Growing snake beans
Apr 17 2017 0 Comments Tags: garden, sub-tropical, vegetables
Snake beans grow on vines and seem to prefer hot and wet weather, but will tolerate dry better than common beans, and will certainly produce better in the heat. Like common beans, they do not survive frost and start to die back when overnight temperatures cool off. The plant produces two flowers off each stem and these grow into beans, sometimes it seems like its overnight, but they can be hard to spot because at first they just look like stems and then suddenly you realise the vine is covered in beans! They are also really hard to photograph, as you can see. Any that get too big can be left to dry off, and used either as dried beans or seeds.
the snake bean vine |
two beans starting, can you see them? |
the snake been flower |
I left this one too long, still good for seeds |
I think they taste best when they are small, and they taste is similar to common beans. In our climate its good to grow a few snake beans with the common beans and then depending on how summer goes, one will do better, and the common beans will keep going even when the weather cools off in autumn. Apparently you can also eat the leaves, but I've never be short on other greens to want to try it.
Do you grow snake beans? Do you grow any other weird vegetables?
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