Bush hyacinth bean

12 years ago

One of the joys of garden forums is being able to trade for things you never knew existed... and this is one of them.

A poster on another forum (also from Wisconsin) sent me a bush hyacinth bean from India that he said would produce seed in our climate. This is unusual for two reasons:
(1) most hyacinth beans are vigorous climbers, and
(2) they are usually day length sensitive, and won't bloom until days approach 12 hours in length - which is mid-September, just before my killing frost.

The claims of the source have proven to be true. The white seeded / white flowered beans wasted no time putting out flowers, doing so about 35 days after germination - in the long days of early July. There were only a few leaves at that point. Since I wasn't sure about what habit to expect, I had spaced the plants 18" apart... but the bushes are very compact with no sign of runners, and they could easily be spaced 12" apart or less. The plants are now branching out vigorously, and each branch sends up a new flower spike after only a few new leaves. The pods are borne well above the foliage. I finally uploaded some photos:

Still holding my breath, since the pods may take a long time to mature... but this may actually be the first bean in the garden to bear dry seed this year. To put things in perspective, the pole limas I transplanted at the same time are only now beginning to set pods.

A bean enthusiast from another forum says that the white-seeded hyacinth beans are grown to be eaten as dry beans. Not sure I'll try that without a lot more info, since hyacinth beans are supposed to be toxic... but I'll be testing the cooked immature pods for their flavor.

This post was edited by zeedman on Sun, Aug 3, 14 at 23:03

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Comments (5)

aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
12 years ago
Zeedman, those are some good looking beans, let us know how the pods taste, how big do you let them get before you pick them?
A few more of Andean vines are starting to produce a few beans, I suspect they all have the same patterned seed coat.
Flowers are still dropping but we're still in a bit of a heat wave up here, at least I won't be skunked in the seed department.
I haven't had a good look but I don't think any of the vines from the yellowish seed are flowering yet so maybe they're day length sensitive.
The 4 plants in the greenhouse are still growing, had a touch of spider mite but I think I've got a handle on it, the new growth is looking good. I'm hoping if they happen to be DLS the protection of the greenhouse and a little heat if needed will produce something later on.

Annette
zeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin
Original Author
12 years ago
Began harvesting dry seed from most plants in the row on August 20th, 84 days from sowing; the first few pods were ready at 80 days. The plants are loaded with pods & have fallen over (nearly 100% lodging) but they continue to flower & make new pods. Still no sign of even rudimentary runners, so this appears to be true bush habit. (In contrast, a cowpea that was bush habit the first time I grew it, has short runners this year.)

Originally, I thought the seed sent to me was white seed aged brown; but having now opened the first dry pods, it turns out to really be brown seed.

I taste tested some of the cooked immature pods. At that stage, they had fattened & appeared to be partially filled, but were still hollow inside with only tiny, undeveloped seeds. The lightly boiled pods were very delicate, like green-bean-flavored snow peas... including the strings, which I had removed before cooking. They are much less substantial than the vining, purple-podded hyacinth beans I grew previously. Based upon their ever blooming habit, it appears this variety would supply immature pods nearly continuously.

The mature pods dry down very slowly, even more slowly than snap peas. I had to pick the first nearly-dry pods as rain approached... they had dried very little after a couple days indoors, so I put them under a fan to prevent molding.

Will try to post more photos soon.
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aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
12 years ago
Exciting news, I know, only another beanaholic would think so but it sounds like you have a real winner there :). You said you lightly boiled them, I take it they're not a good candidate for steaming.
I've had several dried on the vine pods off one of the Andean beans, the first one that flowered and also it is producing the most beans.

Annette
sharmij
11 years ago
This is exciting. Do you have some extra seeds that you can share?
mav72
11 years ago
Funny, I ate some that look exactly like that during vacation last year... I kept asking about them but never got an answer...

I have eaten about four varieties of hyacinth bean, counting the variety that looks like the one you have but I have a broad pod white seed variety that has a smell that puts me off... It's supposed to be edible but, has an odd smell that comes from the pod surface... The bean weavels love them though and because of this, I cant seem to get good seed out of the plant... Because of those weavels, I cant seem to get any good seed from my white seeded Limas either...