Lima Bean Seeds - Shantyboat Butterbean

Minimum Seeds per Packet: 16

Packet Weight: 14g

Planting Season: After Last Frost

Sowing Method: Direct Seed

Seed Depth: 1"

Direct Seed Spacing: 1-2"

Soil Temperature: 60-80 ℉

Days to Sprout: 8-16

Mature Spacing: 2-4"

Sun Requirement: Full Sun

Frost Tolerance: Frost Sensitive

Days to Harvest: 80

When to Seed Lima Beans 

Lima beans are a heat-loving, frost sensitive crop that should be directly seeded into the garden after all danger of frost has passed. Temperatures should not dip below 60 degrees Fahrenheit in the evenings. 

Where to Plant Lima Beans

Lima beans will want a spot with full sun and loose, well-draining soil. They’ll love a spot rich in organic matter, but too much nitrogen can cause plants to produce more leaves than flowers or pods. 

Growing Lima Beans

Lima bean cultivars are primarily pole type, unless otherwise noted. Pole-types will need to be trellised. Plant Lima beans one inch deep and one to two inches apart, in rows two to three feet apart. Once germinated, they can be thinned to their mature planting distance of two to four inches. Assuming your soil is high quality with well-aged organic matter, you shouldn’t have to apply any kind of fertilizer. Something that can be helpful is to use a legume inoculant. This ensures that legumes will have all of the symbiotic microbes they need. Typically, these microbes are already found in the soil but can be in low numbers if your garden is depleted or has recently been converted from a lawn. Make sure your beans get at least one inch of water per week. It’s best to water from below, rather than soaking the leaves, to limit the spread of disease and mildew.

Harvesting Lima Beans

Try to harvest consistently and as soon as they’re ready. This will coax the plant to create new pods. Once you allow one too many beans to over-mature, this will trigger the entire plant to spot blooming and producing pods.

Bean - Lima, Phaseolus lunatus
Pollination, self; Life Cycle, annual; Isolation Distance, 50 feet

Lima beans are inbreeding plants. All varieties will cross with each other but not with common garden beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). It is always best to save seed from plants that ripen first and are free from disease. Leave pods to dry on the vine. When you can hear the seeds rattle in the pods, they are ready to be picked. They shatter easily and must be picked gently. If weevils are present, pick the pods earlier, spread them to dry, and then shell. Freeze seed to eliminate weevil eggs. Crush the pods in a cloth or burlap sack and winnow off the chaff. For next year's planting select the best looking beans.