Thursday, January 13, 2011

Purple King Climbing Bean

This is the second variety of climbing bean  that we grow here in Adelaide from spring. I chose this variety not only because I am intrigued with its purple colour beans but mainly because it is said to be a heat tolerant climbing bean. This bean seeds does pop up very fast. As it is named, the stalk of this plant is also purple.

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Flap open your leaves like a swan.DSC09180 We were very excited to watch all the sowed seed germinated.  This purple king climbing bean grows really fast compared to snake bean (kacang panjang).

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The Purple King climbing naturally by itself on the trellis, don’t have to train them at all.

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Purple King climbing beans flowers.

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When the beans is cooked it turn naturally green, hence it is also known as magic bean. However, you can see how hot the weather in Adelaide can be with the beans has some green spot while it is still growing on the plant. The Purple King climbing beans produce more than bush bean. I was surprised that this variety of climbing bean produce very early almost the same as bush bean compared with other climbing bean (kacang panjang) which take a long growing period to produce edibles.

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It was producing continuosly and looking healty before the day temperature reached over 40 degree celcius several days consecutively. Then it became sick and now look so sad, all the leaves withered. Looks like the Purple King climbing bean is not tolerant to Adelaide summer after all.

Evening sun sunflower (10)

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Lucky we did sowed some Purple King climbing bean in partial shade last month and growing fast. Hopefully it will produce like it sisters previously growing in the sunny patch. We sowed the Purple King climbing bean and snake bean on the same week. However, even now the snake beans has not produce any flower or pod yet. No chance on keeping any seeds from this plant.

If you like to see colourful beans flowers  visit Our Plots at Green Allotments.

14 comments:

Sue Garrett said...

What a shame about the bean withering - I really does have a lovely flower though. It seems all purple coloured beans turn green when being cooked.
Here we would call your bean a climbing French bean and the other climbing beans we would call runner beans.

Discovery School at First Baptist Heath said...

I have never grown climbing beans, only bush beans.. but your are beautiful.. so sorry about the heat withering that plant..I have gardened my whole life and I learn so much from you!

p3chandan said...

Diana, too bad your bean plants cant stand your summer heat. I love the purple flowers and I have seen Green Lane Allotment colourful bean blooms, they are so lovely! Indeed a magic bean, purple turning to green! My kacang panjang seedlings are growing nicely hope to have bountiful harvest like you too..

miruku said...

You were saying 40 degree celcius, that is hot! Like living in the oven my god. No wonder my sister who is staying in Melbourne must cabut to elsewhere when summer comes.
Only the leaves of the plant you introduced today are not purple, no wonder it is called the Purple King. I like the flowers, look like orchid.

One said...

The purple flowers resemble orchids, don't they? Just like my red okra, they too turn green when cooked. Funny.

JGH said...

I would grow that just for the flowers. Beans are not my favorite food, but these are so pretty.

rainfield61 said...

If you have magic beans, then you must have magic bean stalks.

You will see a giant if you going to climb up.....

~TastyTravels~ said...

Beautiful flowers on that bean!!

kitchen flavours said...

I like the purple bean. Have not eaten this before! Too bad that it can't stand the heat! Hopefully the later batch will do better!

cikmanggis said...

kacang buncis purple ke ni?tak pernah makan.Seronoknya dapat tanam macam macam sayur yang sukar tumbuh kat msia ni.

Nampak gayanya anak pokok ketumbar dan karot tak besar-besar lagi.Pokok ketumbar tu dah ada tanda tanda nak mati,sedih la sb dah jaga dgn penuh kasih sayang..bagai menatang minyak yg penuh tapi tak berjaya ..sob sob:(

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Sue~ Thank you Sue for clarifying the type of beans. I got confuse often with french beans and runner beans. As here we just differentiate them by bush and climbing type.

Mom of M&Ms~ I hope you give a try with climbing bean as they use less space and easy to pick. I am also continuously learning lots of new things from other gardeners.

p3chandan~ Your kacang panjang will produce earlier than mine as we have many setback from the cool weather.

Milka, Kwee Peng, JGH, Holly ~ The flower is pretty but it blooms more in the morning. I keep on thinking why the shape of the flower is so familar but cannot think what it is, thank you it was similar like orchid.

Rainfield61 ~ Its too hot to climb up.

Kitchen flavours ~ So far it looks promising with this new batch. But who knows what could happen. We just let the nature decide it.

Cikmanggis~ Kacang Buncis purple. Bila masak tukar hijau.Rasanya kat Malaysia boleh tanam juga sebab pernah nampak orang tanam kat sana dan pokoknya berbuah menjad-jadi. Ketumbar dan karot ambil masa lama nak membesar. Kekadang 4 bulan baru ada isi besar sikit tengok jenis juga.

Anonymous said...

The bean flowers are really pretty, like little orchids, and so are the beans. Too bad about that heat affecting your beans. They weather has been erratic all over.

Eliza @ Appalachian Feet said...

Sorry to hear that your purple beans turned out to be fussy in hot weather. We grow a similar variety and I really enjoy how easy it is to find the brightly colored beans and pick them.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

gardenwalkgardentalk~ Yes sometimes it can be really strange hear in Australia. One region is raining heavily while the other region is facing heatwaves.

Eliza~ Yes it is fun harvesting them as they are different from the green beans. We might try yellowish one next time. So we have different colour beans to harvest.