The Dixie Speckled Butterpea is one of the best eating of the colored limas. No pole lima has the same flavor, The Florida Speckled Butterbean is next best in my book. The Christmas Lima/Calico is large, but completely different texture and flavor. Not at all familiar with the Seven Year Lima. Sounds like a good experiment for your location. No need for a perennial here.

"The seven year lima from echo sounds interesting as well-has anyone grown it?"

???

Couldn't find it on their site... was it a recent listing?

For a pole lima, I would suggest one of the Hopi pole varieties. They are extremely high-yielding, and IMO, richly flavored. They need a long season though (yeah, I hear you laughing!)

no pole lima with the flavor of the DSBP? Now that's disappointing...those bushes really make me work for what i pick!

Mr. Zeedman if you hear me laughing it's probably at myself. i have become a seed collecting, veggie growing whacko this year ; )

i just googled Hopi lima beans, looks like not too many vendors offer seed. Of course i came across some other interesting varieties while searching. Dr. Martin sounds interesting and so does Frosty. Wish there was a way to taste them before going to all the trouble of growing them.

The seven year lima i first read about in Eric Toensmeier's book Perennial Vegetables. Since then i have seen it referenced while surfing the web. Perhaps seed is not currently available through the Echo site. Probably you know it by one of the other names mentioned in the linked article-Madagascar Bean, Painted Lady or Tropical Lima.

i just googled Madagascar Bean-it does sound like a good experiment. Now if only i can find a few seeds!

Here is a link that might be useful: Seven Year Lima at Echo

mauirose

I order the Christmas lima before I saw this thread, I hope that I like them, I will only plant a few just in case.
The seven year lima sounds like something I will also like to try.
If you find the source for the seeds, please let me know. I will look for sources too, and if I find them, I will let you know.

Silvia

Sylvia that's a deal!

i spent some time to research last night but didn't come up with much. A search for Painted Lady Lima Beans pulled up mostly runner beans. A few hits for tropical lima but no seed source. And i can't tell yet whether Madagascar Bean is just another name for a lima bean or refers to a special type of lima bean.

i'm sure your Christmas Limas will be delicious even if they don't taste like the Dixie Butter Peas ; )

Now this could get weird. I have a lima bean sample that I have yet to grow for seed, called simply "Madagascar". It is a flat red & white lima that looks similar to "Christmas", but a little smaller. Not sure it is the same one, though... it was growing in Iowa when I first saw it, and had set seed there. I plan to grow it for seed next year.

The Hopi limas are available from Native Seeds/SEARCH. I grew one that was obtained from an SSE member, which was a real mix of colors - maroon, orange, brown, and black. Really beautiful. As I mentioned, it requires a fairly long season to do its best... it failed here the first time I tried it, only got a cup of dry seed & a quart or so of shellies. Started as transplants the next year, it did much better. I froze about 12 quarts of shellies from a 30-foot row before frost killed the vines... and over half of the developing pods were lost. A good harvest, but still a great waste.

The photo below will give you some idea of the yield. My first frost had killed all of the growth on the trellis above 18", so I cut off everything above that point & pulled the plants to harvest what I could. All of the leaves were removed, so everything you see in the photo (held by Grandpa's Little Helper) is pods. There was at least an equal amount left on the trellis.

I've never tried it due to my short season, but "Dr. Martin" is very large-seeded. I grew "Christmas" when I lived in San Diego; I was impressed with the size, but not the flavor. "King of the Garden" was my favorite large-seeded lima there, I am just now learning how to grow it successfully here (with transplants).

If I thought you were laughing, Mauirose, it was at the mention that you would need a long season. Heck, you're tropical, you don't have seasons! ;-)

Which brings me to my final recommendation for a pole lima. You might want to look for "Hija", or "Gigandes". I grew "Hija" here several years ago, and even started from transplants, it was just beginning to set pods when frost killed it. It is definitely a tropical variety, with enormous seeds. Redwood City Seed Company carries "Incan Giant", which I believe may be the same bean.

Mr zeedman

Beautiful Grandpa's Little Helper!

Your threads are so informative, I have been following your advice like "gold". All this info about the lima beans is going to help me a lot. I followed some other advice that you gave about the Jeminez beans and the Garafal. I planted Jeminez last season, they were great! And now I planted Garafal this week.

Last season Jeminez

{{gwi:23141}}

This season lima beans

Silvia

No one has mentioned the "Fat not flat " "Greek Giant Lima beans" sold as dried beans in some Greek specialty food stores. They look like giant kidney beans but they need a long growing season . Also a good crossbreed for them would be "Henderson's Lima" which has the shortest growing season of any Lima.

I forgot to mention that the above lima beans are Henderson bush and Eastland bush.
The flavor was good but not the production.

I will look for the Greek Giant Lima beans, I can probably try them before I plant them.:)

I am looking for a good tasting lima that produces well. Taste for me is more important than size. Now, with the bad reviews, I am afraid to try the Christmas limas that I got in the mail today.lol

Silvia

Don't write them off just yet. Some folks like the large limas. Colored limas have a slightly stronger flavor than thier white or green counterparts. I just do not like the large limas, but that is a matter of taste. the Christmas/Calico is too starchy for me but so is King of the Garden. Calico is more vigorous and productive.

Old Time Pink & White lima is a pretty good and productive pole sieva variety.

Herndon is a very productive white sieva pole type.

Carolina Red is a very productive red pole lima.

J. Potts lima is a brown and white pole though production is not as good as some others, it produces over a longer time so if you have long seasons, it outproduces many of the others.

Has anyone grown Dixie Speckled Butterpea?

DarJones

Thank you Farmerdilla and DarJones for your wonderful info on the limas. You are better than buying a book. :)

Now, I wish I had a bigger garden to grow them all and do the taste test.

Mauirose said she tried the Dixie Speckled Butterpea (bush), she liked the results, but like me did not like the bush type, because been difficult to pick and mine were not productive. Do they come in pole type?

Thank you all for the great hand on experience that we are getting.

Silvia

Dixie Butterpeas are small bush limas, both plant and vine. As mauirose stated in the first post prolific and very tasty. They are available in both white and speckled types. The speckled as is true of most colored limas have a stronger flavor. They are of the type generally called potao limas in the 19th century. They thick almost round rather than flat. Fordhooks both regular and baby fall into the same category. Little different texture and taste than the flat limas. I have a pole lima that is a cross between Dixie Butterpea Speckled and Willow Leaf that is a dark purple. Gradually rogueing out, still get a few beige beans.
Dixie Speckled Butterpea {{gwi:94939}} Baby Fordhook {{gwi:109648}}

Farmerdilla, those Dixie Speckled Butterpea look yummy!
The one that you are talking about a cross between the Dixie and the Willow and is a pole. Can you be so kind to name the seed company that I can get it?

I heard from fellow gardeners in Florida to have great success with the Willow. Now the one that is a cross, should be perfect for me and maybe Mauirose too.

Silvia

Sorry. There are black limas, and I think I have seen Black Willowleaf advertised, but it is not in the current SSL listings. This one is chance cross of my own, which I have been growing out and roguing for about three years. Originally there were a lot that were half runners with beige colored seeds with a few speckled beans scattered among them. They are getting fairly stable now. If you can figure out a way to send me your snail mail address, I will happy to send you some to try, when the harvest is over.
{{gwi:1032199}} http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm92/farmerdill/Veggies%202009/Veggies%20Misc/AugustaBlack3.jpg {{gwi:1032200}} {{gwi:831205}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Southern Seed Legacy

Farmerdilla
Thank you very much for your kind offer, and the link.
You've got mail.
Silvia

A few years ago my wifey bought a wheeled device called a grasshopper to use while working her flowers. It has four wide 6 0r 8 inch hard plastic wheels and a 6-8 inch wide 10-12 inch long seat. I use it to pick bush beans and other low growing veggies. It's just the right height and I can sit on it and trundle it along in the middle and pick both rows with a bucket in front of me.
Everyones taste is different, I love christmas limas much more than Florida Speckled myself. I haven't tried Dixie Speckled but grew white butter peas for the first time this year. Delicious.
Wow! I've never seen bean vines a full as Grampa's little helper is holding.

Wow! I've never seen bean vines a full as Grampa's little helper is holding.

Yes, me too! Making me feel all insecure about my limas. Guess when mr. zeedman says 'high yielding' he means it! Thanks for the grasshopper tip but getting down to the beans isn't too much of a problem for me. The trouble is that the beans are all tucked up under the plants and i have to actually lift them with one hand and pick with the other.

Farmerdilla you are so crazy, i think you must have pictures of every vegetable ever! How do you do it?

Sylvia-exciting!-hope to hear more about your new limas one day.

z-man you should know that zone 11 gardening has it's challenges as well. For example i can only grow turnips well in the winter months ; )

But seriously, thanks for sharing your experiences; i enjoy reading about your garden. And thanks for the thoughtful lima suggestions.

Off now to research all the lima beans people are talking about on this thread...

Mauirose

You started a good thread! We got an education here. We are so lucky :)

Do you want to try some Christmas lima with me? lol. I am going to plant just a few, and I can send you some if you want.

And I agree with you, Farmerdilla has all the pictures and varieties of all things vegetables for us to dream over!

Silvia

Not really folks, Only photos from 2005 to the present are digitized and they represent only those those cultivars that I have grown in that time period. I have a couple boxes of 35 mm slides dating back to 1960, but I have never gotten around to having them digitized. Before that everything was black and white from a box camera. It is sometimes sad, That the old cultivars that I grew in forties and fifties reappear in heirloom vendors listings, but don't even resemble the original.

Farmerdilla, you have a wealth of knowledge! If you were accepting students, I would like to be one. :o)

Silvia

I don't know beans, Zeedman and Macmex are the experts in this area. I do mostly traditional commercial varieties, some old some new, but rarely exotic.
Silvia; packaged your trial beans today, now to summon the energy to get to the post office.

Farmerdilla, thank you very, very much!
It represents for me the best possible thing that I can get, and I will keep an update on my progress, and save the seeds to share with others.
Silvia

i don't know beans

LOL ; )

One large seeded lima not mentioned here is Burpee Big Mamas. I found them to be tastier but somewhat less productive than King of the Garden Limas but to be fair I only grew it one season so far.

Susan

Mr. Zeedman - I grew the 7-year beans in Zimbabwe (Africa). I planted 3 seeds along a 3' high cyclone fence (diamond mesh) and that provided enough beans for my husband and I and sometimes for 2 others.

They are wonderful when young - steamed!

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.