red kidney beans

[leona]

i really love red kidney beans and would like to grow some. i cant find seed anywhere so i was wandering if anyone had ever tried growing them from the dried beans avaliable in the shops and if so, how successful it was. i know some beans need warmer weather than we have (aduki amongst others apparently) so i wander if kidney beans are one of those?

[Paulottie]

Aren't Kidney beans another name for French bean haricots? Can't think of a red one right now but...sure to be a grape that will know

[robD]

You could try growing Canadian Wonder:

The Organic Gardening Catalogue

I'm growing them partly for the dried beans as well

[leona]

thanks, i grew a french bean last year with red beans but its not the colour im after. im sure the taste would be quite different?

[Two_Sheds]

Canadian Wonder is the one you want. It's a dwarf/bush variety.

[Seahorse]

If you live near one, Wilkinsons have very reasonably priced Canadian Wonder.

[leona]

but it isnt a kidney bean is it? its just a red bean?

[punydan]

Arnt kidney beans a type of dryed runner? My runners from last year dryed to be very similar to kidneys.

[Two_Sheds]

but it isnt a kidney bean is it? its just a red bean?

Yes, it is. They're called kidney because they look like one. You can get white kidney beans as well as red ones. Eden Project describes the 2-tone Yin Yang as a kidney bean, although to my mind the shape is wrong.

"French Beans are known by a variety of names such as kidney beans, flageolets and haricot beans - these names refer to the beans when left to mature fully"

[leona]

thanks for that. any idea what variety the red kidney beans you buy in the shops come from? il look for those other ones in the meantime. iv grown the ying yang ones before, in my first growing year but i couldnt work out when they were ready and ended up throwing them all away!

[Flummery]

Leave yin yang (and any drying bean) on the vine till they start to go dry and crisp. Then gather them, leave them in a sunny place indoors on some newspaper for a week or two till they are really dry and them shell them. The beans keep really well. I've grow yin yang from saved seeds for about 5 years now - makes me cry to think of throwing them away!

[leona]

as i said it was in my first growing year. id been given some tomato plants and went looking for things i could sow late. i rigged up poles all over the greenhouse to grow the beans up. i had no idea so thats why i ended up throwing them all away. i know how to grow beans now. i grew borlotti beans for drying last year.
iv ordered the canadian wonder beans now