Beans, saving seed?

[patR]

I very merrily saved tons of seed from all of my different beans last year, dried them well, and then sealed them all in seperate labeled containers...
Today I went to look at them, and all have holes in, and tons of little bugs in, they actually look like large fleas...
All the plants were healthy, no sign if desease or bugs, the beans were plentiful, healthy and good strong plants... what happened, where did I go wrong...

[battybird]

Oh Pat, so sorry! Hope someone out there has some spare you can use If you saved any bodies maybe you could post a photo and someone knowledgable could identify the culprits.
We got back and found that all our butternuts stored in the shed had partly frozen and started to go mouldy. Have had to have a huge pulping session to salvage the remains. Did not expect the shed to go below freezing..but as it was -15 I suppose I was lucky they were not completely spoiled.

[Odsox]

I saw this post a couple of days ago and expected others to comment, but apparently they all missed it.
I didn't comment earlier because I have never suffered from it, but I think it's probably the bean weevil that others have mentioned. The adult lays eggs on the beans and they hatch out later and feed on the stored beans, leaving holes like you described.
The cure for stored beans for eating it seems is to freeze them for a few days, which kills the eggs, and then dry them again before storing.
I'm not sure if this would work for beans saved for seed though.

Perhaps bumping this back to the top will bring it to the notice of someone who knows what they're talking about.

[Millymollymandy]

Just tried doing some forum searching for you as I know there have been (haha!) various discussions about this.

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/ ... ns#p187331

And this has several threads you can look through - it's just the list that came up from my search words

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/ ... mit=Search

[patR]

Hi thanks. Ive been contacted by various people from my blog who also reckon the way to go is the freezing method, seems it works everytime.
I've put the lot in the freezer now, in the hopes that it will kill all the little buggers that have hatched and the eggs that havent... Then I'll sort through and see if any are salvagable.. it looks as if not all had holes in... so it may not be a total loss...
its a little icky though that we eat them ..... heheh

[contadina]

The southern Italian method is to pour boiling water on the beans and place a a tea-towel over them for 10 mins. Then drain the beans and leave to dry again before storing. I do this for the ones we are going to eat but separate the best looking and untouched beans beforehand and these are the ones I use for planting.

[Peggy Sue]

I think I missed all teh weavil chat when it came up, I have significant evidence it munches my pea and bean leaves, but had always beleived that it did no real harm. Interestingly my peas do have a few small wigglers sometimes but I've never sen any in my french beans or runners. Freezing it is next year!

[Odsox]

I think you're talking about three different pest here Peggy Sue.
The pea weevil that chews semi circular holes in pea and broad bean (but mainly peas) is, I think, a different weevil (bean weevil) that lays it's eggs on mature pea and bean seeds, which then hatch out in store and grubs eat the stored dry beans.
I have never suffered from the latter so as my tag line says, I could well be talking a load of tosh.

The maggots you get in green peas is the grub of the pea moth that used to ruin about a quarter of my crop when I lived in Kent.

[grahamhobbs]

Missed this post earlier. We went through this experience, freezing kills the weevil but you then have the problem of drying the beans. Don't freeze them and stick them in a jar, they will almost certianly go mouldy. They need to be thoroughly (and I mean thoroughly) dried first.
If you are saving to eat, easier than freezing is to put them in the oven for 20 mins., kills the weevil and helps dry them.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

If you are saving to eat, easier than freezing is to put them in the oven for 20 mins., kills the weevil and helps dry them.

Works a treat - just about 80°C.

We cook semi dried beans from the pods with a tomato sauce (acid sauces keep the dreaded Clostridium botulinum at bay, though this year I've got myself a large pressure cooker that should heat the buggers to death) and perhaps some sausage and jar them. I believe beans being kept for seed are often dired and stored in muslin bags to avoid the weevil.

[grahamhobbs]

Muslin bags, now that could be a good idea to prevent them going mouldy.

[Peggy Sue]

I think you're talking about three different pest here Peggy Sue.
The pea weevil that chews semi circular holes in pea and broad bean (but mainly peas) is, I think, a different weevil (bean weevil) that lays it's eggs on mature pea and bean seeds, which then hatch out in store and grubs eat the stored dry beans.
I have never suffered from the latter so as my tag line says, I could well be talking a load of tosh.

The maggots you get in green peas is the grub of the pea moth that used to ruin about a quarter of my crop when I lived in Kent.

Ah that's interesting- thanks

[Odsox]

I think you're talking about three different pest here Peggy Sue.
The pea weevil that chews semi circular holes in pea and broad bean (but mainly peas) is, I think, a different weevil (bean weevil) that lays it's eggs on mature pea and bean seeds, which then hatch out in store and grubs eat the stored dry beans.
I have never suffered from the latter so as my tag line says, I could well be talking a load of tosh.

The maggots you get in green peas is the grub of the pea moth that used to ruin about a quarter of my crop when I lived in Kent.

Ah that's interesting- thanks

Re-reading wot I rote, I should have said that the pea weevil chews semi circular holes in the pea leaves, especially those close to the ground.
Then the bean weevil eats stored dried beans and pea moth grubs eat fresh green pea seeds.

I didn't have my eloquence module installed when I wrote my original post.

[oldjerry]

Pea moth such a pain in the rear end,one of the few things I'd spray. (Jeyes when the flowers are fully open.Netting's a pain cos the tendrills get stuck on it.