Bag o' beans

[SproutSprite]

One of my relatives claims to have planted in her garden an entire bag of 'brown' or pinto beans that she purchased from the rice and beans food section of the grocery store. She said that she had a bumper crop that year and that it proved to be very economical for her.
Is it worth a shot?
I will be testing it this spring!

 

[zigs]

Worth a go. The variety that the commercial growers use will be bred for plant size (So it suits their mechanical harvesters) but nothing wrong with that.

 

[Jessi]

Sure, why not?

I don't know how well it works because I have never done it myself. A whole bag of pinto beans only costs a couple bucks, though, so it's not a huge loss if it doesn't work.

I would recommend doing a bit of research first, though. You may need to force them to sprout in water first.

 

[Jed]

I've never grown pinto beans. I do grow other varieties, broad beans by the kilo to broad acre sow as a green manure crop.When the plant gets to knee high it's hoed back into the soil. I leave some untouched to grow young beans and use them for cooking meals.

 

[Arzosah]

The dried beans that you buy to eat in a shop can certainly be used to sprout, you can eat the sprouts or grow them on a bit into little plants to use in a stir fry. I think there's probably too many beans in a whole bag to plant at once! I haven't heard of anyone growing them on past the sprouting stage, but theoretically, I can't see why not. Very best of luck with it, and please post on here, its a great experiment!

 

[Rzashida]

Can you let us know how your experiment went? I know sometimes when you grow seeds from grocery store species you don't get plants true to parent. I am just curious to know what happen on this situation.

 

[zigs]

Afraid SproutSprite has not been seen since the 8th of Jan Rzashida

 

[Rosyrain]

This sounds like a great idea! Beans are cheap at the stores I shop at. I can usually get a bag of dry beans for under $2.00 and it takes me forever to go through the bag.

 

[Pat]

This is thought I would not have thought of growing my own pinto beans. I think I will look into doing a small test planting to see how it goes. I never thought about sprouts either, not really a fan of sprouts though.

 

[Chuck]

Why would you do this? Pinto beans are not all that good when used as green beans or snap beans. They are grown to be dried and easily harvested. You will spend more on fertilizer, water, insecticide and time than a bag of beans is worth. When I last bought pintos they were $.39 lb and it takes a bunch of dried beans to make a pound

 

[Annabell]

If you think you're actually going to use the beans, sure, why not try and give it a go? It's not like you'll be losing much, as long as you're actually going to use them, which I assume is what your aunt is doing.

 

[rz3300]

If there was one thing that I took out from the short vegetarian experience I have, it is that beans are a fantastic substitute for meat in almost any meal, so this seems pretty ideal for me. Something that would be quicker and more mobile, and really less of a space commitment would be perfect.