# Dry bean yields?



## Tracy Rimmer (May 9, 2002)

I'm thinking of adding dry beans to my garden this year -- but am wondering how much to plant to make it worthwhile. Any ideas on types and amounts I should be looking at are welcome.

Tracy


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## RANDEL (Dec 10, 2003)

i like all beans and have grown a few in my time. the most productive dry bean i grew in the southwest was "black tepary bean" which i'm not sure is really a tepary. it looks just like "black turtle bean" kinda small and bluish black. i'm thinking i might have got around a pound in one of my usual 4X8 beds. the most wonderful bean i ever grew was "hutterite soup bean." i haven't tasted another like it. it's white, very plump, and cooks into a wonderful chowder-like broth. both kinds i bought from seeds of change in santa fe nm. 

now i'm in the ozarks and anxious to see how beans grow here. i'm hoping the humidity doesn't cause rust or whatever.i've got some other teparies which are drought-tolerant beans from the desert southwest. they come thru a drought that singes a lot of other beans. i'm told we can expect dry weather here in the summer so i'm hoping my teparies keep me in beans. i love beans...


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## KrisW (Sep 27, 2002)

I'm also going to try dried beans this year.
Saw some in the Seeds of Change catalog, Cannellini beans.
Also would like to try pinto beans, having trouble finding those.

We eat a lot of beans here, sounds like I'll have to plant a few LONG rows to get any great quanity.

Here in Zone 9, they should do very well.

Kris


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## BeckyW (Mar 11, 2003)

Since dried beans don't get picked throughout the season, you need to plant alot of more them. When I grew dried beans in my southern California garden, I always planted at least double, sometimes up to quadruple the wide-bed length of the yellow snap beans I grew. (I always grow green beans on poles so I can't give you a comparison there.) And if you're looking to grow a year's supply, you're probably talking about an entire garden of them. If you rotate entire garden plots year to year, then grow the dried beans on one of the "resting" gardens. You just won't be able to turn the crop under while still green -- you'll want to let the beans dry on the bushes, then harvest.

Cannelli beans are best used as a shell bean, I think, rather than a dried bean -- a fabulous addition to any garden! 
Vermont Bean Seed Company has a wonderful selection of dried bean varieties. 
BW


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## kathy H (Dec 10, 2002)

My favorite dry bean is called red mexican from seeds of change, this bean grow great! Produces well and is drought tolerant.


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## KrisW (Sep 27, 2002)

That's good to know about the Cannelli beans.
That would have been a big mistake if I'd grown a lot of those.
After having had to eat them all in a short peirod of time, I probably wouldn't have any friends left.  

Kris


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## Manny (Dec 26, 2003)

KrisW said:


> I'm also going to try dried beans this year.
> Saw some in the Seeds of Change catalog, Cannellini beans.
> Also would like to try pinto beans, having trouble finding those.
> 
> ...


Get your Pinto beans at any grocery store--------They'll sprout.
I bought Anasazi beans at a healthfood store and are about 80% viable.
Bill


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## cowboy joe (Sep 14, 2003)

I planted a couple of 50 foot rows two years ago and didn't get a single bean because of the local critters. The rabbits and deer chewed the plants right to the ground. I changed up last year and planted 2 shorter (5 foot) rows of black turtle beans up near the house just to see if the critters would leave them be. I ended up with around a 1/2 pound of dry beans from a new garden area (formally lawn) which wasn't composted or fertilized the year before. I'm going to try again this year on a larger plot which our rabbits graciously fertilized last fall...nothing like bunny bearies to perk up the garden. Hope this helps...good luck.


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## uncle Will in In. (May 11, 2002)

A bean that will grow and mature in your tropical area (Canada) are called cattle beans.. Don't let the name fool you. They are people pleasers. They are a large bean that are a beautiful color of maroon and white. They turn light gray when cooked. They mature early in the season (83 days) My wife prefers to shell them while still swollen up, blanch them and freeze them.. They are really good that way, and cook quickly. They are a bush bean and grow similar to bush green beans.


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## Don Armstrong (May 8, 2002)

Tracy, feed "dry bean yields" into google and one of the early returns will be a government publication from Ontario. Relevant?

It basically says that for field beans (row crop) you can get around a tonne a hectare or a bit over - do your own sums from there. It also indicates that you should be able to get details and seeds for what works in your climate - which will probably be radically different from places with a longer growing season.

KrisW - Cannelini is widely used by the Italians as a dried bean - white, not large - along the lines of navy beans or Great Northern beans, but I think with a finer flavour.

I also like Borlotti beans - a large bean, basically light background and speckled red. Seems to need less cooking than it should for the size of it. Also lima beans - very large, white, fine texture and buttery flavour. Any whole dry bulk bean seeds you can buy in the grocery should (if not treated somehow) or health-food shop will grow given a suitable climate - beans are basically open-pollinated and they haven't made great progress in hybridising them.


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## owhn (Oct 29, 2003)

Hi:

On dry beans.

I won't make a commentary of bean preferences, it's too subjective. 

As to data on yields,etc.

Planting rows 30" apart, yield on dry beans will be about a pound per 10 foot of row. (1400 pounds per acre). If average per capita consumption is 8 pounds (Knotts vegetable growers handbook), then 80 linear ft of rows per person.

If we assume 115 foot of row per pound of seeds sown, then you would need to sow about 3/4 lbs (12 ounces) of seed per person. 

Keep in mind the usual caveats, YMMV, etc.

hope this helps answer your question.

owhn


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## Tracy Rimmer (May 9, 2002)

Thanks, everyone. I knew it would take more than for green beans, but was unsure of just how much more! Your responses all helped in my planning.

Don -- Ontario has a VERY different climate than Alberta, but thanks for the link. Ontario is much more mild, and we're a lot drier. I grew up in Ontario and there wasn't much we COULDN'T grow there, but here...well, we're a USDA Zone 2b, and very, very dry.

Thanks again, everyone -- this fall, the chili and Hoppin John will be on for those who want to drop in!

Tracy


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## Timber (Jun 15, 2003)

Upon reading this thread I planted lima beans for the first time. They must be pole as runners have taken off. My question how and how high a fence, string, or other forms need to be? They are planted in a 50' row. Thanks

Timber


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## athome in SD (Oct 5, 2003)

Hello all-
Just wanted to add my .02 about dried beans.
I had read somewhere (years ago) that when
you harvest the beans to put them pod and 
all in a pillowcase and tie shut. Then throw
it in the drier with a shoe. I tried it and it
worked great!! Does the shelling for you  

happy gardening
Christina


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Timber, at least 5 to 6 ft tall. My favorite way is to put a t post at each end of the row (you prob need a few more with that long a row). I like to stretch field fence between the poles. It is easier if the beans, cukes, or whatever is planted after the fence instead of before. If you can't do field fence and can put up t posts, you can stretch twine (I like poly binder twine) between the posts. You will need several runs of the twine no more than 6 inches apart.


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