Three new pole lima beans developed at the University of Delaware will be available for testing by growers in 2017. Growers who would like to assist with testing will be asked to report yield data for the trial varieties and for an adjacent identical row-length of their standard variety.
If you save your own pole lima bean seed, the trial varieties should be grown in a different area from your seed production plants. Otherwise outcrossing can occur and your own pole lima strain will not grow true from seed.
Pole bean growers who would like to trial these varieties should contact Emmalea Ernest by March 1, 2017 (emmalea@udel.edu or 302-856-7303).
Pods from the three new pole bean breeding lines are pictured below.
