I haven't found any appreciable difference between growing limas and common beans. Maybe just be a little more careful about waiting for warm soil temps before planting limas. That's all.

Jim

Limas need more heat than common beans, and usually a longer season. If your summers are short (as mine are), it is helpful to start limas as transplants. This not only avoids most of the germination problems, it adds another 3-4 weeks of growing time... which can be the difference between a good harvest, and little to nothing. Pole limas are very cost-effective as transplants, since the yield per plant is extremely high.

Limas are also very robust plants, so they require more space than common beans of similar habit. For pole limas, I use 24" between plants, and they still fill a 6-foot-tall trellis so completely that it is hard to see through.

"Fordhook 242" (bush) is probably the most reliable large-seeded variety. The most reliable pole limas for short-season areas are the small-seeded "Sieva" (white-seeded) and "Carolina Red". Both are capable of enormous yields.

Seedman, that is excellent information!

I concur with Zeedman, except that I find limas a bit more intolerant of low pH. They tend to flower with out setting as the soil becomes acidic. They like neutral pH 6.5 - 7.5.
Bush forms are early and reliable. Favorites are Cangreen and Thorogreen, altho I rarely meet a small seeded lima I don't like. In the North Carolina for small seeded and King of the Garden (large seeded) pole limas. These are about the earliest producers. Willow Leaf and Calico out performs them here but they have a loong season.

This is a picture of a white Butterpea, which is a butterBean, which is a lima only smaller and plumper. The Beans on the right were planted on the same date April 21. The beans are already drying while the limas are just getting started. The poles are 7ft tall. It is hard to see but there is a sprinkler half way down the row that is 10ft tall. The Limas in less than a week grew into the sprinkler preventing it from watering the corn next to the limas on the left, the corn is nearly 12ft.

Whoa! Slow down Rodger!

The beans on the right are White Butterpeas, right?

And the beans on the left are some kind of limas? What kind?

Both were planted at the same time. The beans (butterpeas) are already drying while the limas are just getting started. OK, I get it now, I think. There is a great variability in time to maturity of butter beans (limas). Right?

Jim

I believe I am confused now. The beans as in common beans are on the right. Variety Zelma Zester. The beans were planted 21 April same day as the butterpea on the left which is a type of lima or butterbean. the reason for mentioning this is to show that Limas or butterbeans take a longer growing season, but as farmerdilla stated the bush types are earlier and to illistrate Zeedmans statement, about heat loving vigorous vines and later to produce I showed the picture. Here it is End of July the common beans are already done while the limas are just now setting pods and the vines have really started to take off with the heat and humidity of late July. I only grow pole type limas, I hate bending over to pick and I like the appearance of the rows, also I know of no older varieties that are bush. The vinning butter pea is rare, most butter peas are bush types. The first crop will be ready on the butterpea mid Aug with a larger secound crop late September and depending on when frost comes there maybe a November crop. Limas are perenial and will go till frost kills them. Rodger

Thanks for that clarification, Rodger. It's all making sense now. I see that my limited experience with limas didn't teach me enough on this topic. Those differences had not made a great impression on me. But, come to think of it, the White Willow Leaf's I grew last year were very late to set pods. If memory serves, that is. :-)

Jim

I planted some speckled lima's in large pots. They're bush beans and it's been extremely hot in Oklahoma. They get lots of water once a day and have been fertilized twice. So far, the flower just seems to dry up without producing anything and the leaves look like something is wrong. Any idea what the problem might be?

This is my first year growing lima beans, and I basically treated them much the same way as I do edamame. When the pods contain well formed beans, harvest the beans all at once and compost the rest.

An all-at-once harvest might work for bush limas, since all the beans on the plant generally ripen at close to the same time. For pole limas, the harvest is spread out over a longer period.

To harvest pole limas, it is best to treat them like common bean shellies, to which they are similar. The pods may - or may not - change color when ripe, depending upon variety. Ripe lima pods also do not soften as much as the ripe pods of common beans, since the hull is more fibrous. The best indicator is a translucence to the pod; if picking with the sun in front of you, shining through the pods, this is more obvious.

I grew "King of the Garden" in San Diego, and the pods would usually turn yellowish or brown-spotted when ripe. So does "Sieva". Other limas, such as "Hopi Pole", go from green to brown very quickly, and are more difficult to harvest as shellies.

The small limas can go from shelly stage to dry very quickly (a day or two in warm dry weather) so they must be picked often for use as shellies. For "Sieva", the ones I miss are usually enough that there is no need for me to save dry seed intentionally. This year might be an exception to that, though, since flooding has stunted their normally rampant growth. Barring a warm Autumn, I'll be lucky to get more than a couple of meals from a 50-foot row. So much for my first attempt at growing a small-scale commercial seed crop. :-(