# pintos?



## Ivy DragonWind (Nov 20, 2006)

real quick question: 

If I needed 60 lbs of dried pintos, how many plants or how much acerage would I need?

TIA!


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## CoonXpress (Sep 20, 2004)

Don't know about the amount of plants, but it should take about 20lbs of seed to get about 60lbs.
I get about a 3-1 harvest ratio. What I do is broadcast 1lb in a 24sqft area, and then come back when the pods are dried. I've never weighed them but it's about 3-4lbs worth by volume.
Will


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

3 to 1 seems terribly wrong somehow! When I plant a dry bush bean, I figure on 100 to 1 return minimum. Most of the large varieties that I've grown average between 20 and 25 pods per plant. Even at only 5 beans per pod and 20 pods, that's a return of 100 to 1. Some smaller varieties double or triple that.

Martin


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## Ivy DragonWind (Nov 20, 2006)

hmmmm.... Thats a pretty big number differnce if you ask me


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## a1cowmilker (Jun 14, 2005)

Having never grown a pinto bean in my life, you might take what I say with a grain of salt. However, I have this really neat book called, Build your own Ark_ I bought it for y2k. It gives suggestions for amounts to grow for families.
It suggests that you will need 4-6 pounds of dried beans per week for a family of 4. (assuming animal protein is not available).

Now for the fun part, plant 2-4 inches apart, or 6-8 for pole beans. Depending on the season, a rough guide is 10 feet of bush beans for one pound of beans, 5 feet of pole beans for one pound of beans.

Even though I am not an accountant, I weighed 60 beans and discovered on my pink race for the cure scale that they weigh about an ounce. So, you should expect about 16 pounds of harvested beans per pound of planted beans.
Stay with me now, I am almost finished. If eating 6 pounds a week for 52 weeks, plant 19.5 pounds.

Hope this helped a little. And that I haven't scared you too much.  

a1

I should give the author credit, his name is Geri Welzel Guidetti

I just reread your question, using my math skills,  if one pound gives you 16 pounds of beans, then 3.75 pounds will give you 60 pounds. Again, the book says to plant 2-4 inches apart, and 2-2 1/2 feet between rows of the bush variety.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

A1, you're a little off on your figures. 16 pounds of return per pound would mean that each plant will produce only 16 beans while pintos are prolific and should easily produce 120 beans per plant under normal conditions.

Although 60 per ounce would be on the heavy end of the pinto bean scale, we'll use that for a base figure. 

Planting one ounce of seed gives you 60 plants. 

Producing 120 seeds per plant, that's 7,200 beans weighing 120 ounces, or 7.5 pounds. 

One pound of seed would produce 960 plants. 

960 plants, at 2 ounces, would produce 1,920 ounces or 120 pounds.

That's 120 to 1 return. 

(For more realistic figures, consider pinto beans at about 75 per ounce but still stay with the 120 beans per plant.)

Martin


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## Ivy DragonWind (Nov 20, 2006)

**blinks**

umm..........

Have I mentioned I'm numerically dyslexic? Ya'll just 'bout blew my brain to itty bitty pieces with all those numbers, LOL!

Okay, so that would mean...

For a 60 lb yield, I would need to plant roughly a half pound of seed? Did I get that right?

Oh, and thanks, ya'll!


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Ivy DragonWind said:


> For a 60 lb yield, I would need to plant roughly a half pound of seed? Did I get that right?


And you say that you're no good at numbers? Figuring 75 beans per ounce and 120 per plant, it does come out to a half pound of seed for 60 pounds of harvest.

8 ounces of seed would be 600.

600 plants producing 120 beans each would be 72,000.

72,000 beans would weigh 960 ounces.

960 ounces is 60 pounds.

Although A1's rough guide is 1 pound per 10 feet of row, the above figures come out to around 3 pounds based on 4 inch spacing and that 120 bean per plant return. That's probably optimum conditions but I can't confirm it yet. I have a single 35 foot row of pinto beans planted. In 3 months, I'll know what they can do in my gardens!

Martin


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## Guest (May 25, 2007)

Yield results will probably vary quite a lot across the nation depending on all the usual factors that impact plant growth.

You might try Googling "dry", "bean", and "yield" to see if you can find something close to your state.

.....Alan.


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## a1cowmilker (Jun 14, 2005)

Paquebot, 
I agree with you, I would certainly hope to get more than 16 beans per plant.

I rechecked the book and it does say "a rough guide would be 10 foot of bush bean plants, 5 ft of pole bean plants well grown will yield about a pound of beans. " ( Build Your Own Ark- author Geri Welzel Guidetti).

So, I think I will rethink this book if I decide that I need to get really serious about gardening. But better to plan under than over.

thanks, this was kinda fun to do

a1


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

I have a bean which I've been growing since 1996 when I brought it back from Belize. It was grown there on a Mennonite farm and sold only in bulk in small neighborhood grocery stores and popular with the local red beans and rice meals. It's been distributed to a few bean growers/savers as Belizean Red. I just weighed some dry ones from last year and they run about 55 per ounce. For a time, I always had two different growth patterns. One plant would have about 30 pods but only 4 beans per pod. The next plant may have 20 pods but 6 beans per pod. Either way, about 120 beans per plant. Last year, grew beans only from those plants with the long pods and, as suspected, the results were all long pods and about 120 beans per plant. Two 9' rows entirely filled a gallon jar. This year, a total of 70' is being grown of them and I expect at least 3 gallons.

Martin


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