75 days from direct-sowing.
No wonder gardeners and fine diners have trusted Fordhook 242 to be THE lima bean for the family table all these years! These vigorous plants bear heavy yields of large-seeded pods stuffed with plump, succulent beans. There is simply no more flavorful, reliable bush lima bean for eating fresh, canning, or freezing!
Fordhook 242 sets pods 3½ to 4 inches long, packed with 3 to 5 plump, succulent white seeds. Excellent for freezing or canning, these seeds are also fabulous for fresh eating, with a rich nutty flavor that everyone loves.
Introduced in the 1940s, Fordhook continues to be America's favorite. It is faster to finish than most other lima beans by a week or more, and the quality of the crop is just incomparable. No wonder it won an All-America Selection award all those years ago, and is still going strong today!
Bush lima beans produce earlier than pole varieties and need no support. They do, however, need warm growing conditions, so sow the seeds outdoors after the soil has warmed in spring. (Resist the temptation to begin the seeds early indoors. Beans don't like to be transplanted.)
In the garden, space the plants 8 inches apart, and harvest when the pods are plump yet still fresh. After all the beans have been harvested, be sure to chop up the plant and plow it back into the soil. Beans are nitrogen-fixers in the soil, greatly improving the quality of your garden performance for next season!
