Vegetables of the fabeaceae family rank second only to grains as the most important source of food for mankind. Fabeaceae have been cultivated for over 6,000 years. Grains and legumes when eaten together provide all the amino acids needed by man. Fabeaceae flowers are perfect, usually butterfly shaped and quite pretty. Fabeaceae is a huge family with many species, some of which we do not hold. The species we have are in the table below:

Seed Saving Information

Fabeaceae flowers are self pollinating, and do not usually cross within species or between species. However in NZ the coccineous species cross freely. The larger flowers are preferred by bees.

Peas (Pisum sativum) are self fertile and do not cross.

Broad beans (Vicia faba) are pollinated by bees and insects and do cross.

A lot of people get confused with the “climbing beans’ and runner beans. Runner beans refers to the P coccineus species which are climbing beans and they also cross very readily with each other, i.e. other members of the runner (P coccineus) family.

Phaselous vulgaris beans may be climbing beans or bush beans and do not cross with other members of that species.

Bean diseases

If you find you have a problem with bean diseases, like brown spots and then holes in your leaves and

then the leaves dropping you will have a bean virus. Probably bean mosaic virus. The only solution we know of is to pout your bean seeds into dehydrator and hold at 60 degrees for 24 hours or50 degrees for 3 days.

Growing tips

To get best results from your bean/pea seeds, plant into seed trays and transplant when they get their first leaves. We grow all our beans, peas, corn etc. like this. No problems with birds, slugs, snails, no gaps in the rows!!

SHELLOUT BEAN – CLIMBING

(Phaseolus vulgaris)

(These beans have been specifically selected as shellout beans, they can also be dried) Because they are so easy to grow in NZ and they are easy to store and cook with I think these beans will become a part of the new folk culture we are currently establishing in this land. Recipes using these beans feature in Body and Soul cookbook we’re writing. Pods and shellout beans are bright streaky red. If you’re harvesting them as shellout beans pick them when the pods are at their brightest, before the beans begin shrivel and dry. If you harvest them at this stage they can be either eaten fresh, or frozen just as they are. They make the best bean salads soups etc. if frozen at the shellout stage rather than drying and having to reconstitute them again. You can just leave then on the vines until they dry.

RUNNER BEANS

(Phaseolus coccinneus)

All the members of the P. Coccinneus family are open pollinated, cross with each other readily and are perennial. That means once you establish a row of these beans, they are there forever. Many people have sent us seeds from their rows of beans, telling us that the row is 30 or 50 years old!

Runner beans are delicious eaten as young green beans, and they are also delicious eaten as shellout beans, in salads, or baked bean type dishes. Runner beans do get stringy if left too long and they hate their roots getting dry and hot. They actually stop setting beans when their roots get stressed, and when stressed they attract shield bugs to themselves as well.

Their native home is the rain forest of South America where their roots are always moist and cool under the forest floor. They do not do well in really hot dry conditions.

There was a time when every kiwi garden had Runner Beans and I’ve been amazed to see how many varieties have been sent into us. I’d only ever heard of the Scarlet Runners before. All the beans in this family have bright colourful and noticeable flowers, unlike the beans in the vulgaris family.

Many Runner beans are grown for their colourful flower display alone!