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Post by richardw on Nov 9, 2013 3:16:41 GMT -5
I asked by a friend if i knew anything about this bean,i said no.
Anyone grown it before and have any thoughts on it.
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Post by zeedman on Nov 9, 2013 4:05:01 GMT -5
Hyacinth Bean is a tropical climbing bean with rampant, heavily-branched vines, and beautiful, fragrant flowers (hence the name). It thrives on heat & humidity, and requires a long season to produce dry seed. I've grown several cultivars, some with green pods, some with purple... but they don't do well in my latitude. Most hyacinth beans are daylength sensitive, so they won't begin to bloom until days are short - which in my climate, is only a few weeks before frost. The young pods are eaten cooked like snap beans; the purple-podded cultivar I tried was very flavorful. The dry beans are considered to be poisonous, although they are apparently eaten in some Asian cultures. If I lived where it was too hot to grow common beans, I would probably grow hyacinth beans in their place (along with winged bean & yardlong beans). There are named cultivars, several are carried in the U.S. by Kitazawa Seed.
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Post by blueadzuki on Nov 9, 2013 6:34:09 GMT -5
I have one in my yard (pretty much the only thing left out there at this point, as it was too entwined in the patio railing to bring inside. The pods on mine are full sized now, and well swollen but not yellowing or drying down (that's why it's still out there, I'm hoping to pull just enough time off the plants to let the pods mature.
The mature seed edibility depends on seed color; colored seed cultivars are poisonous a maturity, white seeded ones are OK (you can find bags of the white seeds sold at many Indian grocery stores under the Hindi name for them "Van" as well as green pods sold to be cooked as vegetables.
The tradeoff is that all of the white seeded ones are white flowered and green podded, the purple podded flowered and leaved ones are invariably colored seeded (there are colored seeded green podded ones as well) So what you gain in extended edibility you lose in ornamental value . From what I have seen, the fairly easy to find purple cultivar "Ruby Moon" is unusually short of season, there were mature pods on plants I saw at the local nursery around mid July (though as that nursery sells the plants in pots, I cannot rule out the possibility that the plants had had been subjected to an artificial short day cycle in a greenhouse to induce flowering early and make them more attractive to buyers.)
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Post by hortusbrambonii on Nov 9, 2013 7:13:40 GMT -5
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Post by richardw on Nov 9, 2013 12:48:18 GMT -5
Thanks for guys for your info,sounds like he will be hard pushed to grow it in our latitude if he wants to save his own seed
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Post by blueadzuki on Nov 9, 2013 13:54:22 GMT -5
I'm not so sure about that. According to Google maps you're at about 42.5 degrees South. I'm at 41.5 North. So your only about 1 degree more polar than me and I'm able to get some of the varieties at least most of the way there (what I have outside isn't completely ready, but some of them are probably far enough along that, if I took them and dried them the seed would be reasonably viable) and ALL the way there if what you want are the pods for eating. Plus as I don't know how far you or him are from the coats, that could have a blunting effect on the harshness of winter Assuming your friend isn't too far further south than you, I would imagine he might be able to pull it off. I would suggest he got for the dried kind in the bag as the fresh kind won't work (besides the fact that they are usually sold too immature to be viable, most of the strains used for the vegetable form are SUPER long season; they won't even FLOWER at my latitude. That, maybe starting them indoors and transplanting them (the one out on my patio only went out around June; an earlier start might have given it more time) and maybe covering them up at the very end of the season might be all that's needed to get mature seed back out.
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Post by cesarz on Nov 10, 2013 5:02:51 GMT -5
I have five varieties and they are perennial in Wellington.
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Post by richardw on Nov 10, 2013 12:48:49 GMT -5
I might be pushed with my rather character building inland winter climate but the fella who asked me about the Hyacinth beans is on the south coast of Wairarapa,so being not far from Wellington he should be fine if he's going to be saving seed
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Post by paquebot on Nov 10, 2013 13:17:55 GMT -5
Not all are climbers. I've got an Indian type which barely makes 2' as a bush. White flowers and red-black seeds with white seam. The Indian gardeners have no problem eating them as green pods or dry beans.
Martin
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Post by zeedman on Nov 10, 2013 17:47:19 GMT -5
Not all are climbers. I've got an Indian type which barely makes 2' as a bush. White flowers and red-black seeds with white seam. The Indian gardeners have no problem eating them as green pods or dry beans. Martin, have you been able to get dry seed from those in our climate? |
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Post by paquebot on Nov 10, 2013 23:18:57 GMT -5
Martin, have you been able to get dry seed from those in our climate? Yes,indeed. Not certain where my Indian friend got his seed but he was growing it in 2005 and saves some every year. I'm his backup in case something happens to his in storage. I didn't grow it out this year since I've got a bit less than a pint from 2012. The very first time that I saw him growing it, I said that they should have support. He said not this one as it will not climb and it never has shown any desire to get very tall. You may also find it called Val, Papdi, or Priya. Several years ago, someone sent me a white variety which also was supposed to be a bush. None germinated so I'll never know. Martin |
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Post by zeedman on Nov 11, 2013 1:54:25 GMT -5
Martin, I'd be very interested in trying that cultivar, if you have seed to spare. SSE request, trade, or SASE... just let me know.
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Post by paquebot on Nov 11, 2013 3:59:29 GMT -5
Martin, I'd be very interested in trying that cultivar, if you have seed to spare. SSE request, trade, or SASE... just let me know. I know that you're big on beans so I'll see that you get some. I have your address so they'll show up at your place in good time. Martin |
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Post by blueadzuki on Nov 12, 2013 13:52:21 GMT -5
Martin, have you been able to get dry seed from those in our climate? Yes,indeed. Not certain where my Indian friend got his seed but he was growing it in 2005 and saves some every year. I'm his backup in case something happens to his in storage. I didn't grow it out this year since I've got a bit less than a pint from 2012. The very first time that I saw him growing it, I said that they should have support. He said not this one as it will not climb and it never has shown any desire to get very tall. You may also find it called Val, Papdi, or Priya. Several years ago, someone sent me a white variety which also was supposed to be a bush. None germinated so I'll never know. Martin Assuming those are the white ones I sent you in exchange for the bush ones, I never said they were bush (in fact, as I got them out of one of those bags, they presumably WEREN'T). As far as I know, your bush ones are the only bush ones I have ever seen. That's isn't to say that they could not be. Most of those commercial bags is pretty uniform. but there is the occasional really variant seed enough to make the sorting a little more complicated than the old "rip the bag, pull out the other volunteer seeds and chuck the rest". Once or twice I have found seeds that are REALLY big (about twice normal size) with the long angular shape that makes me think that what they could be is the white version of the "long" lablab (besides the kind we are most familiar with, with the pods that look like oversized snap peas, there are longer podded lablabs with a pod shape closer to that of a fava bean. The standard version of this is a purple/black seeded ones) Others have hilums so far up that the seed must be almost on end pointed in the pod. One other question. I have seen people advertising lablab seed on ebay as a sow able browse for fattening up deer. Do Deer actually like lablabs that much. They don't seen to ever touch mine (and the touch everything else). In fact NOTHING does, lablabs are the one seed I now toss the leftovers of in the garbage rather than the lawn or mulch pile, The critters won't TOUCH them so the just sit there, and when Lablabs rot the smell is terrible (much as rice beans can rot into something that smells like dog sh**t, if you take enough lablab seed and let it rot, you'll spend the rest of your summer searching under bushes for dead birds.) . |
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Post by paquebot on Nov 12, 2013 16:48:35 GMT -5
Don't know why I assumed that those white ones were bush growth. They were planted in a field garden where there would have been no immediate support. None germinated so I'll never know for certain what they would have done. I'm assuming that those from me proved to be as described.
Conflicting or confusing Internet data doesn't help matters on these. Broad bean is often used to describe hyacinth and some use fava and hyacinth as the same. In parts of India you find the same name for 2 different while other parts distinguish between the two. Seed companies in other countries mix the descriptions and one is never certain as to which is which. As yet, I haven't seen a bush hyacinth bean advertised for sale while they are apparently fairly common in one part of India.
Martin
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