I was just about to add Lablabs to my blacklist when I saw an item on the One Show (sometime last week - I skim the recordings to skip the chat and celebrity guff).
The beans grown by the plotholders in Birmingham were the same colour as the useless & horribly fibrous "Ruby Moon" but when bitten they were obviously as crisp as a snap pea (even though the beans showed inside).
They were wider and thicker than the florists' version - almost egg-oval and slightly puffed.
Does anyone have any spare seed of this kind?
I tried to avoid this 'curse of the Florist' many years ago by buying seed of an unnamed green Dolichos - they were no better - the only difference was that the camouflaged pods were harder to find.
Cheers.
I logged on purely by chance today and this was the first post I saw.
I grew the LabLab beans featured in the One Show programme, from bought seeds one of our Bangladeshi plot holders gave me. Unfortunately I didn't save any seeds because I told him he could pick whatever I grew - and he did! However, he is going to give me more seeds next year.
The plants produced lots of beans this year, they were quite thick but apart from having slightly stringy sides they were lovely.
Nice to hear from you again Betty :wave: :wave: :wave:
I'm impressed Betty... I've never managed to get them to produce pods here in Derby
:wave: to Pumpkinlover
Saddad, I grew two different varieties this year and one of them didn't even flower until a couple of weeks ago. The plants looked identical to me but obviously weren't. I really wish I'd saved seeds from the good one.
I saw the bit about the beans. I grew some lablab once and apart from the lovely flowers did not think much of the couple of beans that I produced.
I thought of you Betty when I saw the piece on the One Show, where were you?
The Walsall Road Allotments are surrounded by a high wall and I think they have their own micro climate.