Perennial thicket bean update

A hardy perennial bean has been a wish amongst permaculturists for some years, and one of the most interesting species is Phaseolus polystachios. Jonathan Bates of Paradise Lot fame (with Eric Toensmeier) kindly sent me seed last year. The 2-3 plants sadly all died. This year one of my remaining seed germinated and the resultant plant has grown well, kept indoors all summer.. It is now in full flower in the living room, but has been invaded by aphids. Is it self-fertile?
 
See my earlier blog post here http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?page_id=3600

One thought on “Perennial thicket bean update”

  1. Hi Stephen, our place is a bit north of you (Flatanger kommune) and we have some of these growing (very slowly) at the moment. We got seeds from Oikos tree crops before they closed down. I suspect thicket beans don’t like cool summers, and that’s why they’ve been slow to start. It does seem like the warmth of the last few days did them good, though, so maybe there’s still hope. How did yours fare after the post? Did it set seed?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *