This is true for pole beans, picking them gets them to grow more pods. I have the same question (sorry, no answer) so I hope someone knows. I want to put pole beans around the corn in a 3 sister garden, but I also know that pole beans produce more if you keep them picked. In a 3 sister's garden though, it is best to use them as dried beans, so I have the same question. Will my productivity be lower if I do not pick and let them be dried beans? In the past, the only pole beans I grew were for fresh pods, not dried beans. I have only grown dried beans as bush beans so far.

Pinto beans are grown commercially in Idaho. Where in Zone 9 are you? How hot is your hot weather? One mistake new gardeners make is to get over-ambitious. It takes a lot of ground and work to grow significant amounts of dried beans at home. But I think it is worthwhile to try some of your favorite varieties if you're going to use them as fresh-shelled beans: "shellies". If it's real hot in summer where you live, you have the choice of planting beans in spring so they will set before hot weather, or planting in about August. For fall, I would recommend a dual-purpose bean which can be used either as a snap bean when young or as a shelly or dried bean. Some which qualify include Pinto, some black beans. including Black Valentine, and Coco Rose de Prague. Pinto has a string, as do most beans grown primarily for drying. I have grown it in the fall. Some people who like "beany" green beans love Pinto as a green bean, but I usually pick green beans before the seeds develop, and pintos were too flat at this stage for me. I didn't plant early enough for shellies. In some varieties of beans for fresh shelling or drying, the pods are too fibrous to eat as green beans. You can also start lima beans when the soil temperature reaches 70 degrees. They will grow through very hot summers but will not set pods until the weather cools off. My favorite is Fordhook 242, though there are some good Southern pole varieties, too. I eat them as shellies rather than as dried beans. The pods are not edible. Edemame soybeans are easy to harvest in hot summer weather (just cut off whole branches), and cowpeas and blackeyed peas also do well in very hot weather. My husband's parents like to mix young pods and fresh-shelled blackeyed peas. If I were a new gardener, I would concentrate my efforts on vegetables where the difference between store-bought and home-grown is very noticeable - tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, summer squashes, eggplant, green beans, salad greens, etc. It's easy to buy dried beans, but not so easy to buy good fresh-shelled beans, which taste sort of similar, but often better. If you plant at the right time in spring, you can be successful with a lot of varieties of bush green beans, but avoid the New England types like Provider and Bountiful. Contender is a good early "beany" bean, but not good for fall, unless you are growing it as a shelly, as the pods get fibrous in cool weather. Newer, tender and sweet types of green beans which are good in heat (up to about 105 degrees for brief periods) include Brio, Festina and Matador. I've tried Brio in the fall and it does well then, too. You could try some pole beans in spring or fall, too. Some of them also make tasty fresh-shelled or dried beans.

I'll give it a shot. 1. Are there problems like you have with tomato hybrids reverting back to a parent plant? Not usually for seeds, and never for eating. Beans are OP normally. There can be some crosses if other beans are grown nearby but you would never taste the difference in the dried beans. The only effect would be in the next generation of plants if they cross. 2. How long do you wait until you harvest them? It is best to let them dry as much as you can on the plant, weather providing. 3. Do you have to do any additional drying after pulling them off the plant? It depends on weather and other factors. But to be on the safe side it is best to shell and dry inside for a few days. 4. Other than cleaning them is there anything else you have to do to store them? 5. Any special storage requirements? 4 and 5 Just put them in an air tight container in the cupboard or other dry place out of the sun. Farmerdill must have been typing at the same time as me! Follow his advise OP! This post was edited by wertach on Tue, Apr 8, 14 at 12:58

The F1 seed looks like the seed of mother plant, because seed coat is maternal material. Only the germ inside the seed coat contains the mixture of two varieties. The F2 seed will show a wide variation in seed coat colour and also in size. Exactly what you will get, will vary. Planting close together does not guarantee you will get any crosses at all. Unless you are planning to grow every last seed from this year's plants you will miss a possible cross anyway, because the F1 seed looks like the seed of the mother variety. You can make deliberate crosses, but it is not so easy with beans. It is easier with peas if you wish to experiment.