Pinto beans from store cooking beans: vining?

naturegirl_2007 5B SW Michigan

17 years ago

I planted pinto beans intended for cooking purchased at a local food store. They germinated and are growing well. I expected them to be a bush bean. I thought commercially grown dried beans would be bush varieties for ease of mechanical harvest.

Well.....the pintos look to be putting out vines like pole beans I've grown in the past. I'm hoping they will only grow short vines, but they are getting longer every day. Does anyone know if the cooking bean pintos come in bush and pole varieties? And if they do vine.....can I just throw the vines back into the raised bed they are in and let them grow in a heap until they are done growing and ready to harvest as dry beans? That doesn't seem right but trellissing them at this stage would be difficult since they are planted in a 4'x8' block.

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Comments (3)

farmerdilla
17 years ago
They are grown as bush beans, but many cultivars are classified as half runners.This site has photos of harvesting http://www.pintobean.org/photo.htm. This one gives you more than you want to know about commercail pinto beans

Here is a link that might be useful: TAMU- pinto bean production
naturegirl_2007 5B SW Michigan
Original Author
17 years ago
Wow, lots of info. Thanks! Looks like alot of cultivars will run some. I'll keep stearing mine back into the raised bed and clip off any that get toooo unruly. My attempts at growing demo beds of local farm commodities has been interesting. I better find local farmer contacts so I don't have too many more surprises! My back yard veggie gardening knowledge hasn't helped much with some of the things I've tried recently....but it has been fun and interesting.
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tedposey
17 years ago
If you have a lot of them,try harvesting some when full pods are not dry, Shellies. Delicious. I plant French Horticurtal half runners which are very similar to pintos in looks and flavor but are bigger.
The best bush green bean I've ever grown is Roma II.
I don't grow dry beans cause it's cheaper to buy and I have limited space.