Much to my surprise, when I touched them they were completely dry and had mature, dried down beans inside! Pod color was still green so my eyes almost skimmed over these pods completely.

Yes that is exactly what this variety does. I was surprised too. I could only tell the dry ones from the fresh by touch or by looking very closely. They have a thin tight pod too, so seemed to dry almost overnight. Do you find that you can't see any individual bean swell from outside the pod?

My first dried beans are from Oland Island Brown bush beans I grew in a container, a bean grown in Sweden since the 1600's. Woods Mountain Crazy beans will probably be next.

Annette

That is great news, Annette! You must be proud to be harvesting your first dried beans of the season, too.

Happyday, you are correct. 'Soissons Vert' is a little tricky and it is hard to tell when the beans inside are swollen. Even when I found the dried pods, I almost thought they were duds with empty cells since they felt so thin. When I took them inside and opened them, however, they were filled with nice dried beans of the exact same size and color I planted back in May. I am so glad I did not just throw away the pods thinking they were trash! :-)

So true about the soissons verts thin pods, I hope you enjoy your meal of them, what a treat aren't they?

Other than favas, my first dry beans this year have been sweet white runners, tender and 'chestnut' flavored. I also collected quite a few Bianco di Spagna seeds (another runner bean). I got a bean in trade (thank you Sylvia!) and made a large vigorous plant, but only on its second year (perennial here). I only tasted 4 beans to make sure we like them, different flavor than the sweet white runners, and also very good! Now I have a bunch of bianco seeds to plant next spring. It does seem more productive in our garden than any of the other runner beans I have tried so far, very happy to have them! It is a huge seed too, so less work to harvest and shell.

For the regular P vulgaris I skipped the soissons verts this year since I had to give garden space to other beans. My monjetes del ganxet are now flowering, and I also finally planted the striking looking bush hungarian bean (PI 507984) (thank you zeedman!). It is rare for us to have space for dry bush beans in the summer. I put them in after I harvested the carrot bed and they have sprouted with enthusiasm but are still seedlings.

Representing the limas I got in the Black Jungle butter beans (thank you Flinknapper!). They sprouted late, and some did not, but I got enough of them going that I hope to save seed and taste them. They just started to flower last week.

Everything is late here and I had to wait to harvest fava seed, which was late, before planting other things. The spring did not really end here yet, it is in the 60 now, we got very few hot days so far. We are not going to get enough heat for cow peas. The okra and eggplants are looking pitiful, oh well. Beets and carrots did great though, and so did the runner beans!

The 'Soissons Vert' are delicious and they are easy to shell! I am so glad they are part of my garden. They are also the most strikingly beautiful green color imaginable. I only wish they would stay that exact color when cooked! For flavor and texture, I rate this bean an easy 9.5/10 among Phaseolus vulgaris varieties. They really are *that* good.

Cabrita, your PI 507984 are also known as 'Giant Red Tarka'. I love this bean so far, even though I have still not tried the shellies. It is such a vigorous, healthy, productive plant and the seeds are huge. It looks like maybe a couple of pods are finally turning yellow.

'Soissons Vert' is still winning the dry bean race. A few pods on 'Tennessee Cutshort' are now yellowing and drying down, approximately 95 days from sowing. No signs of pods drying up yet on 'Withner's White Cornfield' or 'Bosnian Pole' (come to think of it 'Bosnian Pole' doesn't even have any pods at all on it at the moment...).

We had another good feed of Tennessee Cutshorts and Mr. Tungs last night, they were both very good. I also have a few Tennessee Cutshorts turning yellow so for the second year I'll have harvested my own seed from them.

Annette

I like 'giant red tarka' so much better than PI 507984 ! Thanks isapahan. I was just calling them 'fancy hungarian beans'. Nice to have a name. You are two + months ahead of me. Some critter just ate one of them, the whole plant. Hmm....

I was surprised to find that Soissons Vert will bleach to white if left to dry on the vine for too long. Same great taste but i miss the minty green color so i will have to be a little more on it during next grow out.

Continuing white runner bean trials here in a very relaxed way. This year's variety is Chaco Canyon. Nice bean with good flavor. Pod dries down really well so minimal losses to borer. Trouble was really low yield this winter/spring. I am glad i did not pull the plants since they are surprising me by setting more beans during the summer. Still not a great yield but a good lesson since i expected that they would need cooler weather to set. Tuberous root must be an advantage in dealing with dry summer conditions.

Always enjoy hearing about what's going on in all of your gardens ; )

My only dry beans so far are some pods that I have let dry out to seed; some "Rumanian", "Kukuruzar" and "Bosnian Pole". But the Bosnian pole ended up with black stripes and spots instead of brown, so I tossed those. My pole beans are starting to die down now because of a lack of water during vacation, only a few vines are as vigorous as they were two weeks ago. :(

Nick, I didn't grow Bosnian Pole this year but if I remember correctly the brown deepens or develops later, when I first shelled mine out they didn't show much brown at all but did eventually. If you still have some seed hang onto it for awhile and see what happens.

Annette

"...But the Bosnian pole ended up with black stripes and spots instead of brown, so I tossed those."

Say it isn't so! :-o

See the thread "Bosnian Beans" further down the front page in this forum. The brown color develops over time; part of the white darkens, while part of the white (usually opposite the hilum) remains white.

Dry seed is only a dream for me this year... I just harvested my first snaps today! Might get some seed from "Yancheng Bush" if Fall comes late.

My 'Bosnian Pole' are finally setting a fair number of pods now that the temperatures are consistently below 85 degrees. If it can mature good seed before frost, I will give it another chance next year. The pods are delicious, but I am not sure I want to dedicate garden space to something so unreliable in warm temperatures.

'Tennessee Cutshort' has been my most productive snap. It is still blooming and setting pods and I already have seed saved for next season. I plan on making this my main snap next year. It was not fazed by hot or cold temps and the flavor and texture are wonderful. Some seeds were sprouting in the pods at first, but I started harvesting all pods as they started to change color and soften and that has solved the problem. I also love that this variety does not have to be harvested regularly. I can let the pods stay on the vines as long as I need to until I am ready to harvest. They just keep getting better with age! And it is so much fun unzipping the big, fat, mature pods.

'Withner's White Cornfield' has finally started to dry down, but all of the pods I have harvested have either been empty or have had deformed, sprouted, or aborted seed. I have not found a single good seed yet. Although I have enjoyed this variety, flavor is not nearly so good as 'Tennessee Cutshort' or 'Bosnian Pole' so I won't be that upset if i get no seed from it.

'Soissons Vert' continues to have amazing production. Except for the fact that the mature pods are difficult to distinguish from the immature pods, this variety has been a dream. It is early, easy to shell and just keeps blooming and setting pods like mad. It did stop setting pods when temps were above 90 degrees, but the plants remained healthy and never sulked. Flavor is out of this world, especially sauteed with fresh garden tomatoes or some 'Chimayo' chile.

'Giant Red Tarka' still has lots of fat, green pods but seems reluctant to dry down. I have only been able to harvest a small handful of pods so far. Even though I have not yet eaten any, I have really enjoyed this variety. I wonder why it is taking so long to ripen beans?

Ahhh!! I`m going outside now to go save the beans. Thank you for the info Zeedman!