Nuna beans

[steev]

I'm not finding much info on these; are they bush or vine? What are their climate needs? I've got some from a Cali company, but I've found them trans-packaging stuff they didn't grow, more than once; it's just a pisser when I try to grow something bought, from a Cali company, that is really only suited to a Caribbean or Andean environment, from which they bought it and don't indicate that they didn't grow it. I get that they're only selling for consumption, but some of us like to plant.

[billw]

Bush, short day photoperiod for flowering, eastern slope Andean climate - humid with highs in 70s to 80s. Plant them in August.

[steev]

Thanks.

[orflo]

I used to have vine types, so I guess both types exist. They became 4 meter long in one season, but never flowered, even not in December in the greenhouse, so these varieties obviously needed or a very long season or two years to start flowering and producing. So I never had a single flower on them, frosts destroyed the plants during winter, the greenhouse is unheated. If I remember correctly somebody was working on them at osu, but that's already 10 years or more ago, the project possibly stopped

[steev]

Guess I'll try both approaches, planting early and late; doesn't look encouraging, but neither did Jack's beans.

[billw]

That's interesting, orflo! I grew fifteen accessions from the USDA for a few years and they were all bush types and flowered easily in September/October. Harvesting was a little difficult due to the seeds molding in high humidity.

[zeedman]

There were several breeding programs attempting to adapt Nunas to the (more) northerly latitudes, and there may even have been some successful results... but they are tied up in patents, and not yet available to gardeners. I believe there was also international litigation involved, which may or may not have been resolved (my guess is "not"). So at present, as already mentioned, all the varieties or accessions currently available require 12-hour days to begin flowering. I've tried them here in the past (I like a challenge), but they had only begun to flower when frost struck them down.

I sure wish the legal issues could be resolved; I have been anticipating the release of these new day-neutral Nuna cultivars ever since reading about them in Carol Deppe's book over 10 years ago. Still don't know if the new cultivars would grow this far North, and may never find out... but it would be nice to try.

[steev]

So I'm getting that I should plant in May (to avoid frost) so as to get 12-hour days and plant along trellis, just in case of vining. Time to boldly go where I've never gone before.

I would note that the seed from my Black Crowder cowpeas (very bush) produced vining (4"-5") plants last year; my only guess is that it was due to the 1 1/2 normal rainfall.

[diane]

Is anyone having any success? I'm not - I was given a few seeds but they did not grow well for me.

I'm reading a book by William Woys Weaver - 100 Vegetables and Where They Came From.

This is a bit of what he wrote about nuñas:

He first saw them growing in January in a greenhouse in England - they were flowering and podding in great profusion.

He decided to grow some, so ordered a 50 pound sack of seeds from Peru and sorted out at least 30 different types.

They develop fat tuberous roots like runner beans, so can be grown as perennials.