I would suggest either checking your seed catalogs for great northerns or planting some from a bag you get at the store, they are not processed or otherwise treated to prevent or inhibit germination. The pods are quite edible when green, just as snap beans are, however they are bred for seed production and not pod production, so the pods are a bit stringy. Raw in the field, the pods can make a nice snack, though. Plant the seeds 2-4 inches apart in a row and grow as you would snap beans, but don't pick the pods until ripe. When the plant matures the leaves will start yellowing, drying, and falling off and the pods will turn from green to yellow to tan and dry down. Northern's have a tendency to shatter when dry. When grown commercially, the plants are cut when the leaves are falling but before the pods are completely dry, then allowed to dry in rows for several days and thrashed--you know you should be thrashing when you stand in the field and hear periodic pops as the pods spring open and beans fly out. For a small plot, you can pick the pods when the plants are losing their leaves. The pods will be mostly buckskin colored, some will be dry and others will still hold good moisture but won't be "green", and allow to dry down on a screen or a well ventilated bag. When completely dry, just shell the beans out of the pods. If you are more serious into growing larger quantities of beans, you can get screens for cleaning most of the chaff out, etc. Great northerns, pintos, navy beans, black beans, kidney beans, etc. are grown as developed varieties and do not readily cross pollinate, so seed will grow true to the parent.

I have orange butterfly weed. I thought I gave them all away through garden web. Today I found more in a glass bowl in the garage. You can have them. I might be interested in some bush beans. What kind are they?

Yes, I bought a whole big can of it!! Are they called cans or tubs or tins? I'm not even sure, but it was a big white, plastic container and cost me a lot! But it was well worth it!! I sprinkled some on the ground around the plants and I soaked some in a five gallon pail overnight. I strained the tobacco out of the water, split the strained water between two five gallon pails and topped up the two pails. The juice was pretty strong! After all, I soaked one third of the white container of tobacco overnight!! And, I started with boiling water! I then used a hand held pump sprayer and sprayed every plant thoroughly. My friend did the same thing with her garden. Even though we didn't see any slugs, we repeated the procedure two weeks later and we haven't seen a slug since. However, we are also vigilant about where we get plants and we NEVER bring other garden soil in without checking it thoroughly!! I don't want a repeat go round with those things!! As I said, I have no idea why it worked. My mother suggested it and I tried it. Maybe an expert could tell us. All I know is I was at my wits end and I was willing to try anything! I was even thinking of salting my entire garden, using alkaline salts from sloughs near the city. Now, that desperation!! But then, I am told I am a rather "crazy" gardener!! I grow roses in raised boxes. I have some of the biggest Japanese Butter Burr you will ever see in SK and instead of grass, I have rug! Yep! My garden is a sight to see! I don't call it sank_chew_airy for nothing!! airy

Could be any chewing bug, or slugs or snails. They just love eating baby plants of any kind! Sprinkle some bran or sawdust around your babies to prevent the creepy chompers, and make a little tent with some mosquito fabric (the kind you cover your baby's cot or pram with) to keep away the flying chompers. You could try cutting the top and bottom off a plastic soft-drink bottle, or a cardboard milk container and put it over your babies. Makes the plants harder to find and get at. You could also try spraying your plants with some garlic spray. So you can't wait for a week? Use it straight away! It won't affect the flavour of the plants, but yours aren't ready for harvesting yet anyway. Keep up the spray about once a week or so if you've still got thieves - just wash the leaves as you would normally before using them if you don't want the garlic taste. GARLIC SPRAY: Soak 1/2 cup crushed garlic cloves in 1/2 cup vegetable oil for one week. Add a little liquid soap and dilute the mixture - 1 part mixture to 10 parts water. Garlic spay will kill and repel aphids, woolly aphids, bean fly, stink bugs, crickets, grasshoppers, red spider mite, sawfly larvae, scale, snails, slugs, thrips and caterpillars, mosquitoes and ticks, the adult moths of leaf-miners and mealy bugs. It is an effective fungicide when used 3-4 times a week against potato blight and damping off.