Here are a few of my bean experiments. It all started when we bought some Anasazi beans to try in a soup. They were so pretty that I just had to sprout a few just to see what the plant would look like.
Shade-loving beans are one plant that can be germinated easily and gotten off to a good start growing hydroponically without any fancy equipment. When I decided to sprout the Anasazis, I went looking to see what other dried beans we had on hand. There were pintos, kidney beans, small reds, and lentils, so I germinated a few of each.
The kidney beans are looking best so far, with the pintos coming in a close second. Some of the Anasazi plants, which had smaller leaves and a more delicate structure than the other two, bit the dust, but the a few are still going strong.
I love the delicate, almost feathery leaves of the lentils, but they may not be strong enough to hold up in the near continuous breeze our porch enjoys. They are pretty enough, though to try indoors once we decide what kind of support to use once they start climbing.
These kidney beans are growing in liquid nutrient solution. They are now three weeks old:
Just about one month to the day after planting, this one opened its first flowers:
More coming: And finally, the moment we've been waiting for:
This is a snap bean, aka French Bean or haricot. There is much misinformation online about the correct names for different beans, however, and some maintain that the term haricot is specific to small white beans. Kidney beans come in white, too, but the large white ones are called cannelloni.
This is one of the varieties of common bean, or "string bean" although stringless string beans are becoming more popular. I was surprised to read that kidney beans should not be sprouted. Apparently those who say that believe that the sprouts are toxic. I tend to use the terms sprout and germinate interchangeably. In any case, they also say to discard the soak water before cooking dried kidney beans. Wow! I don't think that is necessary when nuking them in a pressure cooker 40 minutes as I do. That one cannot cook beans in a pressure cooker is another myth.
It is unlikely that any of these snap beans will remain uneaten long enough to dry anyway.
Trying to research varieties of phaseolis vulgaris L. is becoming a nightmare however. More on this another time.
This one is an Anasazi bean, also from the supermarket. Anasazi's are a good substitute for pinto beans, although more expensive. When dried the color is quite different but they look much the same after cooking. The pinto beans we sprouted grew a bush type plant, but the Anasazi was a vine.
