I wish there were a way to know when the right time is to plant limas. Because if you plant them too soon, something funny happen in the garden: you buy some big white seeds, plant them with great hopefulness in the ground, and then they just gets all rotted before anything else happens.
It is not because the soil look bad, but because it’s not warm enough. Knowing a little about how lima beans grow, more then selecting the most visually appealing seed; is the best way to ensure that you grows beans instead of empty space on your bed.
How to Grow Lima Beans
The chart above is a sort of growing timetable, a picture of what’s going on inside the plant from the moment it emerges, and when it should be ready to pick. It shows that it doesn’t matter quite as much what day it is; it matters more how tall the plant are.
Tropical lima beans aren’t cold-weather survivors; they want at least sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit in the soil before sowing time. That’s why you’re in trouble if you sow them like peas or carrot, right after the final frost date. Lima bean seeds can only begin their journey toward sprouting when it’s warm enough.
In cool, sodden conditions, the seed coat take up water without anything happening inside to get things moving, and then you have an ideal recipe for rot. It sounds picky, but it makes all the difference. Don’t sow until soil really feels warm, not just crisply chilly. Then provide plenty of moisture (down to an inch) during the crucial interval. Your reward will be quick germination (in about a couple of weeks).
Then again: What’s growing, pole vs. Whether you grow pole or bush beans is what changes your gardening tactics once the seedling break ground.
Bush beans reach perhaps two feet in height; they’re compact and self-supporting. These are best for freezing or canning a big batch of beans over the course of one weekend, since bush beans sets their entire crop at once.
Pole beans are relentless climbers and can grow as tall as ten feet (that’s some serious vertical space they’ll require!). You have to put up a strong trellis or teepee right from the start (the first week or two of growth would of been best), otherwise you’ll spend more time picking through tangled vines than picking beans themselves. So think ahead when planning your garden layout, not after sowing a single bean.
The other critical factor in whether or not you’ll succeed with this crop is watering. “Lima beans don’t like to be stressed, especially when they’re in bloom,” says the book. “When the soil is dry and they’re trying to flower, they drop their blossoms because it takes too much energy to keep them up.” No blossom, no pod, no crop. You get vines with no fruit… Empty vines that make you scratch your head.
So again: consistent moisture is important, but drowning them is fatal, too. Your beds has got to drain, so your roots can breathe. Mulch around your plants’ bases can help retain moisture without suffocating the roots. It is a tricky balance that most gardeners learn only after failing. Check your soil for moisture regularly and water deeply early before your plant show signs of drooping.
The last test of your vigilance: When do you know it’s time to reap?
Bush limas reach maturity relatively fast, in about two and a half months. You should aim to pick them just before the seeds inside the pod turn from green and tender to brown and dried out, though the pods themselves should still be fairly plump. Left any longer, the beans becomes leathery and unappetizing.
Pole types take slightly longer, closer to three months, but will repay your patience with a continuous harvest over a longer period. Dry beans, meanwhile, stay on the vine till they rattle, meaning that their seeds has hardened into full maturity. That means leaving the plants out there until the first threat of frost.
All in all, cultivating a crop of lima beans isn’t so much pushing the plant as coaxing it along in a way that lets it do what’s naturaly to it, minus whatever stands in its way. Offer it an environment with plenty of moisture throughout the flowering period, soil that has warmed up, and something to climb (which is hard to do if there is only bare ground). Let them do their thing.
And when you’re lucky enough to find the first fat pods forming beneath the foliage, you’ll know just how worthwhile the wait was. That’s the true harvest of the season: knowing you accomplished something.