Bean - Phaseolus lunatus

[Tucson Grower]

Well I've started 'Fordhook 242' in little, individual pots, 20 of them. I also presoaked and coated them in pea/bean inoculant, just prior to planting.

[Tucson Grower]

Apparently it was too early to leave my tray of 'Fordhook 242' in 20 small individual pots, outside. They froze, dead. I have a second batch soaking, now.

[heavyhitterokra]

Tucson,

Doggone it, I sure hate to hear that. It seems like we've had a lot more instances of extreme temperature swings over the past decade or so than we used to have.  It seems 50° swings over a 24-hour period are becoming the new norm.  That sure makes it tough to get any gardening done sometimes.

[Tucson Grower]

Update: I resowed the 20 'Fordhook 24' seeds, then placed them on a heat mat at 77F. Almost 5 days now, still no movement. I'm becoming concerned. I'm expecting to go shopping later today, I think I'll pick up another pack of this variety, and perhaps another variety of Lima's as well.

[Tucson Grower]

Yesterday, I obtained a fresh packet of 'Fordhook 242' lima bean seeds. Today, I plan to plant them next to the last batch I just planted, about a week ago. I'm just not used to bean seeds not starting to grow after just a few days. This is an entirely new experience for me. This time I'm not going to soak them overnight, I'm just going to dampen them, so the inoculant adheres to the seed. Hopefully this will do the trick.

[macmex]

I bet the lima seeds are more cold sensitive than phaseolus vulgaris types. I've never tried to get them an early start, only planting after the garden soil is quite warm.

[Tucson Grower]

After trying 3 different packets of 'Fordhook 242' lima bean seeds, different ages and suppliers, some marked for this year, without success. Last night I sowed a single 12-pack of seed I just purchased from Lowes, last Friday 3 Mar 2023. I sowed them dry, then watered them in. This morning, about half of them are already starting to push through the media.

[macmex]

Wow! Looks like some major supplier messed up with their inventory. A lot of items, no matter what the company selling them, come from a relatively few suppliers.
Reminds me of my attempts to grow Serrano peppers from Walmart seeds, back in 2003. I grew seeds out from one of their packets labeled "Serrano Hot Pepper" and got Italian frying peppers. Bought another packet the next year and got Italian Frying peppers. We moved to Oklahoma in 2005, and in 2006 I bought some "Serrano Pepper Plants" at Walmart, only to have them grow into Italian Frying Peppers!

[Tucson Grower]

Update: Apparently the initial movement I saw with this recent crop of sown seed, was just the seed imbibation process. Just now, 16 days later, there appears to be farther movement with a few of the seed. Hopefully they will complete germination and maybe I can get a crop of Fordhook 242 lima beans, this season.

[Tucson Grower]

Well, out of about 120 'Fordhook 242' lima bean seed, I finally have 2, scrawny, pathetic seedlings. Hopefully, I can get these to grow me a nice crop of seed for next year. I have seed of one or two other lima bean varieties, I'll plant them in the ground or pots, to see if I can get some lima beans to eat, this year.

[Tucson Grower]

Those 2 scrawny plants that were planted out in the west end of the 'Virginia Jumbo' peanut bed, about 8 inches apart, were finally getting some steam and had grown several nice 3-fingered leaves.

The smaller one succumbed to the cold 4 April (Tuesday night). The larger one was looking good, until after sunup today, I had gone out at the crack of dawn, and everything was okay, but on my later visit, around 10 am, once it was 75F outside I saw it lying wilted on the ground adjacent to its stump, which had a cat paw impression on the ground, either side of the stump. I can picture what likely happened there.

[Tucson Grower]

Revision: The smaller plant looks to be trying for a comeback. Its older leaves were froze off, but it has several smaller leaves that look to be trying to grow out - for a life rescue.

[Tucson Grower]

Update: the remnants of my first seedlings are now completely gone, however, I purchased a new packet from Walmart, sowed about 10 directly into the soil, about 12 days later and 5 of them have sprouted and are growing.

[Tucson Grower]

About 2:30 am I went out to water them. Something had carefully eaten the leaves and sprout tips off of each and every one. My planting now consists of 5 lima bean plant stems. Maybe I'm not meant to grow lima beans, at least not right now.