Bean Seeds


Useful gardening information

Dry Field Beans

Dry edible beans, or field beans, come in a wide variety of market classes, including kidney bean, navy bean, pinto bean, and black bean. These beans, although differing in the size and coloring of the seed, are all just different types of a single species, Phaseolus vulgaris L. Originally domesticated in Central and South America over 7000 years ago, dry beans moved their way northward through Mexico and spread across most of the continental U.S. These beans were commonly grown with corn, and sometimes squash. Now, instead of the Native American practice of dry beans and squash planted right among corn plants, a different bean, soybean from China, has found its place with corn.

Dry beans are the same species as green beans (snap beans) commonly grown in gardens. If you've seen green beans growing, you have a good idea what dry beans look like, with the difference being that dry bean varieties have higher seed yields. Some dry bean varieties are viney like garden bean varieties, while others are more of an erect, bushy plant, like soybeans. Dry beans do not grow as vigorously as soybeans, usually reaching only about 18 to 24 inches in height. Pods, each containing 2 to 4 seeds, are borne upon the length of the stem. Dry beans average about 22% protein in the seed. The amino acid profile of dry beans complements that of corn and other cereal grains, which is why the corn-bean diet was so standard through the Americas. The various market classes of dry beans are sold in a variety of forms. Great Northerns, navy beans, or mixes of beans, are the most likely to be sold as whole seeds in unprocessed form. Navy beans and kidney beans are both found in canned form, with kidney beans also common in chill mixes. Pinto beans and black beans are both made into refried beans, among other uses. Red beans are used for baked beans. Dry beans which do not meet quality standards for food use are typically sold for livestock feed. Like soybeans, dry beans have a trypsin inhibitor which prevents protein digestion in non-ruminant animals, including humans. Heat, applied during processing or home cooking, is needed to break down the trypsin inhibitor and make the beans fully digestible.

How to Grow Bush Beans

No garden is complete without bush beans. There are many varieties of bush beans to choose from and every gardener is sure to find one to suit their tastes. Bush beans do well in almost any garden as they are not too fussy about soil.
To ensure the best flavor, bush beans should be picked while still slender and no inner bean is well developed. For fresh bush beans all summer, plant every two weeks and pick frequently.
Direct seed bush beans after risk of frost when soil warms to 18-24°C (65-75°F). Sow bush beans 1" deep and 2" apart in rows 18" (bush beans) to 24" apart (shell beans). Reseed until mid summer for a constant supply all season long. If using untreated bush beans seed, plant thicker and thin to desired density.

Try companion planting with bush beans. Bush beans are excellent grown with most vegetables except the onion family, basil, fennel, kohlrabi.
Most bush bean types require a full sun location, soil pH of 6.5-7.5, and well drained soil. Good air circulation around bush bean plants is essential, especially for late shelling or dry type beans, as they are very susceptible to fungal diseases which prevail later in the season. Bush beans are light feeders; compost or well rotted manures worked into the soil at the time of planting is sufficient.

Harvest once the bush beans are smooth, firm and crisp. Keep bush beans constantly picked to ensure a fresh supply. Bean formation in the pod is a sure sign of over-maturity. Dry and Shell Beans: Harvest when the bush beans pods are completely dry and brittle. Cut or pull pods from bush bean plants and shell the beans. Store beans in an air tight container in a cool dry spot. For fresh eating of horticultural or shell beans, harvest when bean formation starts to take place within the pod.

How to Grow Pole Beans

Most of the gardening techniques that work with bush beans also work for pole beans. The two types require slightly different care at planting time to ensure their best growth. Pole beans offer great use of vertical space since they climb up poles, trellises or homemade tepees. They also have a longer growing season and are more tolerant of hot temperatures than bush beans, which mean they will yield two to three times more than bush beans from the same amount of space.

Because pole beans quickly grow into large, heavy plants, you should install your trellis at the same time as you plant and sow the seeds.

To start the pole bean seeds, use your finger to push the seeds about 1 inch into the soil. I sowed five to six seeds around each pole 6 to 8 inches away from the base. This is more seed than you'll need for each pole but it allows you to come back after the seeds have germinated to thin out the weaker plants. Use your hands to cover the seeds with an inch of soil and lightly tamp the soil. Finally, lightly mist the dry soil with a garden hose.
As vegetable plants grow from seeds to seedlings, water requirements will change. Beans require little care except regular weeding and watering if the weather is dry. Bean plants need about an inch of water per week. The beans should be watered in the morning so the foliage is dry before dark.
Bush beans will mature in 50 to 60 days; pole beans in 60 to 90 days. Beans are light feeders and do not need extra fertilizing as long as you plant in an enriched soil. You should fertilize young bean plants with an organic fertilizer, such as fish emulsion, every two weeks for the first six weeks, then once every three to four weeks.

Growing Shell Beans


Grow shelling or dried beans as you grow bush beans, except harvest differently. Pick them at the green shell stage, or let them mature for dried beans. For a continuous supply, plant once a week for the first month of the season.

Informative articles found on the web:

How to grow pole beans
BeanBible.com features tons of recipes and useful bean information

Bush Beans



Mascotte Beans
TCB036 Mascotte ( Excellent for container growing )
2014 AAS Vegetable Award Winner. The first AAS winning bean since 1991, this compact variety is perfect for today's small-space gardens. Mascotte is a bush type bean that produces long, slender pods that stay above the foliage for easy harvest. This bean also has white showy flowers for ornamental value during bloom time. Judges appreciated the crunchiness and taste of this bean as well as the plentiful harvest all season long. The Mascotte root system is ideal for patio containers and window boxes, and this versatile variety performs well in garden beds too. That means you can raise delicious beans in any outside space. The French Mascotte (like its English translation "mascot") is a symbol of good luck and was chosen for the variety's gardener-friendly habit. 50 days.
  7g pack ( about 45-50 seeds per pack ) $3.95
1A456 Romano Gold
An extremely attractive, productive wax bush Romano bean. The dwarf, bushy, upright plants hold loads pods well off the ground. Approximately 5 - 6 beans per pod. A popular Italian novelty for roadside markets.
  22g pack ( about 60 seeds ) $2.95
TPF289 Tendergreen Improved Bush
Tendergreen Improved is a great home garden bean variety for canning and freezing, as well as fresh eating! It has a very sturdy and productive bush type plant that bears tender stringless pods that are 6" long. Pods are meaty, tender, round and stringless. Disease resistant, heat tolerant, early, heavy yields with an excellent flavor. Excellent fresh eating or frozen.
A good spacesaver bean as they produce so much per plant. 60 days to harvest.
Click here for detailed gardening info on sowing and growing.
 22g Pack ( about 50 seeds ) $2.95
JM206 Henderson Lima
A true baby lima with buttery flavor. Introduced in 1889 by Peter Henderson Company of New York. A dwarf lima that is very early, hardy, productive, and disease resistant. Produces small creamy white limas for the home gardener and canner that are distinct in color and excellent in quality. Desirable and dependable in adverse conditions. Bush habit, 60-75 days.

Click here for detailed gardening info on sowing and growing.

 22g pack ( about 60 seeds ) $2.95
TST131 Jackson Wonder Bush Lima
Old heirloom bean dating back to 1888. Originated by GA farmer Thomas Jackson. Popular heirloom yields well under hot, dry conditions. 3-5 seeds/ pod. Fresh seeds are red; dried seeds are buff-colored with purpleblack mottling. Good fresh or dried. Widely adapted, also does well in northern areas. 66 days.
  17g pack ( about 50 seeds per pack ) $2.95
TCB107 Derby
1990 AAS Edible Vegetable Winner. Derby green beans have long, straight, round pod that remains tender with excellent eating quality up to 7 inches in length. While harvesting the gardener will notice how easily the pods slip from the stem without the pedicel. The overall yield is above average, but due to the holding quality, gardeners can be assured of a successful harvest.
Featuring improved tenderness and incredible yields. Round, straight pods have a remarkably tender quality. Strong, open, 18" tall, bush plants permit easy harvesting of the medium-dark green, 7" long beans. Resistant to Common Bean Mosaic Virus.
  10g pack ( about 70 seeds per pack ) $3.95
TST195 Black Turtle Soup
The Black Turtle Soup bean is very popular Latin favorite, that is also great in Cajun and Creole dishes. A tasty variety that grows upright with black beans inside the pod. Tall bush that keeps the bean pods off the ground.
Dwarf, compact plants with semi-runners bear profuse yields of 7 to 8 small, shiny black beans per pod. Pods are tender and crisp enough to be used as snap beans if picked early. Dense, meaty texture when dry.
With their rich natural broth, turtle beans do not need bacon, ham or any meat ingredient to make a satisfying soup. 85 days.
  20g pack ( about 110 seeds per pack ) $2.95
AW58 Maxibel Filet
59 days. This is the elegant bean you see in European-style restaurants. Most filets available from seed are miniatures, but Maxibel is a full-sized, 7 to 7 1/2-inch pod with all the "gourmet" flavor you expect! As easy to grow as other snaps, Maxibel arises on tall, erect plants that harvest easily. The beans are stringless and very slender, with a dark green color, straight form, and mouth-watering tender flavor. The first full-size stringless filet bean is also the best!
  12.5g pack ( about 50-60 seeds per pack ) $2.95
TPF267 Chickpeas
Chickpeas, also called garbanzo beans and gram, are regarded as beans, but botanically are neither beans nor peas. The chickpea is a tender annual legume, a bushy plant that grows to about 18 inches tall and has pairs of dark green, compound leaflets that look like vetch. Chickpeas have swollen, oblong pods to about 1 inch long and nearly as wide that contain one or two large, cream-colored, pea-like seeds each.
These are a staple in Middle Eastern and Indian cooking. They can be used as a shelling bean or a dry bean. They are an excellent choice for climates with problems with drought, but they won't do well in extreme northern climates.
Soaking and sprouting chickpeas makes them easier for most people to digest. It enhances their amino acids, vitamins, and protein content. The are wonderful smashed into "living" hummus, or just as highly nutritious snack food. Sprouted chickpeas are used just as the tip of the root (the "tail") emerges from the seed, indicating that it has germinated. The seeds increase noticeably in size. They have a definite crunch factor that works very well in salads and makes them a terrific and healthy snack. They can be mixed with dry spices and enjoyed on their own.
Garbanzo beans are a cool weather crop. Direct seed at or slightly after date of last frost in full sun. They do best when day temperatures stay between 70-80 degrees F and stay above 60 degrees F at night.
20g pack, about 50 seeds $2.95
Cherokee Yellow Wax Beans
TPF291 Cherokee Yellow Wax
1948 AAS Edible Vegetable Winner. Cherokee Wax yellow bean seeds grow a robust bush bean that will produce high yields of yellow wax beans in about 55 days! Dependable even in adverse weather, and resistant to common bean mosaic. The tasty oval pods are filled with black seeds and grow up to 6 inches long.
The Cherokee Wax bean, first available to the public in 1947, comes from the research department of Clemson University in South Carolina. This bush bean seed comes from a strain that yields very vigorously and resists disease, and was distinguished with the AAS Award in 1948. "Wax" is a term originally from New England that has come to refer to any bean that grows yellow in color.
  22g pack ( about 50-55 seeds per pack ) $2.95
TST119 Royalty Purple Pod
Snap Bush type Has a natural blanching indicator. When prepared for freezing, the purple pods blanch to green after 2 minutes of boiling. Easy to pick purple pods are easily visible against the green foliage. Plants have short runners and need either wide row spacing or a fence for climbing. 5 inch pods are slightly curved. Very meaty and flavorful, great for vegetable soup. Buff-colored seeds germinate well in cool soil. 55 days.
  12g pack ( about 35-40 seeds per pack ) $2.95
TCB064 Jade
Jade's 6-7", slender, stringless deep green pods are exceptionally tender and delicious. Large, upright plants keep beans clean and straight. Heat tolerant and high yielding even when stressed by heat or cold.
Intermediate resistance to curly top beet mosaic virus, rust and bacterial brown spot. Pale green seeds. 80 days.
  10g pack ( about 35-40 seeds per pack ) $2.95

Pole Beans


TGL053 Marvel of Venice Pole
Heirloom Italian wax bean. Full of flavor, the 8–9" pods are 3/4" wide and borne on vigorous vines. This white-seeded variety is remarkably early (earlier than the black-seeded variety with the same name). 54 days.
  10g pack ( about 30-35 seeds per pack ) $3.95
TPF280 Mountaineer White Half Runner Pole Bean
Also known as Old Dutch Half Runner, this bean was brought to the Dutch Fork Section of South Carolina by early immigrants.
This is a tender half runner bean with succulent white seeds. It boasts terrific yields of old-fashioned, rich flavored beans that taste and smell terrific.
Grows 3 to 4 feet tall, does not have to be trained as other pole beans, but doing so will make picking easier. Pick early for tender, slender pods. When only 4 to 4.5 inches long. Let some of beans mature to the drying stage as they have terrific depth of flavor and are excellent for baking, soups and any other use.
Available only in Treated Seed.
  12g pack ( about 50 seeds per pack ) $2.95
TPF207 Yard Long Asparagus Beans
A favorite in Europe, this plant grows to 10 ft. tall on poles and produces an enormous yield of slender, tasty pods 2-3 ft. long.
  11g pack ( about 55 seeds per pack ) $3.95
Kentucky Blue Pole Bean
TPF262 Kentucky Blue Pole Bean
1991 AAS Edible Vegetable Winner. Kentucky Blue combines the excellence of the all-time greatest pole beans: Kentucky Wonder and Blue Lake. Its characteristic deep-green pods are 6–8 inches long and quite straight. The pods are easily seen on the 6-foot tall vines and can be continuously harvested over a long season.
  22g pack ( about 75 seeds ) $3.95
6005 Blue Lake FM1K Pole Bean
A tender and delicious variety that is excellent due to its versatility in the kitchen! Blue Lake Pole vines can grow up to 12 feet long, and due to their growth habit, they require some kind of growing guidance such as poles or strings. The oval pods produced are crisp and tender, growing up to 6 inches long. This variety is a type of green or string bean, a commonly grown vegetable. They grow quickly and are easy to grow, making them an excellent addition to the home garden. 60-70 days.
6" long stringless, dark green, round, straight, smooth pods that set from base to the top of the vine. Stay sweet and crispy even at maturity! Yield until frost. Good flavor as a snap or shell bean.
  2 ounce pack ( about 170 seeds ) $4.95
TCB061 King of the Garden
The leading large-seeded pole lima bean. The old standard favorite. Vigorous, reliable grower and heavy cropper, bearing dark green pods 5 to 8 inches long, filled with 4 to 6 large white beans of excellent quality. Shells very easily and cooks well. Rich honey-like taste. 85 days.
  22g pack ( about 20 seeds per pack ) $2.95
JM221 Kentucky Wonder Pole Bean
Old heirloom variety. 65 days. Noted for exceptional flavor. Heavy crops of 9" green pods, borne in clusters. Pods are oval, thick, gently curved, meaty and tender. Stringless when young. Delicious fresh, frozen or dried for shell beans. Brown seeded. Proven tops for productivity, flavor and wide adaptability.
  22g pack ( about 80 seeds ) $2.95
TGL034 Kentucky Wonder Green Pole Bean
One of the most popular beans of all time and a favorite of American gardeners since the late 19th century. Variety can be relied on for peak flavor, productivity, and wide adaptability. Yields abundant clusters of thick, meaty 9" green pods. Stringless when young. Delicious fresh, cooked, frozen, or dried for shell beans. 65 days.
  10g pack ( about 30 seeds ) $2.95
TCB095 Rattlesnake
This one is very tolerant to heat and drought. Vines grow up to 10 feet and produce an abundance of beautiful dark green pods with purple streaks. The 7 to 8 inch pods are simply delicious. Light buff colored seeds are splashed with dark brown. Use the pods fresh or let them mature for shelling. 70-85 days.
  12g pack ( about 40 seeds per pack ) $2.95
6004 Christmas Pole Butterbean
Heirloom. 90 days. Very large ( the largest lima we know of ) with beautiful, dark red splashes, rich flavor; heavy yields even in very hot weather, prolific long vines. Has a buttery flavor and creamy texture. The lima's crisp nutty flavor- sometimes described as similar to chestnuts. The cooked texture is similar to that of a baked potato. Broad, flat pods with 3 large, flat limas each that are creamy green with red markings. When cooked at either green or dry, they turn a pink brown color.
  $3.95 per 2 ounce pack
TCB098 Red Asparagus Beans ( Yard Long )
This is a very tender bean with sweet flavor. Exotic, crisp and tasty red-podded beans will grow up to 24 inches long, but they are most tender, and flavorful at 12” long. This Asian tropical climbing annual is a beauty, too: offering a stunning contrast of red pods against bright green foliage. Burgundy color will fade when cooked. Red seeds. 85 days.
  10g pack ( about 50 seeds per pack ) $2.95
 250 seeds $7.95
TPF252 Romano Pole
Italian heirloom flat pole bean, mid-green, stringless, 6" pod, unique meaty flavor, harvest when young for best flavor, 66 days.
  10g pack ( about 30 seeds per pack ) $2.95
TCB063 Scarlet Runner
Old-fashioned favorite perfect for the kitchen garden. Multi-use bean with edible blooms, tender young pods and beautiful shell/dry beans. Bright scarlet flowers have a sweet, fresh taste and are attractive to hummingbirds.
Prolific ornamental variety with light green, flat pods 12-16" long which are fine flavored when young and tender. Large shiny black and purple mottled seeds are tasty as a shell or dried bean. 80 days.
  18g pack ( about 20 seeds per pack ) $2.95