This is according to Dr Deidre Fourie of the Agricultural Research Council’s Grain Crops Institute. She says for their most recent cultivar recommendations, they evaluated 22 different cultivars for red speckled sugar beans and small white canning beans:

She says different cultivars perform very differently from one region to the next:

“They differ with regard to their performance in different areas. We get what we call a ‘genotype by environment’ effect. So one cultivar can do well in one area but not so well in another area.

“Also they differ with regards to their susceptibility to diseases. So a cultivar that’s resistant in that area will do much better than a cultivar that’s susceptible, whereas that cultivar in a different area where the disease is not a problem might have a higher yield.”

She says the optimal planting window draws to a close towards the end of December. 

Dry beans can be planted later in certain regions but are extremely frost sensitive, so producers in areas likely to experience early frosts should not plant too late.

- OFM News