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hi can anyone spare me a small handfull of borlotti beans please?

I can. pm your address please.

thank you worldor i will. :)

I will get those off to you asap. Yellow and black beans sound interesting Sarah. Thanks.

Are the yellow and black beans the flat ones from Franchi? If so, they are yum and very prolific :)

no actually they were sent to me by Tilts as part of another swap. one is called delinel (black one) and the yellow one is called beurre de roi. Its all in french actually.  i am definately going to grow some and will send a few of each off to worldor. i could spare three or four of each if you would like me to? would be glad to. :)

Thank you so much for the offer sarah :) I'll decline reluctantly as over-beaned at the mo. This year's Bean Experiment @ sprouty towers is Anasazi beans! A bit like MT really, just cos they were hard to get hold of and they get good press (in the US) as the up 'n coming bean - not just a good taste or pretty face apparently, they score low on the flat-u-lometer ;D
http://waltonfeed.com/self/beans.html#anasazi

Those Anasazi beans certainly look pretty :)! I discovered some horrid little beetles in my jar of Borlotti beans last week. Luckily only 2 of the beans had holes in though, so I have enough left to sow this year.

beans beans good for the heart..... ;D

they look fab thoses ansazi beans.  do let us know how youget on with them and maybe we can all blag some from you on the swap shop next season.

i heard a similar thing about little beetles in someones dried beans last year (thnik it might have been svea). i wonder how this can be avoided.

Someone posted that if you freeze dried beans, you'll kill the grubs, but I don't know if they'd be OK to sow afterwards. Or just keep a beady eye like Dandelion did - they seem to infest beans one at a time, so if you spot an affected bean or two you can save or process the rest. If you keep them in a glass jar, shake it occasionally - the tell-tale sign is 'dust' forming at the bottom of the container.

I thought they just  'hatched' from a bean (the affected beans have neat little holes). I didn't think that the beetles would then start to eat other beans in the jar ; perhaps they turn to a different food source? Most of the beetles I discovered were already dead (lack of food?) But I may be wrong.   

The adults would probably feed on something else, and just lay eggs on the beans. Freezing will kill most grubs, but the beans will often germinate despite the holes.

That's useful to know Robert, thank you :)