Because it is very difficult to judge exactly what happened from looking at a few pictures, we are like the three blind men describing the elephant. We gave you three possible scenarios, now it is your job to make your conclusion based on what facts you actually know. 1. Did you have a frost just prior to what happened? 2. Did you allow ample time to harden off the plants? 3. Did you let your dogs out to relieve themselves? 4. Did you plant your beans in overly 'rich' potting soil? 5. Did you check if beans were better off directly sown? Your job, Sherlock, is to come to a wise decision as to what could have caused the problem. Before you plant anything, check exactly what that plant needs to grow healthy, do some research before planting anything willy-nilly. The needs of plants differ very widely and 90% of failures could be eliminated through prior research about that specific plant. Lou

This thread is also posted on the Vegetable Forum, where it received quite a few responses. I'll second Fusion's recommendation for the "Carolina Red", along with its white-seeded cousin "Sieva". The small-seeded pole varieties seem to be among the earliest; for me "Sieva" has been even earlier than most bush varieties. It has cropped reliably here in northeast Wisconsin. "King of the Garden" might be "iffy" in New England, I know it is here. But since you can get a lot from relatively few plants, it is worth starting early indoors in peat pots. The beans are large & fat, and the flavor is very similar to "Fordhook", outstanding when harvested in the green-shelled stage. If all else fails, you will probably succeed with "Henderson Bush", but I don't consider it to be the best flavored.

There is a problem here. I need more information to help you out. First were are you located. There is an 8 in your zone I would think you would have no problem with limas in zone 8. I am still puzzled how you can get limas in June. I have planted in first week of April and not had limas till after the 4th and I am in zone 7b/8a on the border. Zeedman has some good advice. limas are drought tolerant but they still need water and like nice soft soil. If the ground is hard and covered in grass this could be a problem also. ]You mentioned you will not grow running limas again, have you had success with bush limas? Are they in full sun or is there shade at some time during the day. And what have you used for fertilizer. And I have to ask this are they limas? I have some common beans that are diffently daylight sensitive and are planted as a fall crop and the seed on them are brown red and look like lima bean seed. I have a runner bean giving to me called cherokee butterbean and it is a speckeled runner bean. And runners will not set reliable in the heat of summer for me in SC. A few thoughts Rodger

Interesting, Bcnu. How long were you there? Did you have a chance to observe the performance of the vines over several years? While "7 Year" sounds worth growing, it should be noted that many limas will grow as perennials in tropical climates. San Diego doesn't always get a frost, and when that happened, my "King of the Garden" limas would winter over. However, while the yield the second year was very early, the quality was not as good as the first year from seed. It's been a bear of a year for me here; but the "Madagascar" limas that I mentioned earlier in the thread went in as planned, and survived the flooding that killed much of my garden. The vines, while not as vigorous as they should be, are blossoming & just beginning to form pods. As a rule, if I have blossoms by August 15th, I should get dry seed... so there is cause for optimism. The "Midwest monsoon" has finally broken, and the weather now is consistently 80's day/60's night - perfect bean weather. I'll post updates on this thread later in the season.