Beans ..

Tsar (white) , Borlotti (speckled)
and Cobra (black) beans. 

27 October 2024

We grow beans for drying.

They climb up our sticks over the summer, flowering and then, when pollinated will grow pods.

We leave the pods on the plants through summer and into autumn until they begin to dry then finish them in the house.

Mulched climbing beans

We sow Tsar (white) , Borlotti (speckled) and Cobra (black) beans. 

You can plant different beans together and they won’t hybridise as beans are cleistogamous which means they are self-pollinating.

The dried beans are reconstituted and cooked during the winter. They make a great contribution to hearty soups and casseroles.

Some seeds are saved for sowing next year.

This year we’re trying something different. We’ve read that climbing bean plants, if protected from frost, can overwinter in the way that other perennial plants e.g. dahlias can.

The advantage of overwintered plants is that they already have an established root system and should, therefore, be quicker ‘out of the blocks’ than seeds.

It will be interesting to compare any overwintering plants that do survive and plants grown in spring from beans.