could anyone clear up which type of bean these are, a new person on our plot would like to grow them, I'm confused as to what type of bean they are ?
butter beans are lima beans. I grew them this year. But not the ones like you get in the shops - they need a very long season and probably won't succeed here. I got my ones from franchi. Jeannine gave me some of the *proper* butter beans and I gave them to a friend. Grew OK but hardly a pod in sight
Dried seeds from Tesco germinate really easily though, if they want to try
I had a look at this a while back because I wanted to grow them too. There didn't seem to be a clear answer anywhere. Some places list a white Spagna bean as a butterbean. In the end I went for White Emergo, the white runner bean, because the seeds were cheap in Wilkos so if they didn't work, it was no loss. They were very good - big fat white meaty beans.
thank you both, I will let him know, maybe he will try the runners, sounds like they would give him a decent crop :)
don't know if he'll want to experiment with the dried ones, I'll let him know anyway :)
The spagna bean is a runner. they're great. We'll be growing the limas next year too, if only for the novelty value
he's only got 3 beds so he's trying to find crops that do really well :)
I'm trying a spagna in the big greenhouse Manics... next year! ;D
he's only got an 8' bed in the communal poly, don't know if he'd use it for beans, hope you have luck in there, I prefer cannellini, brilliant crop this year
Manics, I've just had a look in the seed box (es!) and I have some White Emergo. If your neighbour would like to try them out, I'll happily post some up to you.
thank you, ceres, I'll be seeing him tomorrow, I'll ask if he'd like some :)
I agree with Ceres, White Emergo is fab as a "butter" bean. It has been the slowest to mature out of all my beans though, so next year I will plant it a bit earlier.
PM me if you want to try a couple of seeds.
he's trying to decide ::) ??? ;D