Growing beans for drying (UK) – a comparison of varieties – Part 1: Yield

About 5 years ago we started growing beans specifically for drying. However, at first it was only borlotti beans. We then expanded to butter beans and became more interested in what might be possible in the UK climate. It can get pretty wet in Manchester and the growing season is short – Mid May to beginning of October is the frost free zone.

It has been surprising how well our plants have faired and, over the last couple of years, we have significantly increased the varieties we grow.

For the 2021 season we decided to grow a large range to look at the yield produced and here are the results:

We produced enough beans to fill 162 cans – potentially 162 meals for the family – a total of 14.5kg of dried beans over 238 plants. This is ALOT of beans. They were grown in an area that is 20ft x 4ft on either wigwams or A frames. Note that there is potential for cross pollination which is difficult to completely rule out on an allotment ground, however french beans are mainly self-pollinated so I will not worry too much and continue to collect my own seeds for self sufficiency purposes.

Yields

‘Borlotti’ was the winner! However, a big surprise was how good the yield is from the ‘Hopi black’ which as a dwarf variety was very close the yield of ‘Cherokee trail of tears’. We managed to grow kidney beans which are meant to be a warm weather plant. These were grown in the polytunnel. Bar the kidney beans and the Lima (which didn’t do much even in the tunnel) all the crops were grown outside – planted after the lost frost.

Do you grow beans? What are your favourite varieties?

Coming soon – part 2 – taste comparison.