Abstract
Bush beans are an important and usually profitable vegetable crop produced for the fresh market in Miami-Dade County. Improved cultivars are needed that yield well during the production season from September to mid-April, or in some years to mid-May. Growers need to know which cultivar is likely to perform best in a given period of the growing season. Six new or not locally planted cultivars ('Dusky', 'Ambra', 'Capricorn', 'Thoroughbred', 'Charon', and 'Caprice') were compared to 'Leon' and 'Opus' in a randomized complete block design with four replications. The beans were planted on 18 December 2003, the harshest period for bean production, and harvested on 19 February 2004. Yields in declining order were 'Leon', 'Dusky', 'Opus', 'Ambra', 'Capricorn', 'Thoroughbred', 'Charon', and 'Caprice', but not all differences were significant statistically. The yields of 'Thoroughbred', 'Charon', and 'Caprice' would have benefited by allowing several additional days prior to harvest. To determine performance during the latter part of the growing season, all of the above cultivars plus 'Greenback' were planted on 4 March 2004. In this late winter planting, 'Ambra', 'Dusky', and 'Greenback' had the highest yields. 'Dusky' yielded second best in both seasons, and this was the only cultivar to perform very well irrespective of the time of planting. In addition, 'Dusky' has dark green, tender, and straight pods, which are favored by the market.
