Yard Long Bean - Climbing bean

Vigna unguiculata ssp. sesquipedalis 

Story: This climbing bean was brought to us by Randa Toko. It originally comes from South East Asia. As such it prefers warmer climates, and we recommend growing in a protected environment. It is a climbing bean that grows around 6 feet. It makes beautiful pink double flowers that mature into twin beans. The beans grow to 40 cm long at eating stage and up to 1m for seed saving! They taste nutty and sweet, with a juicy flesh and thin skin, in their raw form . We recommend eating them as a podded bean: raw or cooked, much like a string bean. The dried bean is rather small.

When to sow: April - May indoor, May – June direct

Requirements: Nutrient-rich soil, regular watering, warmth and a lot of sun.

When to harvest for food: When beans are are around 40cm and are still dense and crunchy. 

When to harvest seed: July - Oct. When beans are fully mature and pods turn brown. In southern England, typically July/later summer.

Need to isolate: No 

Seed Grown: Omved Gardens 

Seed harvested: 2024 

How to save seed from yardlong bean: These guys are self fertile so do not require isolation; grow as many varieties as you like! (Though they are pretty rare to come across in the UK). It is still good pratice to leave 3-5m between different yardlong bean varieties. Processing: Allow beans to fully mature on the plant, becomming giant and papery and changing from green to yellow/brown. Pick the whole pods and bring them inside to fully dry then shell the beans from their pods. Package up, label and date.

How to send seed back: Please label all seed with variety, type, date and your contact, if you didn't get a chance to fill out our online data collection form, you can also send us a few lines about how it grew for you/flavour etc. Please aim to send back 1 tablespoon of dried seed or more so that we can continue to share with network members. Send to: Omved Gardens, 1 Townsend Yard, N6 5JF.