Lima Bean (2015-2020)
Lima beans are an important food legume and a great rotation crop. They come in a wide variety of shapes, colors, and sizes, but the main market classes are white large and baby seeded types. Both the bush and vine type produce a tremendous amount of biomass. The main production constraint for Lima bean in the western US is the insect pest, Lygus hesperus, which causes significant reduction in both yield and grain quality by feeding on the flowers and developing pods. This makes successful Lima production under organic conditions very difficult. Colored seed coats may be among the potential sources of resistance to Lygus and may also be useful for small-scale organic production due to interest from niche markets. SCOPE has crossed colorful patterned Lima beans with white seeded Limas and plans to release several colored Lima bean cultivars.