Has anyone growen Cannellino beans? I am wanting to store them for use in the winter. I take it that I would pick them like you would any other bean and then dry them in the pods before storing, am I right on this?
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I think at best with bush beans you'll get maybe 20 pods on a plant total, with 5-6 beans per pod. (You do need to keep an eye on humidity levels too - if you're getting a lot of rain around the time the beans are drying, it may be best just to uproot the whole plant and finish the drying off in the garage). With bush beans you do need to plant a lot of them, but the plants take up very little space - maybe 30 square centimetres per plant - so you can often squeeze them into random gaps around the garden. Usually I reserve one raised bed for them, and pop a few in among the herb garden and as borders on other areas. You get a higher yield per plant with the climbing beans but the trouble is finding enough vertical space with decent sun around my place. I think in a good year I've gotten about one cup of dry beans per 3-4 climbing bean plants. Note you can dry and eat the runner beans too - they take a while to cook though since they're such big beans.
Sorry that was me that didn't read your post properly
I'm a seed grower for Koanga Institute,most years i have up to eight -nine climbers ,one runner and a dwarf to grow,this season i've only got one climber and a dwarf of which 100% of the crop are left to dry for seed.Some climbers have a limited time span in which they grow there crop and then stop flowering,others will just keep flowering,but i don't think that leaving the beans on the plant to dry reduces the crop.
You will find that the beans dry from the bottom up so you pick over a few months,also the very top ones are better eaten green as there's not enough time for them to ripen.
Hi Richard, I currently have the beans growing in the garden. I am trying to work out when to pick them and then what sort of harvest I will get. Sealander says wait until they dry before picking. Ok I understand that, but since I have only grown runner beans before, I would have thought that it would take a while to dry and therefore you are limited in your harvest. I amprobably not explaining myself very well. Too hot. Maybe I will just have to wait and see what happens.
One bean seed should grow 100 if grown properly,which is not bad i think,but per square meter there are many other veggies that are more productive
I haven't heard of Cannellino beans before,if you cant find them.Koanga Institute have plenty of shell out beans that would do what you are looking for.
Thanks Sealander. Sorry to sound a bit dense, so that means I really should sow an awful lot of beans if I only get to pick off each plant once, am I right?
I grow several different sorts of beans for drying, both bush beans and climbers. I leave the pods on the plants until they are dried out (but not until the pods start splitting). Then I shell them out and dry them a bit further on a sunny windowsill or by the fire. Once I think they're dry enough I store them in airtight containers. You'll find that your own home dried beans cook much much faster than the store bought ones, which could be several years old, and they usually don't need pre-soaking either.
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I'm a seed grower for Koanga Institute,most years i have up to eight -nine climbers ,one runner and a dwarf to grow,this season i've only got one climber and a dwarf of which 100% of the crop are left to dry for seed.Some climbers have a limited time span in which they grow there crop and then stop flowering,others will just keep flowering,but i don't think that leaving the beans on the plant to dry reduces the crop.
You will find that the beans dry from the bottom up so you pick over a few months,also the very top ones are better eaten green as there's not enough time for them to ripen.
I haven't heard of Cannellino beans before,if you cant find them.Koanga Institute have plenty of shell out beans that would do what you are looking for.