Perennial Tropical Lima Bean

This is an extremely interesting bean crop. This seed includes a mix 2 lines of perennial lima beans. The two varieties are 7 Year Lima and Madagascar bean. The two behave so similarly that we combined them and treat them as one variety. Both of these beans come from Africa and likely descend from the same original population brought to Africa centuries ago from coastal Peru.

The first 2 years we grew these in Central Florida we thought we had come across a miracle crop. Rampant vines grew through the entire Florida summer, defying our concept of what Phaseolus beans are capable of. This was followed by heavy production of large, delicious lima beans through the whole dry season. Unfortunately after this period a foliage disease showed up and has majorly limited our success with this bean. This disease proliferates in the humid summer and can be a total wipeout on the plants. We are still working with the plant and the seed we are selling are survivors of the disease. Perhaps there’s some hope to select towards a population that is more tolerant. If it were not for this disease problem, this would be one of the most impressive food plants that can be grown in Florida. It is an extremely worthwhile project to continue figuring out how to cultivate this crop.

The pods contain 1-3 large seeds which are exquisite harvested as butter beans or “shellies” at their immature stage. The dry beans can be cooked like normal dry lima beans but we never let them get that far! The harvest begins in Fall and in frost free areas will go far into the Spring. Under rainy conditions the flowers don’t hold well and drying beans can rot. The October-May window is the Florida dry season which facilitates good production.

These beans definitely have the ability to live for 2 years in Florida and possibly more. Nematodes are probably a major limiting factor for lifespan.

The foliar disease mentioned above is another challenge. This listing is for 15 seeds, a mix of Madagascar bean and 7 Year Lima bean, roughly half and half of both.