[LivvyW]

Can someone talk me through this.

I've been having a wonderful crop of french beans. Grew them in the greenhouse for the first time and they have cropped and cropped.

Now i fancy leaving the last of them to harvest as haricot beans?

What do i do? When do i harvest them? Can i use them for seed also? What is the process?

Thanks in advance.

[mumofstig]

I just leave them on the plant. The seeds will get fat in the pods and these will eventually begin to dry up themselves.
When that starts to happen pull up the whole plant and leave it somewhere to dry..hanging upside down in the garage worked for me when they look dry shell them and store them somewhere dry.
They are then ready to be used as seed or used as dry beans  in  winter recipes.

(I don't like storing them in jars, because unless they are 100% dry they can go mouldy in the jar )

[peterjf]

dry all your beans on the plant , place in paper bag and place in airing cupboard or boiler cupboard untill jan- feb

[Paul Plots]

I shall never forget the haricot beans my father grew years ago... we had tons of them. My mother soaked them and boiled them and still they remained rock solid.

To reduce the heaps she even made bean-bags for all the local kids. My bean-bag got stuck in the house gutter, the fabric rotted and the seed germinated.

My dad was far from happy when the gutters over flowed   

[LivvyW]

Great. Thanks. Will keep them away from gutters.

[Paul Plots]

Great. Thanks. Will keep them away from gutters.

Mind your teeth too - crunchy!