Garbanzo beans are a self-pollinating crop that requires a heated greenhouse for optimal growth and fruiting. They can be grown in late winter or early spring, with the first crop harvested about a month before soil pods appear. Regular beans require a small area for growth and fruiting, while green beans require a large area for harvesting.
Chickpeas can be grown from seeds and picked when pods are still immature and green. Green beans can be planted earlier and later if a greenhouse is available, with bush varieties suitable for raised beds or containers. If there is an area for a trellis, running beans can be grown.
Garbanzo beans require 3-5 months of frost-free weather to grow well, with at least 3 months of weather averaging over 50°F and under 85°F. In warmer areas, dwarf French beans can be started indoors, as they need warmth to germinate and cannot survive frost. They can be transplanted into raised garden beds in four to six weeks.
Garbanzo beans are cold-weather crops that require full sun for at least six to eight hours each day. They grow well in USDA zones 2 through 10b in the spring and are best in regions with long periods of cool to warm temperatures. The planting date for chickpeas can determine the best soil conditions for them.
Home gardeners find growing green beans easy and rewarding. Choose a space with at least 6 to 8 hours of sun in cooler climates, but a bit of afternoon sun in warmer climates. Planting a bean seed and planting it in your home garden will likely result in a generous crop.
📹 Growing Chickpeas/ Garbanzo Beans – Roasted chickpeas from fresh ones right from your garden
In today’s video we show you how to grow chickpeas or garbanzo beans or harbara easily in your garden. Chickpeas also called …
Do chickpeas need full sun?
Chickpeas require well-drained soil with full sun and can be sow directly into the soil throughout the spring. In central England, the spring temperature ranges from 3-10°C to 8-17°C, with 2-3 cm of rain per month. Some people argue that chickpeas are not fond of being transplanted, but some seedlings germinate better in modules soaked in rainwater. The seedlings are frost-hardy, so germinate in mid-March and plant out mid-April for a long growing season. Pea sticks and bottle cloches can be used to deter garden molluscs. British-grown chickpeas have white flowers, while other varieties may have purple or bluish colors.
Are garbanzo beans hard to grow?
The author successfully planted chickpeas, which grew well with minimal care. The plants had white flowers in spring and green pods in summer, with tender, edible peas that tasted like edamame. To save most for dried chickpeas, the author did not eat all the plants. After late summer, the plants turned brown and dried out. The author harvested them by cutting them off at the soil line and bringing them inside to dry completely. The dried pods were easy to strip from the branches and open the husks.
The author enlisted the help of two coworkers to help with the process. From a 3′ x 6′ raised bed, the author obtained about 3 cups of dried chickpeas, which need to be soaked before cooking. This small harvest was enough to add to soups or make fresh hummus this winter.
Do garbanzo beans need a trellis?
It is recommended that chickpeas be planted at a distance of four inches between rows, with the depth of planting varying according to the size of the seeds. The plants are of the bush variety, rendering the use of stakes or trellises unnecessary. Chickpeas require six to eight hours of daily sunlight, with the provision of afternoon shade being beneficial in hot southern climates. They are moderately straightforward to cultivate and necessitate minimal maintenance when cultivated in optimal conditions.
Is it difficult to grow chickpeas?
The author successfully planted chickpeas, which grew well with minimal care. The plants had white flowers in spring and green pods in summer, with tender, edible peas that tasted like edamame. To save most for dried chickpeas, the author did not eat all the plants. After late summer, the plants turned brown and dried out. The author harvested them by cutting them off at the soil line and bringing them inside to dry completely. The dried pods were easy to strip from the branches and open the husks.
The author enlisted the help of two coworkers to help with the process. From a 3′ x 6′ raised bed, the author obtained about 3 cups of dried chickpeas, which need to be soaked before cooking. This small harvest was enough to add to soups or make fresh hummus this winter.
What not to grow in a greenhouse?
Greenhouses provide an ideal environment for cultivating exotic plants, but not all plants thrive in controlled environments. Giant trees and shrubs, which can outgrow their designated spaces and require extensive pruning, can create an unsightly and unmanageable jungle. Invasive species, which can spread rapidly and outcompete native species, can also pose a threat to the environment. Containing these plants within a greenhouse can be challenging, and if they escape, they may cause harm to the surrounding environment.
Therefore, it is crucial to research and choose non-invasive alternatives to maintain the delicate balance of local ecosystems. In summary, greenhouses offer an excellent opportunity to extend the growing season, cultivate exotic plants, and create an optimal environment for a variety of crops.
Do beans grow well in a greenhouse?
Green beans, whether pole or bush beans, can be grown in a greenhouse provided they have good soil, full sun, regular moisture, and temperatures between 50 and 85 degrees F. If you have a small space, bush beans are recommended, while pole beans can be grown in-ground in a hoop greenhouse with a soil floor. Plants are the lens through which Jessie views the world, as they are all-sustaining and provide food, clothing, shelter, and healing. She holds degrees in horticulture and plant biology from Purdue and Michigan State Universities, with internships at Longwood Gardens and the American Horticultural Society.
Jessie has worked for various horticultural institutions and companies, managing communications for Sun Gro Horticulture, the parent company of Black Gold. She enjoys sharing green and lovely things with her two daughters.
Do chickpeas come back every year?
Chickpeas are an annual crop with a long growing season, so propagating them vegetatively is unnecessary. Instead, set aside some chickpeas from harvest to use as seeds the next year. Chickpeas should not be soaked before planting, but using an inoculant is recommended to ensure the correct type of beneficial nitrogen-fixing bacteria is available. Mesorhizobium ciceri or M. mediterraneum are needed for chickpeas.
Inoculants can be found at garden supply companies. After planting, water the chickpeas thoroughly and keep the soil evenly moist. The seeds should sprout within 10 to 21 days, depending on weather conditions.
How long does it take to grow garbanzo beans?
Garbanzo bean seeds mature around 100 days, and their harvest depends on the desired consumption. Fresh garbanzo beans can be eaten when they are small and green, while dried chickpeas can be dried by waiting for the leaves to wilt and brown. The dried chickpeas should be stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. They can be used to make hummus, soups, stews, or aquafaba. To improve the soil and water-draining capacity, add organic compost before planting. Once the beans are about one month old, start a regular feeding schedule with an all-purpose fertilizer to increase yields. Dried chickpeas can be cooked, added to soups, stews, or used in aquafaba.
Can you grow chickpeas in a greenhouse?
Chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans, have the capacity to be cultivated in greenhouses for a period of up to 100 days. The optimal temperature range for chickpea cultivation is between 70°F and 80°F, with a nighttime temperature range of 50°F to 60°F. The bean pods are ready for harvest in May and may continue to produce until June, contingent upon the availability of water and the quality of the soil.
What zone do garbanzo beans grow in?
Garbanzo beans thrive in USDA zones 2 through 10b in the spring and 10b through 11 in the fall. They can tolerate temperatures between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, with nighttime lows of 64 acceptable. To grow, they need at least 90 days of cool weather, with some frost. Blossom drop can occur during the flowering stage, and cold can impair their ability to absorb water and nutrients, potentially stunting growth. Soil should be rich, well-drained, and sloped to encourage proper nutrient absorption. A thin layer of old compost can help with less-ideal soil, and chickpeas grow best in a pH range of 4 to 6.
How many chickpeas do you get from one plant?
The chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is a legume that is named after its resemblance to a chick’s beak. It is a bushy plant that is native to the Mediterranean region and is grown in dry climates. It can grow to a height of between 8 and 3 feet and contains 1-3 chickpeas in each pod.
📹 I Planted Supermarket Beans (AND THIS HAPPENED)
Can a bag of supermarket pinto beans grow in a garden? Gardener Scott shows the results of planting generic beans from the …
My kid did this the first summer of the pandemic. She got nervous when she saw that I had added additional garden beds since I wanted the food security and had lots of time. My daughter broke ground on 3 10×10 beds and created a salvaged seed garden. She regrew carrot tops (and learned a great lesson on tap roots) peppers, squash and potatoes all from the grocery store. She also sprouted beans from my pantry. The kidney and pinto beans were very robust. Chickpeas have a totaly different plant type than other beans. She worked so hard. We harvested enough shell beans to make a big pot of mixed bean chili. It was awesome. We made sure she’s had quality seeds the past two years so she could continue to grow her skills
When I was a kid, my dad used dried beans from the grocery store. My uncle laughed at him, and said everybody knows, you can’t grow beans from grocery store dried beans. My dad felt kind of silly, but planted them anyway. A few months later we were picking beans out of the garden! There’s nothing like the taste of fresh pinto beans! I miss those days…and my dad.
I lived by a large vacant field once. A sharecropper leased the field. His name was George. George was going to plant that field in pinto beans one year. I watched him do it. I watched the field grow and mature and I watched George harvest the beans into a semi truck trailer and haul them off. They were bush type and grew very robust and quickly (well, it took most of the summer). George’s greatest challenge were ground squirrels that liked beans. He was a man of very few words, but he had plenty to say about ground squirrels. That summer was a lesson for me about growing beans. I’d venture to say all dry beans you find in the grocery store are going to be heirloom varieties – not hybrids. This is because, first, hybrids are single generation seeds – the subsequent generations of seeds will not be the hybrid but a variety of one of the two parent plants. Commercial growers cannot afford seeds manufactured for just one generation as their seed stock usually comes from their past years stock (the exception to this is corn). As far as bush vs pole beans, the pole bean is pretty much a back yard gardner’s crop. How could a commercial farmer grow supported beans on their scale? That’s why the commercial beans you find in the store are most likely the bush type (self supporting) plants. The harvester moves along and cuts the plants off at the base, take them up into the machine, removes the beans/pods and spits the plant out the back to be disced back into the ground. Beans grown in other countries (not mexico) may be irradiated when coming into our country to sanitize them.
Threshing advice from someone who grows edible beans commercially: buy a pair of good work gloves, put your pods in a 5 gallon bucket. Grab a handful of pods and roll them between your hands back and forth with pressure applied. This will thresh the pods. Once threshed, take the bucket outside. I use a low power leaf blower and carefully angle it into the bucket, this blows the pods out. Shake around to reposition and continue until clean. This is the fastest method I’ve found when I need to test a sample for moisture prior to harvest.
I did the same with pinto beans this summer. Because I was going to be gone all summer, I just planted beans around the landscaping where they would get water. When I returned, I had dozens of plants with dried beans. They were the tastiest pintos I’ve ever eaten. I’ll do this stealth edible landscaping again.
I’ve grown lots of supermarket beans. But once I started growing runner beans the smaller beans just seemed too fiddly to grow. I’m not sure why runners aren’t more popular in the USA, since they’re so popular in England. There they eat them young as green beans, but I prefer to grow them for dry beans. They’re big and meaty and very prolific. And the vines are pretty, the flowers are beautiful…the hummingbirds, bees, butterflies love them. Of course, you can’t get them in the supermarket. But you only have to buy the seeds once, then just save some to plant each year. You can grow them up a trellis, on a fence, I even planted some to grow over a shrub and up a tree.
I trained two bean plants a few years ago just as an experiment. The two seeds were one of the green bean family of beans and they were the climbing variety. I started with four tomato stakes, and I simply guided the two young vines by hand every day. They could grow around the stakes, or across the stakes from corner to corner, and this happened over and over as the beans grew up the stakes. After a few weeks, the entire frame was covered with vine which divided into many more vines, and they produced a large crop of beans. With more stakes, I could have doubled the crop easily. The only thing the beans got was a thick layer of compost, a little river sand and a thick mulch on top of that. Only two beans were used to grow a pound of seed.
I’ve observed that the folk in the comments section of gardening articles definitely do not write the usual incendiary trash one often encounters on YouTube these days. Nice to see this is where the nice people hang out. I did something similar. A friend of mine (who at the time was going through hard times) was given a bag of black beans at the food bank. She used half a bag to make beans that she had one particular evening with tacos. I remember her crying about the past and worries about the future. I suggested that we take the other half of the beans and plant them in her garden patch which needed much TLC. I tilled the dirt and amended it with very basic nutrients and planted a handful of the black beans. For good measure I stuck in some thin bamboo sticks and daisy chained something akin to a trellis. The beans exploded in growth. Moreover, as they grew, I could see my friend’s disposition improve. She certainly seemed happier whenever she saw the verdant leaves. After the odd loss and the non sprouters were taken into account I’d say that our “return” was about 400 percent, I.e., for the quarter pound of seeds we planted we easily for 2.0 pounds. Frankly, I think we got even more. She still grows them and she has other plants growing too, including squash and peppers. Frankly, that patch of ugly dirt in the back is now just a memory. Oh, and she got another job. It was a voyage but she eventually got back on her feet.
In Texas I was raised on these in the 1950s. Hints: I much prefer the taste of green pintos (snaps, immature pintos) to the stores “Green Beans”. The flavor is much more robust. And you can start to eat them much earlier. Common cooking technique was to add cooked crisp bacon, cubed ham or ham hock and black pepper, and of course Tabasco at the table to taste. My mother, an avid gardener, used to bury heat tapes, (that were used to prevent pipes freezing), about six inches below the surface and we would plant potatoes, pintoes, turnips, and mustard greens in late January. She would also put rows of bricks on each side of the plant rows then cover all rows with a product I haven’t seen in years. It was like hail screen wire covered with some translucent plasticity, paper type material that let sunlight through. Occasionally some of the tops would freeze, but that didn’t seem to bother anything but the pintos. Everything else would just start to grow again from the roots. The pintos, of course didn’t. These “Row Covers” were made into individual arched sections about 1 1/2 feet wide and 6 feet long. The North side corners were staked into the ground, but the South side not staked. Later in March or so on hot days we would tip the row covers back so on hot days the plants didn’t get too hot. Good Luck. Man I’m hungry.
This is something that most people don’t think about for sure. I don’t think I will wait 3 or more seasons to make a pot of chili though, if I could only use what I grew. It makes a person appreciate what farmers do even more. No different than if you had to grow all the grain for a single loaf of bread.
i did this a few years. once you are on the second generation you can get 10 to 1 pretty easily. you can also shorten the time to harvest by keeping the beans from the first to brown plants as your seed beans. i was in central america and was able to grow them year round. was very easy to improve the genetics
You know why I love this article? Because it reminds all the experienced/veteran gardeners out there to always be curious and well…. HAVE FUN when we garden. I love it. It might seem silly to those perusal who…. to summarize what you said in your seed saving live chat, can’t see past its face value. But to those of us with curiosity in our hearts it makes me feel like a kid again. Your notes are impeccable, which I appreciate. But the enthusiasm and curiosity are like a source of energy for all of us. Marveling at your full grown bean plants from such a humble start. I dig it a thousand percent, and I hope you do more experiments like this one in the future! Thank you Gardener Scott. 👏 🫘 🌱 🍽
I planted yellow wax 1 year and we had drought and I didn’t water. 5 plants lived and made pods, i saved them for seeds. The next year I planted those seeds and they out produced all the other kinds of greenbeans. As far as a bag of grocery store beans, I planted that in my first garden because I had no other seeds. We picked 5 Gallon buckets full as greenbeans that year. They were either navy beans or great northern beans.
Pinto beans from the supermarket will definitely grow. Many times when washing the beans for soaking, one will slip out and go down the drain before I can catch it. Sure enough, give it 10 days and there will be a little bean plant peeking out of the drain. I generally pull it out gently and plant it. Outdoors if it’s growing season, indoors if not.
Great vid! I love the whole break down. Such a good teacher! 👍 This summer I took my raised beds down here as I was ammending them for fall and winter. I planted a cover crop of black eyed peas. Bag from the grocery store. They germinated without soaking in 2 days. And thrived in this scortching heat. I cut them off at the soil line. And didn’t pull the roots. Left them in for decomposition and the nitrogen value. And took the tops, cut them back 2x and didnt let them produce fruit. And chopped them into a 5 gal bucket, added water. Covered it. Let it decompose. (Which only took a week). And used that as a compost tea for my newly planted fruit trees and. Things. They loved it. Thanks again for another great vid! 👍
I think mine did great considering I knew nothing about growing them. I’ll always use the store bought one. I’m growing food for a couple families. It’s easy and cheap. Plus it will fill a hungry belly if need be. I just wanted to grow something and money was very tight so bags of beans it is.Thanks for your time again.
At the price of groceries and the unknown and unsettling situation about worldwide famine, this is something we all should consider. Beans are cheap so why not set aside all types of dried beans to plant, keeping some set aside for the next planting season. Your website is full of great ideas. Please keep up the good works. Thank you for sharing.
In my experience (which is a lot, since I plant them every year, sometimes twice), grocery store pintos are absolute troopers in the garden. They sprout very well, and always produce, besides that they’re better when they aren’t stale. My only issue is that anything that eats plants will eat them. I’ve had every kind of bug, chickens, deer and even dogs eat my pintos, so guard them well if you plant them. Since they grow so quickly, I usually plant about a handful in my bedroom to freshen the old, uncirculated winter air. Those don’t produce much, but that’s not what I planted them for, and I usually plant what they produce anyway. Overall, they’re great, if you can keep the entire animal kingdom away from them while they grow
My 4 year old nephew and I planted some pinto beans that had been in a sensory bin for about a year. He was playing one day and asked if he could plant these beans. I said sure and we went right out and put them in the garden. We planted 4. Three came up and produced beans. We didn’t soak them, just put them in dry.
Good to see you again sir! I have had better success with allowing the seeds to sprout first on a paper towel. I got into the habit of sprouting beans for the sprouts. The Mung Bean Sprouts for Asian Cuisine are hard to come by these days but the beans are available in the dry goods section. So I grow my own Mung Beans now.
My parents used generic pinto and black-eyed peas in the garden. We harvest green beans and peas a couple times, then let them dry. You can harvest once the pods turn yellow and let them dry off the plant, in the pod. They are usually still viable and and are edible. You can also use store bought potatoes and plant your onion roots. It may take awhile for the potatoes to sprout so buy early and put them in a cardboard box or paper bag to sprout. You can give them a light rinse, don’t scrub and pat dry but you don’t have to.
Thanks Scott, Considering the way commercial harvesters work I would have been very surprised if the beans turned out to be vine (pole) beans. I planted Goya peas this year and they were also bush. Another thing to think of when using store products. The verity in the bag can vary as all the farmers beans are put into one vat then bagged. While they all will be (pinto) the surprise is when you see different verities growing in your garden. Ray Delbury Sussex County NJ USA
Certain produce from the grocery store can have seeds, which be successfully planted. Others can’t. It could be that they are modified so they can’t be reproduced. I bought heirloom tomatoes from a Safeway grocery store once. I kept some of the seeds. When I planted them, they grew into very tall plants, which bore much tasty fruit. Cheers, Scott!
I have been growing the same bag of organic mung beans for bean sprouts for the last 5 years or so. I only need a tablespoon or so to fill up a jar, so I am still using the same bag. The last time I sprouted, about a month ago, it still germinated at what looked like 100%. Unfortunately I bought 2 bags, so I have an unopened bag still. I even cooked some but I really like bean sprouts better. The sprouts came up very fast and strong. I have also grown from a jar of old beans I have. The germination on those is not as good but still I always get a few bean plants from those. I basically use those just for curiosity. I forgot to mention that the supermarket is also a good source for plants and cuttings. I currently have a bunch of yellow sweet potato plants from the supermarket. I had some thai basil earlier. I have various things like water spinach, etc that came as cuttings from the market. My garlic always comes from the supermarket. Some is in the multi-generations, since I always grow the biggest cloves from both homegrown and purchased. My market peppers have not been as successful, but my saved seeds have done very well. I think however one gets plants is always good. I always collect seeds when I travel, and when gardeners let me, I collect cuttings as well.
That’s impressive from shop bought beans not produced for selling as seeds. Now you’ve got fresh seeds to sow and you now know its growing habbit. It’s great growing things like French beans and just off of one or two plants saving seeds for next year on and on great fun. All the best, John, Hampshire, UK
It is funny that so many people are unaware that the beans (any supermarket seeds) are non GMO or that the beans are heirloom!! They grow true to type every year. I grow my beans like this for our garden. Best price on bean seeds. That I have found. By the way you can also grow food grade poppy seeds too. Along with corn (for popping and eating). As well as rice as long as it is organic and unbleached. You can do this with soooooo many things you buy for your dry goods for the pantry!!!
I live on a small farm. Back in the 1990s I planted a number of types of those supermarket beans plus some vegetable seed company beans that I knew were pole beans. Using a tractor and a 4 row planter, I planted an acre of open pollinated seed corn. Then I changed planter plates to be able to plant beans. Each of the seed hoppers had a different kind of bean. Kidney beans, pinto beans, navy beans, and more. The generic supermarket beans had ok germination about like you described. The 2 kinds of pole beans, both from seed companies, did well.
I have some white beans in my cabinet that have been up there for over 10 years, in a 2-liter plastic bottle and sealed with oxygen absorbers. My husband wanted some, so I got them down, weighed out a pound of them, then soaked them overnight. To my surprise, every single bean sprouted! I could have planted them with no problem whatsoever.
I planted some store bought dry pinto, black eyed peas and lima beans a little over 2 months ago…the pintos are all growing well with small flowers. However, the others aren’t growing as fast but are still green and growing slowly. This was just a test but I will be planting more of them in the spring!
I bought dried green peas at the curb market last year. Ivhad purchased 2 small packs of seeds also. I planted both. The packets of seeds produced small spinly plants with small pea pods. The dried peas produced large plants full of large green peas!!! I still have some of the dried peas and will plant them next year for a great harvest!!! Try buying ones from large tubs at your fresh markets or curb markets, they may produce a better plant and a larger harvest!!!
I bouhgt adzuki beans from an oriental grocery and planted a bunch of them. WOW! I’m still picking beans. You pick them as they turn brown about every 2 to 3 days. Depending on how much you planted, you can get about half a gallon of dried bean shells each time. And you really need a huge trellis for them because the vines just grow and grow. I did a cattle panel hoop trellis and that still didn’t contain them. So, if you grow them give them plenty of room. They like the heat and they grow towards the afternoon sun. This is the first time I’ve grown any dry shell beans and I am totally amazed. I grew them to go in rice. I like beans and rice. So these little suckers are going to be a staple in my garden now.
What a fascinating lesson! My Grandfather operated a small scale Greenhouse (3,000 sq ft) when I was much younger, and both he and my father maintained 1/4-1/2 acre gardens for fresh vegetables for most of my childhood. I appreciate the information presented in such an understandable fashion for those of us not well versed in horticulture!
50 years ago I started my love for plants and planted some dried pantry Lima Beans outside next to our screened patio in S. Florida. Before I knew it they were climbing up a bamboo pole about 8 ft up and started over the top! I did get a few pods from it! But it was fun… and started me on my career later as a now retired horticulturist/ landscaper!
One year we had a bunch of plants growing in our compost area. They looked similar to okra or something. I asked my husband to leave a few to see what they were…turns out they were tomatillos! Guess a bird must have dropped one because I hadn’t bought any. It started me on the adventure of growing things from plants or seeds (romaine lettuce, celery, tomatoes, turmeric, ginger, pineapples, lemon, etc.) So interesting and fun!
This was really interesting. A few years back I tried something similar. I bought a bag of pinto beans and found that less than a quarter of the beans germinated. Hmm. Then I went to a local organic foods store and bought about a pound of loose beans. I tried the same experiment and found that over 75 percent of the beans I selected sprouted. I then grew them side by side in pots and found that the packaged beans never really developed. Their color was bad, their leaves seemed stunted. The organic store beans went gangbusters. I am told that the commercial beans are sprayed with a herbicide to keep them from growing or getting moldy where as the organic store beans were not treated.
About 3 or 4 years ago I got a wonderful surprise from Red Grapefruits with 3 sprouted seeds inside! 1 quart yogurt containers, drilled holes, potting soil, a 2 liter soda pop bottle, bottom removed, 3″ cut up the side helps it fit into yogurt pot. Watered and loved, talked to, given a share of coffee and milk on occasion and some VF-11. Two survived, one was confused with Apple seed starts and did not survive snow. These two were babies indoors and out on nice days. They are now in larger pots and are 24″ and 27″ above the soil. Recently developed thorn spikes, like real citrus trees! ♡♡♡♡♡
Those seeds were single, but look how they multiplied. Sin is the same, seeds of our actions multiply the same, whether good or bad. This is amazing to me, you have showed me alot, in every thing I do. My childhood I stayed inside, that’s what I enjoyed, my Mom and sisters are garden lovers. ❤ 61 years old and learning from you on this topic. It is very interesting to me now. Thank you for stirring that interest.
quick tip toss the whole beans into a pillow case and smack it on the floor, pour the beans between 2 bowls with a fan blowing the chaf away from your bean seed. I grow so many I use a cement mixer and battery leaf blower, I also use this technique with sunflower heads to knock the seeds loose then dump into wheelbarrow thru 1/2″ hardware cloth.
Great article, Scott. We’ve been scouting the local grocery stores for years in search for stuff that we can plant. It’s fun and it works! Ginger, garlic, onions, sweet potato leave, water spinach, potatoes, peppers from seeds, fava beans, it all works very well for us. It turns out that ethnic grocery stores have a much larger variety than your local super markets. Asian grocery stores are great for vegetable cuttings, middle-eastern stores have a huge selection of dried beans. Our conclusion is that as commercial farmer where you need to be concerned about maximizing yield, return on investment and crop insurance, you probably have no choice but a certified source. But we never understood why we hobby/backyard farmers try to emulate industrial-scale mechanized farming practices. Maybe you can do a article about row planting vs. group planting some time? Thank you so much for your articles!
Great article, I raised an entire crop of tomatoes and peppers this past summer from supermarket veggie refuse that went into our compost pile. They came up on their own with no support from me but after separating and transplanting them we treated them just like all our other veggies. They were great eating and basically a free crop of plants that were very productive. Just goes to show you can buy starter plants and also grow from store bought seeds but many things will come up in a compost pile that you might not expect! Thanks for the good info!
It would be fun to use your harvested beans to see how they grow a second season. I would think you would have “weeded” out the non-viable with the first grow and would be curious to see if you get a better germination rate on a second year. My parents selected their tomato seeds from their plants every year, and after 40+ years, they had the best tomato plants with great fruiting rate and flavor. Customized tomatoes for our soil & climate, selective genetics at its best.
I really appreciate this article! I have watched your website for the past couple of years. When I lived in Colorado I found it especially helpful. Now that I am in Alaska, the details you provide are still relatable and transferable to my new and much colder climate. Thank you Scott for sharing all your experience and expertise.
Very impressed that you took the time to do this. I had no idea. Thanks so much for going to all the trouble. I wonder if Great Northerns could be done. Or maybe even Black beans. Both are my favs. With the way food shortages are seeming to crop up, this could be a very important article. Thanks so much.
I bought a few bags of black-eyed peas and pinto beans during the lock downs of the plague because it was all I could find to have for emergency but ended up not using them. So I planted without soaking them and they were both up and robust in a week. I was amazed how well they came up from the grocery store and also from being several years old.
Shhhhhh- the big companies will start to only sell “dead” seeds… (non sprouting) ones soon… Years ago a neighbour/friend planted out the Sunflower seeds she’d purchased… all sprouted as they should- but when the beautiful big flowers formed their seeds- ALL the seeds were hollow! She taught Permaculture classes- and used those empty seeds as a valuable lesson in purchasing “Old World” (viable) seeds only… Great vid btw 👌
When I was a struggling single mom, I grew a garden every year from store bought produce, beans and herbs. I loved not knowing exactly what I was going to get. I do the same a bit now, but only with heirloom vegetables. The little packs from the dollar store (I remember when they were 10/$1 and had more seeds in them) are heirloom, so you can gather seeds from them and know what you’re going to get. Right now, I have pigeon peas & dragon fruit planted from store bought beans/fruit and just planted some lychee seeds. I grow heirloom tomatoes every year from 7th generation seed I originally got from two store-bought tomatoes and 4 types of peppers.
A hobby of mine is purchasing dried chiltepins from the supermarket, extracting the seeds, and growing them into small bushes which I take indoors before the first frost. By Christmastime they’ve developed red berries that contrast nicely with the beautiful green leaves. Later the spicy berries end up in potatoes au gratin and mac & cheese.
Nice to know you can grow from packet beans, taste and enjoyment with the ability to save seeds for the following years. The downside is space in the garden nurturing till it’s harvesting time, for the value of saving $5 which wasted in resources in most. It’s not a cash crop one could say, if you have the space to grow great, if your sacrificing the space for just over 3 months in place of another crop that is more economical viable, that will save you more money. I have the same argument with myself growing carrots, though I love growing my own I can buy a kilo for an average of $2, that last in the fridge for a month. I know the ones I grow taste great and are more nutritious than store brought ones, the only downside my carrots I can’t store I just pick and use for each meal and succession growing them from seeds I’ve saved.
Friend of mine who commercially grows beans told me most of the beans, except of course soybeans, are non-GMO and not hybridized — because the frankenfood corporations don’t see return on their efforts due to smaller markets for them. They’ve also not figured out how to make wheat ’round-up ready’ so wheat is so far protected too. I experimented this year with Lentils (deer and rabbits do not like them), Chick-peas, Pinto, and Lima beans. Lima beans made lots of vines but only a few pods and fewer of those with beans in them so apparently not a long enough season here. I’ve heard some say they found Lentils kept the deer and rabbits away from their garden but I found they selectively ate around the Lentils where I did a bed broadcasting a mix of Lentils, Chick-peas, and Pinto beans to fix nitrogen in a poor soil area.
🏡🏠🌳 When growing green beans, keep plants producing by continuously harvesting, which encourages plants to keep producing all warm season long. Later In the fall let the last ones dry on the plant as the whole plant will die down and dry out. Any that happen to overwinter outside by accident might still be viable to plant again. I learned that by accident as some climbing beans were left unharvested on a chain link fence, and not on the ground. Leave roots in the ground, the root nodules are full of nitrogen which will benefit whatever else is growing there next season. Beans literally pull nitrogen out of the air and accumulate this minerals in their root nodules.
This is exactly how my mom would grow her beans in our garden every year. She would harvest some beans early and can them as green beans, and she would let some grow to seed to cook. She never saved the seeds because a bag of beans was dirt cheap and she had 7 hungry mouths to feed. We ate lots of beans.
I used to live out in the country and I would ask the farmers where they get the seeds from. The response is they get the seeds from the same plants they planted and those are the same seeds sent to the store like the bag of them you have there. The only reason we are told to not use stuff from the store is because of pesticides and seed companies want you to buy their special seeds. If you do things right, you should only ever have to buy seeds once then use the seeds you grow. It’s that simple and is what I have been doing for years!!!
Back in the days before mechanical harvesters, they would hang the plants on fence, clothes line, ect… Before the plants were fully dried they would pull the plant up hang them up to finish drying and then go from there to harvesting the beans or peas. It was a neat history lesson for me in agriculture.
I germinated mine in a wet napkin without soaking. Almost every one germinated. I planted in small containers first, then transferred them to garden. Take them early for green beans or let mature for more beans. From a handful of beans, I grew two gallons of green beans AND enough beans to replant next year.
Grocery Store beans and Grains are topped with herbicide at harvest to make the whole field die out and dry for harvest all at the same time and early. They are even topping hay with herbicide. That explains why the 40% germination rate. ( Harvest before natural maturity ) Your own harvest will germinate very much better.
Yep, I remember being taught to pick up the loose beans from the super market off the shelves because sometimes the bags would be torn and spill a handful. Those went to be planted. So many Lima beans, black eye peas, pintos, butter beans and so on came from those shelf sweeps as a kid living dirt poor. But it doesn’t compare to my neighbor and the great carrot army he grew by accident. He thought a box of seeds and garden fertilizer got ruined so he just tossed them all out into his garden area and forgot. Just lightly disked to get plant ready. Got busy at work until a whole quarter of the two acre garden he has showed carrot tops. So many carrots.
I’m growing 6 apple trees, turmeric, ginger, garlic, and onions all from store bought items. I put about 1/3 of an onion in the ground, watered it, and let it go to seed. Now I have several hundred onion seeds and have been growing my onions from those seeds. Also growing a lemon tree from a lemon that I got for free.
I’ll hafta try this someday soon. Because of an illness I had at age ten, (Reye’s Syndrome)I have very few memories of my childhood. So, I don’t remember doing this in any elementary school grades back in the 70’s as others remember doing. But, I wonder if any other dried beans or peas would germinate and if they could ever get too old to be able to sprout. I imagine they would eventually get too old. But, thank you for sharing your techniques and knowledge with us. This is all good to know. 😻
Onion root cores, lettuce and celery bases, carrot tops, all kinds of peppers, popcorn, most beans, tomatoes, English peas (Trader Joe’s, fresh in the bag), garlic, melons and squash, and potatoes are all things that I have grown from the grocery store. Birdseed oil sunflower seeds will grow a head that birds love to eat from! Green onions: cut near the soil line and they will regrow!
When the pandemic hit, out of curiosity, I attemped to sprout all the whole bean varieties in a bag of Hamm’s 13 bean soup mix. I didn’t try the split peas because they weren’t whole beans or the lentils because I’m not a fan of lentils. Everything else sprouted and grew to a viable seedling within two weeks.
I love the idea of experimenting with growing things from store bought products! I’m growing flaxseed and chia from the store this year just for fun. I’ve been surprised by the chia plant because it just keeps growing! It’s almost 4 feet now and still no flower buds yet. I didn’t do any research into growing either plants, I just kinda jumped in🤞😅🤞. If nothing else, they’re great for organic matter to add back to soil. Great article, thank you for sharing!
Use to plant store-bought pinto beans in the family garden all the time when I was just a kid. Didn’t do all that pre-planting selecting and soaking like you did……….just took them out of the bag, planted them and watered them. They always did great! Also, we NEVER let the pods dry on the vine. We would harvest them when the pods were still green and before they started to get tough. Would snap the ends off and “string them” if you know what I mean. Throw them in a slow cooker with plenty of water…….add ham or some bacon. WAY better than any can of green beans you buy at the grocery store.
When I was a kid we had a thing called peashooters which were large plastic straws through which you would take a mouthful of dried peas and blow them out as if you were using a blow gun. It didn’t take us kids long to find out that peas that were being packaged for that use were much more expensive than bulk packaged dried peas. One summer we were playing “war” and went through several pounds of dried peas, shooting them at each other across an empty lot that had scraggly wild weeds. Within weeks that lot was covered with sprouted pea plants. The next year that lot was covered with dense foliage.
I grow five types of beans: 3 runners, a climbing French, and a yellow bush. They were all originally given to me from neighbours’ crops, and I did know their names, all those years ago, though I have no idea now! I eat fresh beans all season, and when they get too many for me, they are left on the plants to dry. Then I have dried beans for the rest of the year, plus next year’s seeds. Total cost: a little weeding and feed. This year I bought a bag of chickpeas, but then found I was too late to get them to harvest, so I’ll try again earlier next spring.
I had a bag of lentils that broke open and some spilled on the floor. I swept them up and tossed them into a couple of planters. A week later I some little plants growing. I doubt they will keep growing at this time of year. I may try again next spring and see how it goes. I’ve gotten pintos from planting beans I bought out of the bulk bin.
Great info. I took pinto beans from a Goya bag, hydrated them, then tossed them all into a heavy line by my fence not knowing what to expect. I put wood chips on top and now I await the temp to get warmer before seeing any germination if at all. My plan was to pull the seedlings and feed to my chickens and goats and leave only the healthiest, nicest seedlings to grow. If I don’t see any germination, I’ll try again when warmer. Thank you so much for this vid!! p.s. I did the same method with black oil sunflower seeds and the results have been AMAZING!!
Good to know that the pods can dry on the plant. I find that I can grow stuff, but don’t really know when/how to harvest the result. Like my kale, I messed up 2 of the plants, cutting the whole top. The other 2, I just took the leaves except the top ones, and thereby was able to harvest a lot more from these two plants.
I have a big “volunteer garden” plants that have sprouted from scraps. I have pumpkin, squash, canteloupe, watermelon, tomatoes X 5 types, peas, beans, potatoes, sunflowers. They live near my normal planted food and grow fantastic. I have noticed half my plants are flowering early, the sun is a bit weird.
I planted pinto beans from the grocery 2 years ago. Luckily they were pole beans and I was prepared for them with a trellis. Although all beans did not germinate I still had a good harvest. I also planted pinto beans I had bought from a seed store. I admit the seed store beans germinated and look a little better I was still satisfied with the results.
** hello gardener Scott. I’m a gardener Scott also.. (maiden name).. I also planted store bought bagged beans. they all produced..My black beans were much smaller than what came in the original bag (that could’ve been as I planted them late. I also planted chickpeas/garbonzo beans, peas and other bagged grocery store ones. that was delightful. chickpeas also grew smaller than what came in the bag. I did only experiment with it and haven’t taken time to plant and do a large harvest yet, to have enough to preserve and also use to eat..thanks for the great article.. smiling =D
I scraped the seeds off “California” Strawberries & started them in the house. I’m surprised they have survived over winter outside (with straw covering because negative 20°F is common here). They are months later in ripening than my June- bearing ones. Not as large as original. I’m hoping to get more plants as they do send out runners. I’ve grown dry beans for years, watch out for pods getting moldy if bogged down to the ground.
You know, thats some good knowledge right there. In 2021 I saved seeds from store bought bell peppers and grew them, low germination rate but I got several plants to produce some nice peppers. That was after someone told me there was no chance of this because most produce is irradiated to slow spoilage in the store and that would kill seeds inside store bought fruit and veggies. You just have to go out and try it, as you just proved, even with 40% germination, you succeeded ( oh, wait, old kids joke, what does a bird do? It sucks-seeds.) Oh, no did I just say that? Thanks for the great vids, Gardener Scott.
Cool article! I’ve been saving apple, peach, pear and apricot seeds that I’m hoping to learn to plant. Your information is an inspiration to me to follow through. I remember as a little kid, we put a lima bean in a glass jar filled with wet tissue. It was placed outside the tissue and we watched it shoot roots. I think we put it in a dark closet the first night but I’m not sure. It was my big sister who did the experiment and I’m still impressed to this day! Thanks for sharing your knowledge, I enjoyed the article very much. ‘ Liked and Subscribed ‘
I love learning from you.😊 I’ve lived off grid in Trapper Creek Alaska for 20 years now and I have never tried growing beans from a grocery store bag of beans. Well, I did and yes it works even here in Alaska. We didn’t get much sun further into our growing days, but in earlier days we had a nice amount of sun and my seeds did well enough to grow well. We had a lot of wetness further in our growing days but my bean plants still did well. I got quite a few beans to grow next year. I’m going to be cooking the beans next year. And I’ll be able to save enough to grow more.😘
Now this is something I know about. We grow pinto’s on a large scale and so does every farmer I know in my area. 6 inches apart is the rule of thumb. After they go to the mill they basically just blow off the dust and weeds so planting them from packaged beans is absolutely doable, the reason why you got a lot of split beans is because you bought generic, they don’t pay the farmers much for those so typically they’re sold to companies that either sell refried beans or generic such as the dollar stores (which is one of their biggest profit buyers). If there’s a mill near you then you can by them for 65 cents to 1 dollar a pound, if you can’t get a local farmer to give you some straight from the combine and mill them yourself. Idk any farmer that grows any hybrid pinto around my area in Wyoming and we also have a very short growing season, so pinto’s are a very good and prolific bean to grow.
I’ve had surprisingly high germination rates with grocery-store beans and lentils. I took a couple of dozen lentils from a bag that must have been on the shelf for at least two years, put them on a wet paper towel, and within a few days just about all of them had sprouted. Came planting time, I put various legumes, including grocery-store ones, in the ground, and most of them grew. Alas, I didn’t have the opportunity to evaluate the crop, as household constraints kept me indoors much of the growing season and weeds took over the garden. It was certainly a glorious year for weeds (and for tomatoes and cantaloupes). Maybe next year….
My wife harvested seeds from a couple watermelons grown by a collective of melon growers in a different part of the state. My grandson gave us 4 plants he started from seeds in mid March. We proved that in a good year, watermelons and cants can be grown at our elevation. We have not had luck for the second yr in a row with Kentucky Wonder pole beans. They get about 6 or 8 inches then don’t grow anymore ’til late August. By then, it’s too late for a bean harvest. We even planted a corn crop, but we may not have gotten them started early enough. The ears won’t develop before frost. Thanks for the tips on pinto beans. Cheers, Bob
A major production company growing beans will always choose bush beans. That’s why bush varieties were invented. The fruit matures all at the same time and the bush makes them easy to machine harvest. Pole beans are great for home when you can go out every few days to pick the ripened beans. They keep growing taller and putting on flowers and producing beans until the days get short and the weather changes. But a company needs bush beans. Anything you get at a supermarket will be a bush bean.
Maybe you could also pick a mess of beans while they’re green, cook and eat them, and then after two or three good pickings let the vines and beans dry up for dry beans. Maybe your pintos wouldn’t be as good to eat green as some (I’ve never grown pinto beans), but you should give it a try! There are a lot of old-timey beans that get eaten green then dried for winter soup and also spring seeds.
A very good experiment. In my opinion you should have at least 20 times the seeds from your harvest and as you mentioned some seeds were cracked open and a did not germinate at all. I hope with the saved seeds you will achieve the ideal result. Seeds that are produced for market are not as good as they are produced for seeding purpose. Years ago I was able to grow store bought coriander seeds without much issues but now I can’t even get 5% germination form same producer or supplier. I hope you will repeat the experiment with the seeds you have saved.
I like to buy bulk beans from the co-op. They used to have tiger eye beans and orca beans, but luckily I still have some stored up because they no longer carry them. I still get garbanzo and black garbanzo from the co-op. Would be expensive to buy for the pot, but cheap as garden seed. I also bulk buy seeds meant for sprouting and microgreens to plant in my garden and make seed packets with my students.
Nice! Here in zone 8A, I’ve had success with growing store bought black eyed peas too. Unlike bush varieties, the black eyed peas made a lot of tendrils but you just have to stomp through em’ at time of harvest. It’s a lot of work and between growing patches of purple hull, black eyed and zipper cream peas, I’ve put a hundred pounds of dried this year from my backyard!
Iv done that plenty and just go straight to the ground and plant 3 to a hill then thin them out and relocate to a baron hill and plant the row bigger after that. I harvest dry like that but I also harvest them full and green and cook fresh. They are very good that way. Plus when I can I use Camilla brand beans but also the store brand if they don’t have the Camilla in stock.
Wow. So, last year my boyfriend built a raised bed out of wood and metal exactly like yours, and my friend and me sorted through a huge 50 pound bag of more than 10 year old expired pinto beans someone gave us for free and found the ones with the prettiest stripes and patterns including the most lines/loops and ones that looked like they had “writing” in foreign languages on them, and we planted them in that raised bed that looks nearly identical to yours, and got the prettiest pinto beans. I didn’t eat a single one, I will plant them next year and eventually through selective breeding create my own variety of pinto beans with pretty patterns on them. I also dumped out a bag of 15-bean stew mix and got a few handfuls of random lentils, some small and large white beans, basically between a spoonful and handful of every bean that was in that mix depending on how well they produced. I have also gotten quite a few tomatoes from people eating on my picnic table and not swallowing a few seeds. The bean thing started as a fun pandemic project but now I am actively trying to create my own varieties of beans after it worked better than expected.
When I was a kidlet I planted a bunch of pop corn kernels in the back yard. My grandfather told me that they would be sterile and would not produce corn ears. When they started growing stalks I was sure he was wrong and I was going to grow my own pop corn. But he was correct, the stalks grew just fine but never produced anything. Grandad had been a farmer so he encouraged me to plant and take care of things but I will admit that I was Very disappointed in the pop corn department. Happily my collards, tomatoes, and radishes were healthy and good to eat.
I grew grocery store Mayocoba beans after reading that the South American heirloom variety were one of the higher yielding beans per acre. They have bush type growth. I had over 100 ft. of row planted @4 inch spacing. I ate some as green beans when they were immature (they were tough and stringy). It was a lot of work to get the seeds from the mature beans, and some spoiled from rain before I got to them. A good way to shell them was beating the dry pods with a stick in a wheelbarrow. A measured blast from an air compressor blow nozzle blows the chaff out of the sloping front of the wheel barrow leaving the heavier seeds behind. It was an awful lot of work for a few pounds of beans. So long as dry beans are available to buy, I’ll not be growing my own. It made me appreciate commercial agriculture! I still grow my own green beans, and some specialty ones, like Scarlet Runners. My hero for home growing of seed is a type of chinese cabbage or pak choy. The seeds take two years to produce, but are abundant. They overwinter well for me in So. Oregon, giving me greens all winter. The 2nd year yellow flowers attract lots of bees. I’ve saved some seeds for sprouting in jars with screens. They make good sprouts. I share the abundant tiny seeds with every gardener I know.
I bought a bag of dried green peas to sprout for pea shoots which worked very well but I also planted some out in the garden and they grew quite well. They were a determinate bush variety. I think most grocery store seeds will be which makes sense. Commercial growers would want crops that ripen at the same time and could be harvested with combine tractors. Given how cheap they are in the store, I don’t think I will waste space on planting them in my garden but I do sprout them for shoots.
Beans, tomatoes pumpkins corn and squash, I’ve grown them from supermarket seeds. Oh yeah lemons oranges and tangerines too. Some of them I gave away and ought to be pretty big by now. peaches and apricots got to be huge trees they grow fast and produce big harvests. Every creek can support fruit trees if they’re in the right place. Think wild plums. Persimmon trees. Grapes. Creek weeds!