Production of the black swamp beans is better by a tad than Uncle Steve's. If I compare with a highly productive bean like Rattlesnake, I would estimate that they produce about 60% and 50% respectively as much total beans. Flavor of both is significantly better than Rattlesnake.
Waking up old bean seed is not very difficult. You need a cell tray or a bunch of cups that can be watered from the bottom. Fill the tray with good quality seed start mix like Promix BX or equivalent. Water thoroughly so the soil mix is completely damp to the point of dripping water. Include about 1/2 teaspoon of liquid fertilizer (miracle grow or equivalent) in the water, you MUST have some nitrogen in the soil to get a response from the seed. Push the seed one at a time just into the top of the seed start mix so the hilium is down and the seed coat is flush with the top of the soil. Put beans an avrerage of 1 inch apart in the mix. Get them too close and dead seed will grow fungi that kill any that try to germinate. Bean seed must not be covered up for this to work, old bean seed need direct light exposure to germinate. Put the trays in a warm location at 75 degrees for 3 days, then put them under bright lights continuously until germination.
Using this method, I've been able to wake up 4 varieties of beans over the years. One of them gave only 7 plants out of a pound or more of seed. Those 7 plants produced nearly 2 pounds of fresh seed.
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