French bean seed

[chriscross1966]

I always try to save the first dried beasn I can get for seeds, if nothing else it's acting as a selection pressure to be earlier..... somethign some of the varieties need, I'm looking at you borlotti......

[chriscross1966]

[galina]

I always try to save the first dried beasn I can get for seeds, if nothing else it's acting as a selection pressure to be earlier..... somethign some of the varieties need, I'm looking at you borlotti......

I used to do this.  Then I read that one of the signs of virus on beans is shorter plants  At the time of saving the earliest, there is no way of telling how big/strong a plant will be.  Ideally we would put plants aside for seed, then choose the best of those for seeds and harvest all the seeds from the chosen plants.  As a compromise, a few early pods and a few mid season pods from chosen plants is probably a reasonable way to go, allow for seedsaving and eating.