🫘 Fordhook 242 Lima Bean
What it looks like
Why this variety
Fordhook 242 is the lima bean that home cooks call the gold standard, and the seed catalogs agree: a bush lima introduced in 1945, winner of an All-America Selections award that year, producing heavy yields of broad, thick pods three and a half to four inches long with three to four large, greenish-white beans each, on compact plants only 16 to 20 inches tall. It is sometimes called potato lima, after the large, plump shape of its beans, and it remains a gardener’s favorite because it is reliable, productive, and flavorful — the large lima that actually finishes in a normal season, without demanding a pole-lima trellis or a tropical summer.
The eating case is size and creaminess: Fordhook beans are large, buttery, and rich, the lima for succotash, soups, and freezing, where a big, tender bean holds its own against other ingredients. They are also famously easy to shell, because the large beans fill their pods completely, and they freeze and can superbly, which means a summer harvest can be eaten all winter. If Henderson is the baby lima for tenderness, Fordhook 242 is the large lima for substance — and a garden that grows both has limas for every dish.
If you are new to choosing between cultivars, the Varieties Matter guide explains why the name after the plant matters as much as the plant itself. And if you want the whole clan at a glance, the broader Lima Bean guide covers lima beans generally.
How to grow
Lima beans in Florida are a long, hot-season crop that rewards patience the way few beans do: sow after the soil is warm, give bush types a sunny bed and pole types a serious trellis, and settle in, because limas take their time getting started and then produce for months. They love heat that makes snap beans drop blossoms, they tolerate humidity better than most beans, and they keep setting pods deep into summer, which makes them one of the best beans for a Florida garden that wants dinner in August. The trade-off is time: large limas need the longest season of any common bean, so sow early in spring or plan a late-summer sowing for fall, and do not judge a lima plant by its first slow month. Once it starts, it does not stop.
Sow after the last frost in warm soil, at least 65°F, seeds an inch deep and 4 to 6 inches apart in rows 24 to 30 inches apart, in full sun and fertile, well-drained soil. Fordhook 242 needs about 75 days to fresh beans, so sow early in spring for a summer harvest, or late summer for fall, and do not waste weeks on cold soil that rots seed. Water steadily, mulch, and pick often once pods fill, because Fordhook keeps producing clusters of pods through hot weather and right up to frost, as long as you keep picking. In Florida, give it heat and time, and it will reward you with months of pods.
Water & feeding
Limas want deep, steady water — about an inch to an inch and a half a week — especially while pods fill, because drought during pod fill makes small, tough beans and dropped flowers. Work worm castings into the bed at sowing, water at soil level to keep foliage dry in humid weather, and mulch thickly to hold moisture in sandy soil. Go easy on nitrogen fertilizer: limas fix their own nitrogen, and extra nitrogen grows vines instead of beans. Keep watering through the harvest, because a lima vine that is still picking is still drinking.
Common problems
Bean beetles, stink bugs, and aphids are the pests to watch; hand-pick beetles and wash aphids off. Leaf diseases appear in wet weather, so water at soil level and space for air. Drought during pod fill shrinks beans, so keep water even. Fordhook is noted for heat and drought tolerance for a lima, but tolerance is not immunity — a dry plant still makes poor beans, so mulch and water matter even for a tough variety. Cold soil at sowing rots seed, so wait for warmth.
Harvest
Pick pods when plump and green, shell fresh beans, and cook briefly — large limas need a little more cooking than baby limas, but they reward it with creaminess. For dry beans, let pods dry on the plant, thresh, and store airtight. Freeze blanched Fordhook beans in bags; they are one of the best freezing limas, holding texture and flavor for months. Save seed from healthy plants; Fordhook 242 is open-pollinated and comes true when isolated from other limas.
Nerdy fact: Fordhook 242’s All-America Selections win in 1945 is a clue to its character: AAS winners are judged in trial gardens across the country, so a lima that won in 1945 had to perform everywhere, not just in one pampered plot — and eighty years later, it still does.
Saving seeds
Fordhook 242 is an open-pollinated heirloom bush lima, a 1945 All-America Selections winner, so saved seed comes true — let pods dry on the vine, then shell and store the beans. The full method is in the Saving seeds section of the Lima Bean guide.