them on the plant then the plant will slow down producing new vegetables. This is why when you are trying to harden them out or what not you may want to consider taking them off and at what point to take them off.

Further, you can also partly tell in that the some types of beans the husk may start to yellow out. If its yellowing then you've left it there too long. You don't have to leave it on a long time; that's my thoughts.

///

I'm also curious if others have done experiments to 'prove' the fact that beans are nitrogen fixers for the soil, and if they noticed noticable increase of soil fertility the next year afterwards? Thanks.

I think I'm going to try some varieties that are supposed to be both good snap beans and dry so I can pick a few early on for cooking green and hopefully use the rest for drying. Do you think that would work?

 

[troyer]

I've always grown snap type beans and blanched/frozen them, but this year I'm hoping to plant some dry types to try out. How long does it take for the beans to dry on the plants after they mature? Can you still do successive plantings of bush varieties throughout the season, or does it just take all dang year for one plant to mature and dry? I'm in zone 6 so I don't have a super long season.

I'm in zone 5 and have no trouble growing dry beans.
I pick the dry pods on average 4 times in the growing season until the weather gets too cold for the rest of the pods to mature fully.

 

[nao57]

I think I'm going to try some varieties that are supposed to be both good snap beans and dry so I can pick a few early on for cooking green and hopefully use the rest for drying. Do you think that would work?

I think so. Its a good idea to do a couple new experiments each year anyway. I think this optimizes your growing knowledge. Like each year I try to do what I could do successfully the year before, and then add 1 or 2 things that I don't know yet to tweak and try and experiment with.

So your idea over time if you did this every year adding something you'd learn a lot.

There is 1 small consideration; you may want to know and find out if the 2 different varieties can cross polinate and if you are OK with that. Probably should be fine, but for stuff like cucumbers or squash this can be shocking and unpleasant. For most other things it might not be a problem, but depends on gardener.

You can also compare the # of days required to grow with your goals and time tables to make sure everything fits, etc.

 

[nao57]

That sounds like maybe enough time for a second round of chickpeas here! I think I read they're only 65 days... definitely gonna need a lot of those, we put away some hummus in this house.

If we ever have a 'year without a summer' plants like that with less than ~60 growing days needed will be more important while stuff requiring over 80 or 90 days will probably crash.