Dean:
Pretty much any bean can be picked and eaten in the young and green pod stage, and/or left to develop dry beans in the mature stage. Some taste better than others one way or another, and the seed catalog will usually clue you in. In a dry climate you can just leave them in the field to dry - but pick them before the pods start to shatter open. Otherwise, you can pick them when mature but not completely dry, and finish drying them in a protected place in or out of the pods, with good air circulation so they don't get moldy.

You need to talk to some gardeners in your local area, and/or find a veg garden book specializing for your region that discusses beans, and you need to experiment. There are probably also seed catalogs that carry types for your area, with knowledgeable staff you can talk to. Pretty much every region has some types of beans that flourish there, and it takes information and trial and error to find out what those are.

I think all beans are capable of cross pollination if their flowering coincides.

When a bean is listed as a dry bean or a soup bean in the catalog, that's a clue that it is considered tasty as such.
-O

Beans is avery broad generic term. For your purposes you need to know only a few species.
Phaseolus vulgaris. The common bean has a hundred of cultivars. They are usally broken down into these types. They do not cross pollinate.
Snap beans; These have tender edible pods when young. Most folks think of greens beans here, but the yellow wax beans are also snap beans. They are availble in both bush and vining (pole) types.
Dry beans. These are used as fully mature beans. Typically left on the vine to dry and then shelled or threshed.
Green shellie beans; These can be any type. Pods are allowed to mature to full size, but picked and shelled before they begin to dry.

Phaseolus coccineus ( runner bean) Can be either pole or bush, but are characterized by very showy blossoms. Widely used as ornamentals, but can be used as snapbeans , dry beans or shellies. Croospollinate readily between cultivars.

Phaseolus lunatus ( lima bean) available in both pole and bush form. and in large or small sizes. Only used as dry or green shell. Croos pollinate readily between cultivars.

Vigna unguiculata ( southern peas) Totally different than common or runner beans. One form the asparagus or yardlong is used as a snap bean. The others primarily as green shell or dry beans. Available in bush or vining form. cross pollinate among cultivars readily.

Others you may encounter include Sword beans, jack beans, hyacinth beans, but these are somewhat exotic tropicals mainly grown as ornamentals

So, there are three types of beans basiclly that will not cross pollinate?

When you say "Cross pollinate readily between cultivators". For example you mean all types within the Phaseolus coccineus ( runner bean) can cross pollinate?

What is meant by "Green Shell"? I thought shell meant to remove the dry seeds, thus dried beans?

Snap I assume means snap into pieces and can be eaten, we usually boil. Right?

Farmerdilla did a nice job of classifying beans. The nomenclature gets confusing. It varies with region. Vignas are never called beans in the South where they are known as peas. What we call peas in the North are known as English peas in the South to distinguish them from vignas, which are just 'peas'. For more detailed information, hang out on the Bean forum for a while. It's interesting.

To answer your question, there are three growth stages at which beans can be used, snap, shelly and dry.

Snap beans are what are often called green beans. The pods are eaten before the seeds fully develop. Snaps can be canned or frozen.

Shellies are a more mature bean. The seeds are removed from the pods while still green but after the pods have become inedible. Shellies are often canned or frozen.

Dry beans are fully mature and hardened seeds. They are used for dry storage.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: Bean Forum

The common bean P.vulgaris does not cross pollinate readily. You can save seeds even when you plant multiple cultivars. All the others cross pollinate within species. You can interplant a white, a red, and an apricot runner bean. The saved seed will be full of surprises.
Green shell is action specific. A lot of folks prefer to shell mature in size but unripe beans. I only do southern peas and lima beans that way. These are done commercially and are found in the frozen food section of the grocery store. They will also have a rack for dried beans and peas.
In the mid Atlantic, the Horticultural cultivars were planted extensively for green shellies ( called October beans in Virginia)

4b, wow, it's COLD where you are.

You might think about "bush beans", which tend to be dwarf cultivars of P. vulgaris. You can have bush green beans or bush dry beans, but watch out for "days to maturity". Bush green beens tend to be pretty fast to grow and bear once nights are warmish. They do not bear as long as "pole beans" do, but they are a reliable crop for shorter seasons, and don't need any staking or trellising.

Supposedly beans with colored seeds germinate better in cool soil than beans with white seeds. Dunno if it is true but because I live in a climate with cool damp springs I used colored seed.

The little dwarf bean "Masai" produces green beans on foot high plants, very quickly. Nice for short season climates.

"Green beans" can also be yellow or purple, which actually comes in handy for spotting them among the leaves. You need to harvest them promptly.

"Romano" beans have flat edible pods. You eat them like green-beans. I think it is the same species, P. vulgaris.

"Etna" is a cultivar grown for dry beans, that produces in 68 days and is suitable for many northerly climates.

I would guess from your zone designation that Lima beans and most of the "exotic" beans are unsuitable.

Couple more beans: "fava beans" are a completely unrelated plant, Vicia faba. They grow in cool weather and ONLY in cool weather. They are the key ingredient for making genuine Egyptian falafel; in Arabic they are called "fool" (dunno how to transliterate that--it sounds like the opposite of wise person). In my climate I would plant them in the Fall; in some climates where it is too cold for them to overwinter they are a VERY early spring crop. They can't take heat so they need to be planted early. Big beautiful lush nitrogen-fixing plants, with odd-looking black-and-white flowers.

There are two kinds, big-seeded and small-seeded. Big seeded kinds usually eaten not quite mature as a substitute for lima beans. Smaller kinds eaten as falafel.

BEWARE: some people, mostly of Mediterranean ancestry, and maybe also some Asians, have an allergy to favas. It can be quite severe. If you want to grow them make sure everybody in the family is OK around them.

Garbanzo beans aka chick peas grow on yet another distinct plant, Cicer reticulatum. I was surprised that they are easy to grow in Seattle (latitude 47.5 degrees) so they must be easy. They grow on low bushy plants, and do not have to be trellised (in fact, you can't).

"4b, wow, it's COLD where you are"

Tell my wife that, the air conditioner has been on for two straight weeks.

4b, my season is basically from Memorial Day through third week in September. This year I planted the second week of May, early this year.

"Is there a site that discusses and explains beans in more detail?"

Yes, this one. ;-) Especially on the Bean Forum.

Habit: bush, pole, or "half-runner" (climbs weakly)

Usage: Snap (immature pods eaten); green shell or "shelly" (ripe undried seeds eaten); or dry (grown for dry seed). Some beans good in all stages.

Species: Well covered by Farmadilla above.

Hybrids: While any cross is a hybrid by definition, there are no true hybrid beans sold commercially. All beans will breed true.

Several others have given good summaries, so I will only fill in the blanks here. I know that I have answered this question in greater depth on several threads.

I will respectfully disagree on two points previously mentioned:

- Not all common beans can be eaten as snap beans. Some varieties that are classified as "dry" beans have fibrous pods that make them unsuitable for use as snaps. And while all beans can be used as dry beans, they will vary considerably in their quality.

- All beans _can_ cross, given the proper conditions & the right pollinators. Some are just more likely to do so than others. There are some good discussions of "Bean crossing" on the Bean Forum... and some disagreement.

For common beans, pollination occurs before the flower opens; so crossing is _usually_ minimal, provided that the beans are not grown directly adjacent to one another. But it can occasionally be severe; some pole bean seed that I received in trades was from 10-50% crossed. Seed I received for the variety "Jimenez" was nearly 100% crossed, so it may be especially prone... it might be enlightening to find out why.

I grow about 10 new varieties each year, and have yet to see a year without at least a few crosses... but in terms of percentages, they are _usually_ low, perhaps 1-2%. Generally, those plants will be visibly different (such as habit, or different flower color) and can be destroyed quickly ("rogued"), so good seed can still be saved.

Cowpeas (including yardlongs) also self-pollinate, but can be crossed. I would not consider them "likely" to do so, however; I have grown different yardlongs with 50 feet of separation (and other crops between) and have yet to see a cross. It may be that in some regions where they are more commonly grown, crosses are more frequent.

Limas & runner beans flower heavily, attract pollinators - and are _very_ prone to crossing. If saving seed without isolation, only one variety should be grown... and crossing is still possible if neighbors grow a different variety. I once grew two limas ("Christmas" and "King of the Garden") 50 feet apart, and had about 10% crossing in the resulting seed.

If saving seed for home use, a small amount of crossing represents no problem. If the seed is an irreplaceable heirloom, however, or if seed will be shared with others, then greater efforts should be taken to ensure purity.

Nearly all bean seed should be allowed to dry on the plant, to the greatest degree possible. The pods are then picked, and dried further in a well-ventilated area; once the pods are dry, the seed can be shelled. The seed is then dried further, to remove much of its moisture, prior to storage. Beans (and most legumes) will deteriorate quickly if sealed in air-tight containers while their moisture content is still high.

This has been an informative thread which could be the basis for a Bean Forum FAQ when the gardening season winds down and we have more time for such things.

But we haven't covered all the beans yet. What about soy beans (Glycine max)? There are probably others we haven't thought of.

Jim

I have heard that pole beans stop producing if the pods are allowed to mature. Is that true? If so, how does one get a lot of dry beans? Plant a ton of them? My beans are starting to produce a lot right now, and I'd like to save some to dry.

Alex

You got it, Alex. Plant a ton!

I have really enjoyed reading this thread about my favorite crop and learned a lot.
-O

"If so, how does one get a lot of dry beans?"
Also, keep them well watered. Depending on the variety, one can often keep a planting producing, even after drying seed, by keeping it well watered.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Proof-reading this post, I realize it should have been on the Bean Forum. Oh, well...

"If so, how does one get a lot of dry beans?"
(besides planting more of them)

I can tell you what works for one bean - pole yardlongs. I grow a black-seeded yardlong that is very early. For about a month, I harvest the young pods, leaving none to grow. Without the burden of seed production, the plants continue to grow & branch vigorously. Then about 30 days before frost, I let the plants go to seed. The dry seed crop is very large... so I get two good crops from the same vines.

When I lived in SoCal, I was able to do the same with pole beans. The first flush was for snaps... after which I would pluck off any remaining pods & blossoms, pinch off the vine tips, and force the vines into regrowth. The second flush would be for seed. This technique requires a fairly long season for most varieties of pole beans (which represent the majority of my beans) but might work for most gardeners using short DTM bush beans.

FYI, for pole beans, the period from flower to dry bean = about 5 weeks on average. For soybeans, this can be much longer... two months or more after flowering begins.

Also, in my experience, a thick layer of mulch improves bean vigor & yield. This helps to retain moisture, reducing blossom drop. But perhaps just as importantly, it prevents mud splash, and the disease problems (and reduced yield) that can stem from it. Many of my beans will struggle until mulch is applied, with yellow curled leaves. After mulching & then spraying to clean the leaves, the rapid improvement (within a few days) can be remarkable.

Plant spacing as a factor in yield is often overlooked. The seed packet recommendations for beans might work if all you want is a crop of snaps... but to grow seed, greater spacing is often required, especially for pole beans. After thinning, I never use less than 6" spacing between bean plants... with 12" for some of the more vigorous pole beans, 15-18" for yardlongs, and up to 24" for the most rampant limas. These are my default spacings; since each variety differs, I may make adjustments after the first time a variety is grown.

If you grow the same variety year after year, experiment to find the spacing that gives the greatest yield. Beans will really take advantage of any room you give them... sometimes one healthy plant will yield better than three stunted plants grown in the same space. Last year, a single plant of "Brita's Foot Long" gave me 10 ounces of dry seed - and had it not been killed by frost, would have easily yielded twice that.

Jimster, how 'bout them soybeans? ;-) Several (including myself) are growing the Gardensoy soybeans (which you provided the link for) - I will post the results for two of them (-12 & -24) later in the season.

Soybeans are daylength-sensitive to varying degrees, and really benefit from being planted as early as possible. Last year I experimented with 25 soybeans, with transplants started 14-21 days before the same varieties direct-seeded. The later planted seeds made up 1/2 of the difference, maturing within a week (on the average) of the transplants. But the yield from the transplants was higher.

There were two lessons learned from this:
(1) Soybeans are easy & effective as transplants.
(2) Succession planting is mostly ineffective - soybeans of a given variety will tend to ripen close to the same date, regardless of when they are planted. To get a prolonged harvest of edamame, different varieties (with different Maturity Groups) should be used.

and oh, yeah...

(3) Bunnies will muck up any experiment with soybeans - they will pass up all other vegetables to eat them, and will continue to eat them until fenced out (no easy task) or destroyed.