I think maybe your plants got a little too much nitrogen, and went foliar when they should have been setting pods. Now they've outgrown the nutritional glut and are gonna make a lot of beans. Let them double back down the trellis and you'll have the beans within picking range.

I plant Ky wonders on my sweet corn, where there is lots of residual N, and they get really lush and pull the cornstalks down. In Sept it becomes a thick hedge of tangled pole bean foliage but the yield and quality are excellent.

Thanks planatus! Now, if I can just find enough room in my freezer when they pop! :)

You are in the same zone I am in. Don't know where, because you won't provide your location. Would be helpful to know where you are.

My pole beans are doing the same. I am in NW KS and it has been too hot for the beans to pollinate. Just like the last three years.

Have had blossoms for several weeks, but no beans yet,

I just picked the first 3 beans (off same plant - I think, they're all tangled going up the trellis) from my Blue Lakes. They're coming! (Mine didn't have that much foliage, bottom leaves were yellow so I thought not enough N but they are loaded with blossoms and now tiny threads of beans).

Bush beans are still producing - it's been 2 weeks since I picked the first ones. Tendergreen doesn't seem quite as productive as BBL was last year but Cherokee Wax are very productive - wish I'd put in more. Limas are just flowering - no pods yet. Everything seeded May 29 when soil was 60 degrees.

Update: I saw when I was picking beans today that the limas DO have pods at the base of the plants! They're still flat though. Does anyone know if you can eat them like snow peas? From the looks of the plants I'm going to have lots of limas (though maybe it's not that much once they're shelled).

This post was edited by ajsmama on Tue, Aug 5, 14 at 19:27

My Blue Lakes are just starting to produce also, but all up and down the plants. I never dreamed they would do this well or I sure wouldn't have planted so many of them. Yikes! Might be that I will have to dig out my canner this year!! :^)
Edie

ajasmama - I don't think that would be a good idea. Not only are lima pods very fibrous, most raw bean seeds are toxic.

They don't have beans yet, I know the beans need to be picked and the pods discarded when they're older but I was wondering if they were edible when still flat. I'm tired of nothing but squash and green beans!

I planted Jackson Wonder and supposedly the pods can be cooked when young. Has anyone tried them?

Here is a link that might be useful: Jackson Wonder

This post was edited by ajsmama on Wed, Aug 6, 14 at 19:08

Fedco says they can be cooked like snow peas.

Here is a link that might be useful: Jackson Wonder at Fedco

Poisonous? Some probably are, but I have been eating young, Fresh Kentucky Wonder and Blue Lake green beans raw my whole life. Only about half of beans I pick make it back to the kitchen.

-Babka

Favas and limas have to be cooked (though I understand newer varieties of limas aren't as toxic). UMN says kidney beans are, I think all beans grown for dried beans might be, soybeans have to be cooked too.

Snap beans/string beans are OK raw even when you let the seeds get big. I eat raw snap beans all the time, though maybe only half a dozen at a time. So does my dad.

I didn't know hyacinth beans are toxic when raw, apparently after they turn from green to red. We were in the community garden at the church tonight and they were picking what I thought were scarlet runner beans but could have been hyacinth beans, I had part of 1 raw DD gave to me after taking a bite, the mother and son picking them were nibbling them too. I have to check into that more - I'm sure a couple bites are OK, but the boy was younger (maybe 5) and I don't know how many he ate.

Update: not hyacinth, they were long thin beans, possibly yard-long beans though they weren't that big yet, they were picking them about 6 inches long. Round cross section, not flat like hyacinth. The flowers were not typical bean flowers though - I didn't see any open, but they were furled, almost looked like morning glory but purple. Any idea what they were? Vining type planted on the arched gate.

Here is a link that might be useful: UMN Beans

This post was edited by ajsmama on Wed, Aug 6, 14 at 21:09