Now that we've had a few light frosts and one hard frost, I've begun collecting the seeds of my pole beans. This year we grew 4 varieties - Purple Podded Pole, Emerite, Fortex and Lazy Housewife.. Having just been up in the garden planting another 100 cloves of garlic and moving around a few kale babies, I took a quick peek at the drying bean vines still clinging to the A-frame trellis and decided to collect a few handfuls of the Purple Podded Pole since the pods were crisp and dry in the warm autumn weather. Here are some photos:
They've lost their distinctive purple colour, but these dried pods are ready to harvest. |
If they're still pliable or succulent, leave them another week or two. The best quality mature seeds come from comepletely dried pods. |
The dried pods pop open when you run your finger down the seam. Careful, or the beans will spill out. |
Each Purple Podded Pole bean has about 7 to 10 seeds. |
A handful from 3 beans - enough for about 25 plants next year!! The seed from about 20 beans will yield more than enough for our garden as well as extra to share. |
No comments:
Post a Comment