[Mark's Sussex Allotment]

Morning all,

What sort of yields do Borlotti's produce?

I have 12 plants. How many pods per plant should I expect if I feed them regularly?

Regards

Mark

[allotmentann]

I do not know how many pods per plant, but I found that my Borlottis' last year were much lower yielding than the runners and the French.

[mumofstig]

Yield depends on how tall they grow or are they one of the dwarf kinds? They don't give me a fantastic yield 

Best drying beans I've found, by far, are Spagno Bianco - huge white beans and very good crop.
Must admit they aren't as pretty as Borlottis, though 

http://www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk/seeds-plants-gardening/19855/bean-shelling-spagno-bianco-seeds

[AnneB]

I grew the climbing variety last year for the first time.  Yield very poor indeed.   I am giving them another go this year as I don't think it fair to judge on last year alone.  The only crops I had much success with were garlic, shallots,  and peas.  Potatoes, leeks, kale, onions, runner and climbing French beans were well down too, and the rest virtually wiped out.

This year I am growing 8 climbing Borlotti, 8 The Czar runner bean, 8 Prizewinner runner bean, 8 Blue Coco climbing French bean, and 8 Cherokee Trail of Tears climbing pole bean.   

I wouldn't have bothered with Prizewinner, but we had an event at work where we were all given a handful of seeds to grow.  I hoovered up the unwanted bean seeds.

[sunshineband]

I had about eight pods per dwarf plant last year for borlotti and around twelve per plant for a climbing white kidney bean

You have to bear in mind that with beans you are growing to eat as pods are picked regularly, so the plant continues to flower and therefore produce more.

With those grown for dried beans you leave the pods on until the end and so you get fewer pods

I have had worthwhile crops fro drying beans, including last year , and have some others for this year, which I am sowing in modules this week. There will be ample time for them to produce still.

[Nikkithefoot]

I grew dwarf borlotti beans last year as an afterthought as the season had been dire generally. I found they cropped very well as pods rather than for drying. Very tender, more prolific than my runner beans and not stringy at all.

Can't comment on the expected yield if you are growing for drying only.

[compostqueen]

My climbing borlottis were not brilliant yield wise last year but I do love them. They make me glad every time I look at the teepees    They do look manky later in the season though as they begin to dry and crisp up at which point the whole messy lot gets taken off the canes and dried indoors away from mice. They drop of their own accord as they get drier.  To get a bigger yield you might do dwarf ones too.  I don't like picking from dwarf beans though    I did my dwarfs on a raised bed last year so I didn't need to grovel on the ground quite as much

Ta for the reminder about Spagno Bianco. I reckon I have a packet of those in my box. Lucky me 

[seaside]

What's wrong with a little successional picking of borlotti beans to cook fresh as we do with, say, broad beans, hence encouraging further pods at the end of the season that can be dried ?
That is a proper question  as I too am trying them for the first time, and is what I intend to do. I'm also more inclined to freeze the fresh borlottis rather than wait for them to dry.
My plot neighbour grew them last year purely for drying only. He didn't have a great crop, about half or a third of that which he got from his runners with regular picking.

[mumofstig]

You can pick most of them as either green beans or as fresh podded beans - but I prefer my beans big and dried, and still got a great crop from the SBs 

[Nikkithefoot]

What's wrong with a little successional picking of borlotti beans to cook fresh as we do with, say, broad beans, hence encouraging further pods at the end of the season that can be dried ?
That is a proper question  as I too am trying them for the first time, and is what I intend to do. I'm also more inclined to freeze the fresh borlottis rather than wait for them to dry.
My plot neighbour grew them last year purely for drying only. He didn't have a great crop, about half or a third of that which he got from his runners with regular picking.

Nothing at all wrong with that. Successional picking to start with then at a given point (to allow time to produce beans and start drying before frosts) stop picking and allow to grow on to make beans. The only thing is once you leave them to 'bean up' you wont be able to pick the younger pods as the plant will stop producing them.