Blue Speckled Tepary Bean

I direct seeded these following garlic harvest, which allowed an easy and productive double crop from those beds. I watered them in (the directions on the package said not to) with no adverse affects. With no trellis, the vines got pretty tangled up and droopy; quite a few mature pods (and thus beans) were lost because they were touching the ground and developed mildew, though of course that's my own fault. The seeds are small and somewhat fiddly, but that's not a major concern. I grew these to add diversity to my bean planting--some that do well when hot and dry (these), some that do well when cooler and wet (runner beans), and some that do pretty well regardless (common beans).

planted in spring, outproduced my other tepary beans, lots of small pods, no pest entire season, hard flat small beans, easy to shell when dry - smash in shells and blow off chaff, produces more dried beans per space than most regular beans, cook the same as regular beans EASY EASY - don't need much water, just heat and bright space

I grew these beans in a 3 sisters garden in Phoenix. Planted them at the base of the Glass Gem corn as it was tasseling. I was unsure if they would produce given our high temps but grew well even though we had 100 degree temps well into October.

Slug loved: None survived in completely organic environment. With slug protection they might grow ok.

I thought these were going to be a bust, but over time, I was amazed at how many dry beans came from them. It seemed to take a long time for them to get going. I planted them on the south side of some okra, thinking to conserve space, but they climbed the okra and weighed it down. As the reviewer below noted, they definitely need a trellis to climb. Next year, they will be planted next to cattle panel trellises, and the okra will be allowed to grow in peace. Also, probably due to crowding on the okra, I found that some sprouted in the shell before they were harvested. It wasn't a big problem, but should be avoided by use of the trellis.