How many days from snap bean to shelling bean? (Blooming Prairie)

Seven Bends · #1

I'm growing Blooming Prairie beans from the MMMM swap this year, and I've really been enjoying them as a fresh snap bean. However, I've read that they're also delicious as a fresh shelling bean -- not sure if that's the right term, but what I mean is the intermediate stage when the bean seed is mature but still moist and fresh, like how you eat English peas, not a dry shelling stage.

Anyway, after that awkward way of over-explaining things, my question is: how long does it take to get from the ready-to-pick fresh snap bean stage to the fresh shelling bean stage? If it helps, some descriptions on the web say the Blooming Prairie seeds are mature at 95 days.

Also, has anyone eaten Blooming Prairie beans that way, and is it worth the wait, or should I just keep eating them as snaps? I only have ten plants, so it'll be a pretty small bowl of shelled beans, especially after I keep some out for planting next year.

The state of them now:

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GoDawgs · #2

I too grew Blooming Prairie from MMMM seeds this spring. Beautiful beans! I tried enough to decide I really liked them and then let them go to seed for hanging and collecting. They were planted on Apr 20 and I pulled up the plants to hang them for drying seed on Jul 5 so the bean seeds had to been real full and starting to dry. That's 76 days from sowing. Too late for eating them as shellies but if you back the days up some you might can figure out an approximate time frame for shelling stage. Hope that helps!

Personally, I do a progress check now and then by pulling a pod or two and popping them open just to see what they look like. Those dang Riptortus bugs this year hit the beans hard except for the early ones. I got enough Blooming Prairie seed to probably send some in to the MMMM.

Seven Bends · #3

GoDawgs wrote: ↑Fri Aug 16, 2024 5:49 pm I too grew Blooming Prairie from MMMM seeds this spring. Beautiful beans! I tried enough to decide I really liked them and then let them go to seed for hanging and collecting. They were planted on Apr 20 and I pulled up the plants to hang them for drying seed on Jul 5 so the bean seeds had to been real full and starting to dry. That's 76 days from sowing. Too late for eating them as shellies but if you back the days up some you might can figure out an approximate time frame for shelling stage. Hope that helps!

Personally, I do a progress check now and then by pulling a pod or two and popping them open just to see what they look like. Those dang Riptortus bugs this year hit the beans hard except for the early ones. I got enough Blooming Prairie seed to probably send some in to the MMMM.

I've been super happy with them -- beautiful, tasty, and very productive! Based on your helpful info, I'm guessing it will only be about two weeks, maybe less, from edible pod stage to shelly bean stage, so I've got plenty of time as long as the deer don't mow them down like they've been doing to the other beans. I think the purple color of the plants has helped with that.