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Red Yard Long Snake Bean Vigna Unguiculata subsp. Sesquipedalis
Packet of 15+ seeds!
Seen these guys called all sorts of stuff over the years. Asparagus bean, Yardlong ban, Chinese Long ban, Bora, Bodi, Long pod, Cowpea, Pea bean, Snake bean, Serpent bean, Sitaw or even Butong Bean.
The Subspecies name of this mob is Sesquipedalis which literally means “One and a half foot long” or about 45cm, though I have seen a couple max out at ~70cm or ~2ft.
Very easy to grow in the tropics or as an annual down south, make sure you give them something to hang on to and that’s about it.
I grow them in polystyrene boxes with just a basic string trellis, and I always wack something else in with them to take advantage of the nitrogen fixing that goes on in the soil.
The recipe for success that we use is as follows.
Three polystyrene boxes (you can pick them up free at any greengrocer or supermarket, just stab a few drainage holes in the bottom). Wack in a bag of potting mix, a roll of string or wool, a packet of snake bean seeds and a packet of something else cool that likes to climb (bitter melon this time).
Two months later you will have a more beans than you can eat, and a really cool “Green Curtain” to help keep the house cool and shady, and all up a total price of maybe $15 for the dirt, string and seeds.
When it finally dies down and finishes up many months later the whole trellis can just be ripped off and composted or used as mulch. Rots down to nothing in no time and provides massive amounts of goodies to the soil.
Guess I had better tell you about the beans. The beans themselves are bright red with a green center, and picked young they are like any other string bean but with a slight nuttiness which I really prefer. It is a real shame they don’t sell these guys in the supermarkets much as they are a real winner I reckon, and you only need a couple to feed the family. Easier to chop, store forever frozen, no need to string them or stuff around so preparation is quicker, very nutritious, very easy to grow, unusual, attractive, you should seriously buy a packet or two!
Grown by me and the Mrs organically, no chems, no nasties, no problems!!!
