Howdy! Well, I've grown beans all my life, but this year was a first for Red Peanut beans. Here's what I did, and I believe they were a great success: you can pick the pods young for snaps. They are good for string beans until sometime before they color up. After that they're shellies.
This is an excellent half runner bean.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Happy Independence Day all!

Macmex, do your Red Peanut beans climb? You say it's a half-runner.

Some years ago, I grew NT half runner, & it climbed like the best pole beans.

My Red Peanut bean seeds were from Sandhill, and they were listed under bush beans and are growing likewise. No vines, no semi vines.

If yours are vining, there may be two kinds of Red Peanut bean.

I too purchased mine from Sandhill Preservation Center. I grew them without support and they did fine. I did notice, however, that if they'd had support, they probably would have climbed. I believe that the Seed Savers Exchange has guidelines about how to "make the call" between bush and pole. If a variety would do better with support, then you call it a pole bean. Anyway, it is still kind of subjective.

Here's an example: Most people who have described Penny Rile Cowpea say that it is shorter than a lot of other cowpeas. They call it a bush. Yet I know, that if you give it support it will climb to 9 feet!

I treated Red Peanut as if it were a cowpea & sure enough, without support, it was more contained. Next year I'll try giving it some short stakes to climb on.

By the way, I think I've stumbled on a great combination for planting. Every year I've tried to conserve space by planting my onions and garlic in a block, I've ended up with a mass of weeds and not a very good harvest of onions. This year, I planted my potato onions and garlic in rows. Then, when the weather warmed up, I planted Red Peanut Beans alongside the onions. By the time the beans started shading the onions & garlic, it was getting pretty hot here. They seemed to appreciate the shade. The beans, on the other hand, didn't mind the presence of the alliums.

Anyway, by planting these two crops practically on top of each other, in rows, I got double use of the space. I pulled my Red Peanut beans yesterday (and harvested plenty of seed for next year), and the potato onions were ready to come then too. I'd consider this to be a great success and intend to continue with this practice.

George

George,

That's really interesting to hear. All of the companion plantings list say: Garlic, onion and shallot stunt the growth of beans. I'm always curious what the scientific basis is of those lists and how practical they are in our gardens. So it's alway interesting to hear about people that have done it, and not had the issue. Especially when the more experienced people, like yourself, have succeeded. Thanks for the info. :)

Susan

My Red Peanut beans are now sending up long shoots that want to twirl and climb!

They grow in front of tomatoes, so a tall fence for them to climb is out of the question. However, I could erect a short three-foot heigh fence if they'd do better with a short climb (instead of scrambling around on their own). I fear slugs will get them with so much tender, lateral growth close to the ground.

It's not fair to growers when beans are sold as bush when in fact they're climbers. These Red Peanut beans are definately seeking a support to climb on.

Let's have a change in the catalog description, please.

We have not had any luck growing the red peanut bean for years. They have had tough ones in them and you can not eat them. Do you know of anyone who may have some good seeds without the tough ones to sell? We would love to get some good bean seed again.