The effects of dates of harvest operations on yield and quality of pink beans

Experiments in Sutter County and at Davis, California, to determine the effect of dates of cutting and threshing on yield, bean size, and percentage of browning in varieties of Pink beans indicate that:

Cutting a week before beans reach maturity greatly reduces browning but also reduces yield and bean size.

Percentage of brown beans increases rapidly with exposure, either standing in the field or in the windrow.

The percentage of browning is lower in Sutter Pink than in other varieties tested, and lower in Sutter County than at Davis. Varietal differences may be associated with weather conditions at the time of harvest. The experimental harvest period extended over a period of 10 weeks, but for anyone variety it was. only 5 weeks.

In order to keep browning to a minimum without reducing yield and bean size, a grower should cut his beans as soon as they are ripe and thresh them as soon as they are dry. Delays in either cutting or threshing increase the browning.