knittlin, as far as I could tell they came true to their parents. I cannot tell with the chickpeas since they have not even flowered yet. I also forgot I did plant the common (pantry) black eye peas a couple of years ago, and that was also very good. It was the first time I had them as shellies and they were delicious, too bad it takes so many of them to make a pound of beans. Lately I try not to plant from the same species close together, but with only 1/4 of an acre I cannot separate my species completely. However, I have many flowering bee attracting herbs (cilantro, mint, marjoram, thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage, lavender, borage), citrus flowers from the lemons, lots and lots of roses, still have tomatoes and eggplant flowering too. I have lots of bees! I put barrier crops all over the place, but with such small space I must have had bees transport DNA from one bean to another....bees have a radius of travel that is over a mile, don't they? I have not noticed any obvious crosses, except at first I was growing three varieties of P. vulgaris pole beans together, and the wax beans sometimes got a little purple tinge probably from the purple pole beans. I am not trading those seeds since I have only barely enough to replant (a bug got in the bean envelope and destroyed/ate a bunch of them, darn!). I am making an effort to only plant different species of pole beans together now. I also figure other gardeners will have similar problems unless they have a huge farm, and getting 1-2 % or so half breeds does not bother me.

I built me one teepee. In the 6 foot circle surrounding the base, I put in 20 or so bean seeds. Most sprouted at the same time, but a few lagged and are sprouting now. Most important is to keep the planting area moist. Rain on the planting area every morning with your watering can. Don't let the birds get your sprouts neither! They like those.

Brenda, Leave the beans on the stock until they turn brown and dry out if you can but if you get frost that kills the plant before that then you can place them in a single layer in a sunny window to let them dry, then remove the seeds from the pod and store for next year. Carol

I highly recommend collecting bean seeds from this year to plant next year. It couldn't be easier. But if it's a hybrid and not an open pollinated variety, then the seeds won't grow into the same variety next year. All the beans I've ever planted have been open pollinated. I'm not sure what hybrid varieties if any are out there. And you don't have to worry about cross pollination since the flowers usually self-pollinate even before opening.