Pole beans should be planted 4-to-6 inches apart or 4-to-6 seed in hills spaced 3 feet apart and should be provided with a trellis for the plant to grow onto. If you have not grown beans for the past few years, using a Rhizobium inoculant on the seed can increase yield.
Timeline: Plant beans after the chance of frost has passed Figure 2. Days to harvest range from 50 to 70 days. Trellising: Pole bean supports should be put in place at planting time. Make a simple trellis of six-foot stakes and twine, or set up a teepee of bamboo poles or long branches. Plant seeds in a row in front of the trellis, or in a circle around a teepee trellis. Watering: Keep the soil moist but not soggy; allow the soil surface to dry up to a half-inch deep between waterings. On average beans will require about 1 inch of water per week.
Be sure that beans are kept moist during and after bloom, to get the best yield and well-shaped pods. Mulching: Mulching can help keep the soil evenly moist, as well as decrease weeds.
Weeding: Frequent, shallow cultivation will kill weeds before they become a problem. Beans have shallow roots, so do not hoe deeply. Harvest: Snap beans can be picked at any stage of pod formation until the shape of the individual seeds inside becomes apparent, causing the pods to bulge. After this stage, the pods are typically less juicy and more fibrous. However, the pods can be picked at this more advanced stage and shelled to use the soft fresh bean seeds.
Pick beans after the dew is off the plants, and they are thoroughly dry. Picking beans from wet plants can spread bean bacterial blight, a disease that seriously damages the plants. Be careful not to break the stems or branches, which are brittle on most bean varieties.
Plants mature in 62 days. Celine has lilac-colored 5-inch pods on inch bush-type plants. They mature in 55 days. Dragon Tongue is a bush-type bean with green pods with flecks of purple. The pods can be enjoyed as a snap bean when young or can be picked when ripe and shelled.
The plants grow 24—30 inches tall and mature in 60 days. Kentucky Wonder is a popular heirloom pole bean. The plants reach feet tall with flat, straight silvery-green pods that grow inches long. Maturity in 70 days. Purple Queen Improved is a bush-type with uniformly straight, purple 6-inch pods that turn green when cooked. The plants grow inches and are cold tolerant. Velour is a disease-resistant bush-type bean with striking, deep purple, smooth, round pods that grow 5 and a half inches long.
Plants mature in 55 days. Wyatt is a bush-type bean with productive, uniform plants and deep emerald green, tender pods that grow up to 6 and a half inches. Matures in 54 days. Snap beans come in shades of purple, green and yellow. Growing several varieties of beans adds great color to the garden.
Green beans are shallow rooted, so staying on top of watering is imperative. They require 1 inch of water a week, or more during the hottest days of summer. Whenever there is less than an inch of rain in the forecast for a week, apply additional water.
Soaker hoses or drip irrigation next to the base of plants and set on automatic timers will ensure green beans always have the water they need. Just be sure to avoid overhead watering because getting plants wet will invite disease, especially if soil splashes on leaves.
Always apply water at the base of plants, under the foliage. Avoid getting the foliage of green bean plants wet. Wet leaves invite plant pathogens to take hold. As legumes, green beans work with nitrogen-fixing bacteria to provide their own fertilizer. Though beans have few needs, vigilance is needed to stay on top of pest and disease issues.
The Mexican bean beetle , the most common pest of bean plants, is a cousin of the beneficial lady beetle. It has a pale orange back with small black spots and lays yellow egg clusters under the bean leaves that hatch into yellow larvae that look like tiny alligators.
Check plants often for eggs and larvae and remove them by hand or try neem oil. Once established, they are hard to control organically. Floating row cover is a useful physical barrier between beetles and plants, but hard to use on pole beans. Mexican bean beetles look like beneficial ladybugs, but instead of eating aphids, they eat bean foliage. Aphids are soft-bodied sucking insects that are vectors for plant diseases. As they eat plant leaves they excrete honeydew, which attracts ants and other insects.
Check for aphids on the underside leaves. They develop nodules on their roots that are filled with bacteria. These bacteria are responsible for converting unusable nitrogen into a usable form that other plants can take up through their roots.
Increasing nitrogen in the soil makes legumes amazing companion plants to a number of crops, especially heavy nitrogen feeders, not least of which is corn. The notorious three sisters corn, beans, and squash is just one example of how green beans in particular make a great neighbor.
Similarly, crop rotation is considered best practice with legumes, and most annual crops for that matter. It also helps to limit the reoccurrence of diseases and pests that are likely to return. One of biggest challenges when growing green beans is keeping pests from eating them before you have a chance to.
Deer and rabbits will munch on plants at any point in the season, if left vulnerable. To protect them, consider a fence or garden cloches , which are simply small cages that can protect seedlings and small plants from pests and damaging frosts. To reduce the formation of mold, water plants in the morning. Wet leaves and the coolness of night are a bad combination, providing ideal conditions for many types of diseases to form. Also keep an eye out for Mexican bean beetles, slugs , caterpillars, and aphids.
As soon as you see any of these critters, pick them off or blast them with the hose. Remember that green beans are self-pollinating. So, you can essentially grow them under the protection of a floating row cover up until harvest, which is great protection from garden pests.
Not enough air circulation, however, and you may actually encourage the formation of some diseases. Overall, healthy plants will be much less prone to insects and diseases. So take care in growing your plants and you should have great success! Even if you have never grown a vegetable in your life, you stand nothing to lose by popping a few green bean seeds in the ground. Not to mention, if one crop fails, you can plant another.
This is one plant that you have time to experiment with during the span of a single season. Need a little culinary inspiration? Try these recipes for sriracha tofu stir fry from Foodal , an easy roasted version from The Gingered Whisk , or a twist on a classic, Greek yogurt green bean casserole.
Have you grown green beans before? Product photos via Panacea and True Leaf Market. Uncredited photos: Shutterstock. For four years she worked as a horticulturist, but is now a stay-at-home mom.
With experience in landscape design, installation, and maintenance she has set her sights on turning her tenth-of-an-acre lot into a productive oasis. Amber is passionate about all things gardening, especially growing and enjoying organic food. Great post, Amber.
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