Black Turtle Beans

yolos 6/14/2013, 2:22 pm

Just pulled up my potaotes and sugar peas and have been looking through my seed packs to figure out what I want to plant. I have a question.

Black Turtle Beans - I have a pack of these and on the front of the pack it says "Dry For Soups". Are these beans only harvested for dry beans or can/do you eat them as fresh beans????

yolos 6/14/2013, 5:30 pm

Okay another questions about beans. I also have some dragon tongue bean seeds. Do you shell them and eat the bean inside or eat the pod and the bean just like you would do for a green bean.

southern gardener 6/14/2013, 7:14 pm

yolos wrote:Okay another questions about beans. I also have some dragon tongue bean seeds. Do you shell them and eat the bean inside or eat the pod and the bean just like you would do for a green bean.

As for the Dragon tongue. They grow about 18" tall and put off a green/purple bean. You eat the whole bean...pod and all. They are now my favorite bean! No strings, and they're tender at any size. they're super cool looking. they turn yellow when cooked. I'm planting more for SURE!

mollyhespra 6/14/2013, 10:25 pm

yolos wrote:[snip]
Black Turtle Beans - I have a pack of these and on the front of the pack it says "Dry For Soups". Are these beans only harvested for dry beans or can/do you eat them as fresh beans????

I think you *might* be able to eat them as green beans, but they're AMAZING as dry beans. Ever hear of Cuban Black Bean Soup? drooling

Worth the wait. I'm growing some for the first time this year, too!

GWN 6/15/2013, 12:18 am

I grow them as dried beans and LOVE Them. better than any dried beans I have ever had..... HOME GROWN

lyndeeloo 6/6/2014, 10:48 pm

Was just given a packet of these seeds, any advice from those of you who have grown them before?

**AtlantaMarie** 6/7/2014, 8:39 am

I've got some going and am having no problems with them. I really like black beans, so it was a no-brainer for the garden.

yolos 6/7/2014, 9:33 am

I grew them last year and had no problems. They did get tall (5 ft) and I had to trellis them.

lyndeeloo 6/7/2014, 10:16 am

We love them, too. Like Mexican food a lot. Always ate the canned ones from the grocery store. Just learned to cook the dry ones. Have never really used dried beans much. This will be fun.

So are they more of a pole bean than a bush bean?

yolos 6/7/2014, 10:29 am

lyndeeloo wrote:
So are they more of a pole bean than a bush bean?

Intermediate. They are definitely not pole because they only grew to 4 - 5 feet. But they could be bush beans on steroids (or mel.s mix). Mine were Burpee Garden Bean Black Turtle. The package did not say whether they were pole or bush or what size they would grow to. I would imagine it depends on the variety of the black bean and the growing conditions.

lyndeeloo 6/7/2014, 11:53 am

Thanks yolos! I think I have the same seed packet you do. Burpee black turtle and very little info. It's disappointing how little information is on packaging now since everything has to be written in several different languages. Not enough room for the details and I need my glasses for everything because the print is so small. Sorry just whining a little. Embarassed

mollyhespra 6/7/2014, 4:53 pm

Mine grew into very tall bushes so that next time I grow them I'm going to only do 4/square. Mine were the 'Midnight' variety of Black Turtle Bean.

I grew 8 squares (two rows of 4 squares each side by side) but the beans decided for themselves that wasn't enough room, so the foliage basically over-ran the 4 squares on either side, taking up 16 squares in all. I even tried putting in stakes at the corners and running twine around the lot in the hopes to keep them contained, but they didn't pay attention and just pushed/bulged the twine out. The poor little herbs I had put in the over-run squares didn't have a chance.

But that's OK, because I got a decent harvest (maybe about 3-4 lbs of dry beans for my efforts).

lyndeeloo 6/7/2014, 5:23 pm

Good to know Mollyhespra. I would have planted nine and ended up in a mess. That's a great yield because dry beans aren't very heavy. I'd better get planting!

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