Kidney Beans & Small Red Beans

Can someone help me with the kind of beans you plant to get these, and what state and conditions they require for growing?

Thanks

Thyme, these are available in many seed catalogues, esp the kidney beans. I believe there are several cultivars. They are ususally bush beans and will require the same growing conditions as green snap beans. Some may need too long a season for the far north but most of us can raise them.

If you don't find them elsewhere you might check with Vermont Bean. They carry a wide selection of beans. In most catalogues they will be in the section for dry beans.

Good luck.
LC

ETA: And yes, you can plant from the sack from the grocery store. While it is possible that they are hybrids it is unlikely. There is, of course, no way of knowing how that particular cultivar will do in your growing conditions. That would likely be the case even if you bought seed.

What LC said. I'll add that they're beans... so they require warm soil. Most dry beans require a fairly long growing season... the best variety I've found for our short season is Jacob's Cattle, a spotted soup bean which has really nice flavor and good yields. They mature in about 85 days from seed.

Other beans can take anywhere from 95 to 110 days- or longer, I'm sure.

The store seeds are almost certainly not a hybrid (beans aren't easy to hybridize, and it hasn't been found to be necessary). But they may be from plants which are either later in maturity, or taller than you might like. A lot of dry beans are from "semi-vining" plants.

Summerthyme

Plant them....NOW!

You can only learn by experience!

Meebee one will grow clear to the sky, and you can bring home the goose that lays the golden eggs!

Used to you could buy a bag of beans at the grocery store and plant them. I don't know if they would grow nowadays. If they are GMO's you might end up growing a fish or a pumpkin instead of a bean. They might be treated with some chemical to keep them from germinating too.

I'm scaring myself! I won't be buying any store bought beans after tonight.

We did some experimenting last year and planted red beans and kidney beans bought from the grocery store, it actually worked quite well and we're doing it again this year on a larger scale.

I bought my red bean seeds from Seed Savers Exchange. They do not sell hybrids.

Thanks for your thoughts and advice everyone. I understand what to buy and how to plant them now. I've copied a lot of info here.

Thanks again