What I wanna know is if I have a bag of beans, say like pinto beans or red beans in my pantry, if I soak a handful in the spring and throw them in the ground, will I get like, you know, bean PLANTS?
I mean I can buy a one pound bag of beans for about the same as a paltry seed packet that has 17 bean seeds.
Just wonderin.
Usually. Not many will sprout as compared to the seed packet though.
“What I wanna know is if I have a bag of beans, say like pinto beans or red beans in my pantry, if I soak a handful in the spring and throw them in the ground, will I get like, you know, bean PLANTS?”
Yes, you will. But not all will germinate (sprout) due to age and other factors. Food beans are handled differently than beans for sewing in the following season. Bean seeds lose their germination rate quickly. The larger the seed, the shorter its shelf-life. (For example, lettuce and radish seed are really small...they have a longer “viability” than do a bean seed or a corn kernel seed. The smaller the seed, the longer it “lasts.”)
If you’ve ever grown beans for the dry beans (seeds) you need ACRES to fill that bag-o-beans that you buy for $1 at The Dollar Store. An average garden plot won’t produce the quantity needed unless you have a 1/4 acre or so to devote only to dry beans. Each pod produces 4-5 seeds (beans.) Each plant produces 12-20 or so pods holding 4-5 bean seeds. You do the math...and don’t get me started on what a PITA it is to harvest and shell them. How dried beans EVER became the food staple of starving, Third World countries is beyond me. The labor ALONE in ‘beans and rice’ boggles the mind.
Learn to hunt, Dudes! ;)
And then, as another consideration, some of your bagged beans may be bush beans and some may be pole beans. Pole beans are MUCH more productive and you can grow a lot more on less land as they grow UP with proper supports.
If you’re really willing to try growing drying beans this upcoming season, I’d say...don’t do it! No matter WHAT your politics, hit The Dollar Store and buy yourself a bag-o-beans for a dollar.
Believe me, I’ve done many test plots for drying beans over the years...it’s a fruitless effort. And I’m STILL hungry at the end of the day. I just don’t GET it!
It will work, but the percentage that will actually germinate is low. You will get near 100% with a seed packet. Even saving packet seeds from year-to-year you will get a drop off, unless you keep them under tightly controlled conditions. I have kept them several years in a vacuum sealed jar in the freezer.