What bean is this?

[Salaam]

I am 95% sure I planted blue lake bush beans. But I got this strange bean instead. Very disappointed. I had three bad seed packets this year.

I'll be extra extra careful next time and hedge my bets by planting two or three varieties and choosing the seed provider carefully.

Anyway, this was seeded end of May and produced nothing except a couple of handfuls of leathery beans you see in the photos. What is this bean? Is it a pole bean?

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[rdback]

Looks to be a cowpea (or field pea or southern pea - all the same thing). Black-eyed peas are a variety of cowpea. Although some folks eat them as a snap bean, they're generally stored and eaten in their dry form.

[karstopography]

Definitely a cowpea, many varieties of those. If you pick them young, maybe a few days before the bigger ones in the first photo, before they start bulging from the pea inside they work like green beans. The thinner ones in the top photo look right for green bean type of use.

I like the peas themselves inside before they get to the dry stage, maybe a day or two past where you picked those bigger ones in the first picture. Before they dry, they are tender and I think delicious. But, they can dry out in the field and then be harvested that way.

But, you ordered one thing and clearly got something different. I don’t think the early green bean stage for cowpeas is as good as maybe a good fresh and true green bean will be, though, so it’s more than understandable your disappointment. Definitely an oops there on the supplier. Give them a call, maybe they will attempt to make it right. Ask them if anyone else has said anything about getting the wrong seeds. It’s hard to imagine you are the only one. Offer to send them a photo of your order and a photo of your crop. Be understanding and not particularly confrontational or anything, maybe they will be graceful and do something nice for you in return, like free seeds or something. Or it may not be worth it.

[AZGardener]

I also think they are cowpeas/field peas/southern peas.

[worth1]

My first thought was yard long beans.
Of which is a cow pea.

[Tormahto]

The plants look like cowpeas. As for Asian long beans, bush types are extremely rare.

A pic of the seeds would give the best clue. Cowpea seeds are generally short and fat (with some exceptions) with Asian long bean seeds being longer and thinner. Both types are small in size, smaller than Blue Lake bush beans.

[karstopography]

https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/articles/ji-cowpea.html

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/ext ... t3dec.html

Some more links to cowpeas.

[zeedman]

Did you ever get any dry seeds from this? I agree with those above who identified the plants in the photos as cowpeas. A photo of the seeds might allow us to narrow down the possible variety choices.

[rxkeith]

i grew something called stickless wonder this year from seeds i got from last years MMMM swap.
foliage looks similar. it was the weirdest dang bean i have ever grown. i was waiting until august to see some
type of bean start to form. the plants started producing some stalk like appendages. it took me awhile to realize
that these appendages were the bean. flavor was ok cooked. i tried some raw also to figure out when to pick them.
the seeds were small and thin, kind of a medium brown. not something i would mistake for a regular bush bean.
if it had been a regular growing season, i would not have had beans of much size. i don't think i would grow it again.
i need a shorter season bean.


keith

[Tormahto]

i grew something called stickless wonder this year from seeds i got from last years MMMM swap.
foliage looks similar. it was the weirdest dang bean i have ever grown. i was waiting until august to see some
type of bean start to form. the plants started producing some stalk like appendages. it took me awhile to realize
that these appendages were the bean. flavor was ok cooked. i tried some raw also to figure out when to pick them.
the seeds were small and thin, kind of a medium brown. not something i would mistake for a regular bush bean.
if it had been a regular growing season, i would not have had beans of much size. i don't think i would grow it again.
i need a shorter season bean.


keith

What you need is warmer weather.

That "stickless wonder" type is a short season bean, 50 DTM, here. In a good long season I get 2 crops, and a third set of flowers. It then gets too cold for the third set to make pods. My tallest plants were 22" high, with 22" long pods. Although you will not likely grow them again, they really shouldn't be cooked in water. Pan fried, browned, in butter or oil is the way to go. And, the first time I trialed it, it was the weirdest dang bean I had ever grown, too.