saving green beans

I am posting this here as suggested by "critter".. in regards to my Green Beans.

Well.. my daddy... what can you do with daddies. After me looking all over the country for EAGLE green beans and having no luck. Daddy found some in his storage frig (didnt think to tell me) and planted them mixed in with his other green beans. Now a bunny has eaten them all...LOL Its almost funny.

Point is...I have about 8 bean seed that he had left in the bottom of the bag. I want to plant these Eagle beans and save the seed for next year. Supposedly they are not a hybrid and this will be okay.
However, I've never saved bean seed before.

Please give me some advice. Will I just leave the beans on until they
1) turn yellow
2) dry out ?

How far from other green beans do they have to be planted to avoid cross pollination ? I will plant them in a couple of big pots so I can locate them away from the regular garden.

any advice will be appreciated
charlotte

I'm not entirely sure which kind of bean you have (we tend to lump most beans into French beans here) but I'd have thought you would need to wait until the pods have dried. The legume forum people will know for sure :)

Yes.. I would think so too...is there a legume forum :)

I think the legume forum is on hiatus at the moment...I'm betting that you have French Beans...(about the only kind we have here in the states...and most certainly in the South)

The Eagle bean that I'm familiar with is a green bean with white seeds...bush type, white blooms. Popular Southern canning bean introduced in 1974 by Asgrow.

The beans should be fine if planted together about 20 /30 feet from others...beans usually self pollinate themselves before the flower fully opens....a bumblebee can pull the petals down far enough to get inside, but you should be fine without any heroic means.

Let the beans mature fully and at least turn yellow and shrivel up...better yet, let them dry on the vines. If you have fears of something happening to them, when the pods turn yellow, just pull the whole plant and hang upside down in in your garage till the pods are dry.

I've never grown it, but the Seed Savers Exchange reports seem to be pretty favorable in it's behaf. If you have a crop failure, a SSE Member can get you seeds.

Thank you... I LOVE them and have planted them in two big pots...I'll put netting over them later on and maybe they will survivie :)