“I’ve let some beans go to ripen for seed. How do I tell when they’re done ripening and when I should pick them? And do they need to cure before taking out the seed?”
Just leave them on the vine/plant until it dies back and the pods are brown and dry. Then harvest the seed and let it dry for a week or so in a paper bag (the paper sucks out moisture) then put it into a glass jar for use next year. Add a few grains of rice to suck out extra moisture.
However...unless they are open-pollinated heirloom-types they won’t reproduce true. If they are a hybridized bean, you’ll get the mother or the father bean, but not the EXACT same bean you had this season.
Confused? Well, you should be, LOL! ;)
Actually, not confused. They were open pollinated. That’s why I want to save them.
I did plant another variety of bean nearby, which I shouldn’t have, but I think that the plants that I’m saving from flowered well before the others.
The pods are dry and brown now and the plants are starting to die back.
I just looked out into the garden and am pleased to see so much red. It’ll be a smallish tomato crop, but something. There’s always next year to hope for.