I hate Lima Beans

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brownrexx
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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#21

Post: # 53847Unread post brownrexx
Wed Sep 15, 2021 7:29 am

I have only grown bush limas and they produced heavily but late in the year, like late August and continuing until frost.

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JRinPA
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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#22

Post: # 53857Unread post JRinPA
Wed Sep 15, 2021 12:07 pm

Maybe they would have produced then. Quite a long time coming though, over 100 days from planting during the summer. I found and ate a few over that time, less than a dozen I'd say. They were rather sweet with a good flavor, but I never saw anything like I was expecting, production wise. Plus I was shocked by the pod to seed ratio. That is a lot of inedible pod.

Maybe they truly had too much nitrogen? The pole beans loved it. The limas still looked very healthy, green and not dying at all, but some were beginning to get laced by bean beetles. I don't want the bean beetles to get established here at the house. Maybe I'll try Limas next year at the comm garden, as a mid-late season harvest.

I pulled most of those red beets a few weeks back. There was some vole damage again, but not nearly as bad as last year's fenced in jungle produced. Last year I had rows of mixed radish/turnip/spinach/lettuce/red beet/sweet potato there, and voles loved it. With a fence to keep the cats out and lots of top cover - they were living large.

Next year that spot will just be pole beans again. Those poles held up remarkably well, sunk into forked, composted rows, using just a bulb planter and tamping them in. I had planted a half circle into the raised row side of the poles, and thinned to 7 or so as I trained them up. The poles (mostly arbor vitae tips) were very easy to pull up after a short rocking back and forth. This was their sixth year as bean poles, and still look okay, so back to a pile with them for the winter.

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JRinPA
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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#23

Post: # 53858Unread post JRinPA
Wed Sep 15, 2021 12:31 pm

Also to note, the voles chewed up one of those drip tapes. I noted a different sound at the spigot, sounded like it was running too fast when filled up and at steady state. The cicadas were so loud by then (mid-late July) that I couldn't hear anything wrong while in the garden. Upon inspection (easier said than done) the last two drip tapes were not at full pressure, then I found the end of the one before that was not pressurized. It was buried so I had to pull it up through the thick bean cover. Eventually I found a 1 foot long section of chewed up tape that was pouring water out. I don't believe I ran it very long with it chewed up, not too many days, but I was timing by watch alarm at 1/2 hour each watering. I can't say how many gallons were wasted, but at that particular spot the monte gusto pole beans were very thick.

It tells me I could probably water the beans more than I did when it was that dry. Also tells me that burying the tapes makes them harder to inspect and certainly not rodent proof. They were 3" deep at least.

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worth1
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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#24

Post: # 53884Unread post worth1
Wed Sep 15, 2021 7:24 pm

All this thread does is make me want to stock up on dried Lima beans. :lol:
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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#25

Post: # 53889Unread post JRinPA
Wed Sep 15, 2021 11:18 pm

Exactly!
Makes me want to buy some good baked limas...
I picked them the other day and ran them through the kemp shredder...the four rows, after I removed the pole beans, looked like a great field of soybeans, but each plant I pulled, almost no beans. No groundhogs even bothered, that really cracked me up.
I found one spot today over the compost pile that had about 50 limas beans laying on the ground in one square ft. Mostly big limas but still green??? Maybe the voles were putting them up for a long winter, emergency fall back meal.
I didn't find any limas on the plants that were half eaten off, nipped off, like I do when I plant bush green beans.

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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#26

Post: # 53900Unread post GoDawgs
Thu Sep 16, 2021 6:38 am

I found it takes a really long time for those beans to fiil out in the pods. And although they finally made this year, I'm thinking the ratio of quantity harvested (small) vs space and time used indicated to me that it would be more productive to not plant them again and use the space for something else. At least I proved to myself that I could get them to make at least something. Seed has been saved just in case I ever get the urge to do them again. :roll:

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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#27

Post: # 54034Unread post worth1
Sat Sep 18, 2021 10:55 am

I stopped by the store and remembered this thread as I walked by the dried bean section.
Picked up four one pound bags of dried Lima beans.
Can't emagin how much space and work it would take to get this many at home.
Even growing up on a farm and my family raising almost everything I don't ever remember growing Lima beans.
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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#28

Post: # 54096Unread post JRinPA
Sat Sep 18, 2021 10:13 pm

Someone must grow them...

It still cracks me up, the lady at the comm garden last year. paraphrased. "Oh, you should grow lima beans! They are wonderful when you grow your own. Nothing like the frozen stuff!"
This year, when I offer her some seed in May "Oh no, they taste great but they are so much work to peel. I remember as a girl, having to do that for hours at a time on the farm".
Later, when I told her I put in four rows -"Oh my lord. No you didn't. DID you really? Oh my lord."
lol

The few I had really did taste good right from the pod, very sweet, but the pod must weigh 20x the three beans.

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Spike
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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#29

Post: # 54110Unread post Spike
Sun Sep 19, 2021 7:00 am

I grow Lima's every year! We love them, home grown, not those icky things in the store.
There is freedom waiting for you, On the breezes of the sky, And you ask 'What if I fall?' Oh but my darling, What if you fly?

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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#30

Post: # 54119Unread post worth1
Sun Sep 19, 2021 7:59 am

I just happen to like dried Lima beans.
Don't care for fresh or frozen ones at all.
The small cultivar is more expensive than the larger one so I get the larger ones.
Larger wild ones originated out of South America the smaller ones from Mexico.
Oddly enough none of those beans ever end up on any menu at a Mexican restaurant.
Not even mayocoba beans.
The reason is the pinto beans are cheap.
But people eat the others at home if they can afford them.
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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#31

Post: # 54128Unread post brownrexx
Sun Sep 19, 2021 8:57 am

worth1 wrote: Sat Sep 18, 2021 10:55 am Can't imagine how much space and work it would take to get this many at home.
Even growing up on a farm and my family raising almost everything I don't ever remember growing Lima beans.
We also like dried Limas but the limas that I grew were Henderson's Baby Limas which are bush type and they were prolific with dozens of pods on each plant.

I also find them tedious to shell when fresh but as dried beans they practically fall out of the dry pods.

The first year I planted 4 rows and had so many beans that I was giving them away but now I just plant 2 fairly short rows and get plenty of beans for 2 people and after I get sick of picking and shelling fresh ones, I let the rest dry on the vine and pick them when I pull the plants after frost.

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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#32

Post: # 54132Unread post worth1
Sun Sep 19, 2021 9:11 am

I tried to grow some beans a few years ago and the deer ate them to the ground.
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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#33

Post: # 54155Unread post JRinPA
Sun Sep 19, 2021 1:13 pm

I didn't want to wait for them to dry with the very start of bean beetles there. Though I think they might have produced this month. Pole beans do well there and I didn't want fresh local bean beetles for next year.

These limas were a bush type for sure, though it is not specified on the bag or catalog. The pole beans sent vines into the limas, but the limas did not try to climb the poles.

My mistake was likely to plant them next to the pole beans. Or too much fish fertilizer, though they were sharing each row with the pole beans and the pole beans loved it. I think they need a place with more sun, not shaded by poles.

I'm not ready to give up on them. Maybe next year I try them in July when a bed comes open, maybe after corn to rebuild nitrogen. These do fix nitrogen like normal beans or peas, right?

edit @Spike How long do they produce for you? Rather, when do you typically plant, harvest? This was my first time with limas, of course. Bush green beans I've done probably parts of 5 years, but I don't like picking them and they get nipped by rodents after the first big pick. The pole beans I much prefer to bush because they are more steady a crop and higher from rodents and visible to pick.

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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#34

Post: # 54159Unread post brownrexx
Sun Sep 19, 2021 1:43 pm

@JRinPA I only plant 2 plantings of green beans because later ones get the Mexican Bean Beetles but as I recall, the Lima Beans did not have been beetles.

My Henderson's Baby Limas produced right up until we got frost.

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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#35

Post: # 54163Unread post worth1
Sun Sep 19, 2021 1:51 pm

Legumes like beans only fix nitrogen for the production of seeds.
So most of it is used up to make beans.
The same goes for clover.
You have to cut it down and till it in before seed production.
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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#36

Post: # 54169Unread post Spike
Sun Sep 19, 2021 2:36 pm

@JRinPA I grow 2 long rows. One of Henderson's baby lima's and Fordhook 242. Henderson's grow until I am sick of them and pull the plants! The Fordhook seems to only give me one or two pickings but both produce great for me. I can a ton of them each year. They are my husbands and brothers favorite veggie and they can plow through them!

I plant them out late May or Early June depending on the weather, start picking about the start of August and I just finished pulling the plants up last week.
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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#37

Post: # 54211Unread post JRinPA
Sun Sep 19, 2021 10:55 pm

Canning lima beans, so that would be pressure canning? Or pickling them somehow? Succotash?

Doing peas in the spring before corn in the summer, or beans after early corn, seems to work very, very well without tilling. As long as limas work the same way as green beans, the cycle should work similarly. On peas, if I pull the roots I can see the white nodules crystalized all over the root. What I do with them is cut the plant at 4-6" and leave those roots and nodules in the ground. Shred and compost the tops and reapply it later. It seems to work well enough. I have read it before, that you have rototill the tops in, but I think this is a case of more than one way to skin a cat. As long as you aren't throwing the tops in the trash, the nutrition is conserved. I certainly would not want to rototill and ruin the drainage. A broadfork can aerate and raise the row while leaving the worms alive and drainage intact. Then the compost/nutrition is put back on top. Other than possibly potatoes, I have not seen a need for rototilling. Even breaking ground, I tty to avoid it.

The bean beetles were into the first two fortex poles. The next 5 poles and the other pole rows were fine. They were just starting into the first couple foot of the adjoining lima row, lacing the leaves the same way. I was hoping they wouldn't, I know brownrexx said earlier they don't seem too bother limas. They were starting on these though and there were a couple thousand green leaves for them to eat. Other years I have let the pole beans in longer, but when I start to see bean beetles it is either time to pull them all, or take the time to patrol it. Since I want to plant there again next year, and I didn't feel like patrolling it this late with the jungle of blank lima beans there, it was a good time do it. The bow opener was Saturday.

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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#38

Post: # 54225Unread post Spike
Mon Sep 20, 2021 7:16 am

JRinPA wrote: Sun Sep 19, 2021 10:55 pm Canning lima beans, so that would be pressure canning? Or pickling them somehow? Succotash?
Pints are 40 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure (no clue how much time for quarts) (can't even imagine what to do with a quart of limas)

My brother will eat them right out of the jar when I can them. Hubby isn't quite the savage and wants them heated up lol
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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#39

Post: # 54230Unread post brownrexx
Mon Sep 20, 2021 8:15 am

@JRinPA my lima bean leaves are a lot tougher than my green bean leaves. Maybe that is why the bean beetles did not like them.

When I pull the green bean plants I bag them in a garbage bag and let it sit in the hot sun to kill the beetles. I just set it out for disposal on trash day.

I blanch and freeze my lima beans.

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Re: I hate Lima Beans

#40

Post: # 54260Unread post worth1
Mon Sep 20, 2021 6:34 pm

I always keep a can or two of Lima beans around for a quick meal.
No need to heat up.
Just cold out of the can.
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