Last edited on 16 Oct 2026. View history
Lima Bean
How to sow lima bean: Direct seed outdoors after soil is at least 24°C, thin to 30cm apart when seedlings are 5cm tall
Sun requirement for lima bean: Plant in Full Sun
Lima beans have bush and pole varieties. Bush types produce more quickly and create smaller beans. Pole types can grow to 3m high and produce larger seeds. Like all legumes, lima beans can benefit from inoculants. Lima beans are shelled and cooked before eating.
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Lima bean facts
Lifespan
Height × spread
40cm × 25cmRow Spacing
30cmCrop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For lima bean, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 13°C and a shortest growing cycle of 60 days at its best temperature, about 540 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your lima bean will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
How members grow lima beans
Sunniness
Planted from
Plant lima beans with
celtuce
calendula
Photos
PhotosLima bean crops
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Where lima beans grow
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Who's planted lima beans
- sgottlieb Garden · Atlanta, GA
- Unalmas Garden · Somerville, MA
Lima bean harvests
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Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Phaseolus lunatus L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Rosidae Fabales Leguminosae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual, perennial |
| Habit | prostrate/procumbent/semi-erect, climber/scrambler/scadent |
| Optimal soil depth | deep (>>150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours) |
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