If you do choose to grow them, harvest them after the pods dry and begin to split open. Limas can be left to mature and harvested as dry beans, although dry beans are rarely grown in home gardens because they are so inexpensive to buy. If you wait until they are overly ripe, they will be tough and mealy. Pick lima beans when the seeds are tender, green, and fully developed. Pick pole beans all season they will continue to produce if kept picked clean. Expect to be able to harvest bush beans 2 or 3 times, and then discard the planting. Pick beans regularly to keep the plants producing. Harvest snap beans when the pods are firm and fully elongated, but before the seeds begin to swell. Don’t be alarmed, however production will resume when the weather moderates. The pollen fails to grow a pollen tube through the pistil and the unfertilized ova fail to grow. In exceptionally hot weather, pollination may be poor, resulting in few beans. They also produce longer from a single seeding than the bush types. Pole beans are much easier to harvest than bush beans because they are up in the air and no bending over is involved.

Diseases include bean mosaic disease (affected plants turn yellowish green and do not produce beans) and bacterial blight, evidenced by brown spots on the leaves or water-soaked spots on the pods. To avoid spreading disease, do not work in the beans when they are wet. Planting disease-resistant varieties will go a long way toward producing a good bean crop. Apply an approved insecticide to control bean beetles, which will eat holes in the leaves. Pests may affect the plantings, but rotating the bean plantings to a different place in the garden each year reduces pest problems. The plants need about 1 inch of water per week. Moisten them at planting time but do not keep them constantly soaked.īeans require little care except regular weeding and adequate water if the weather is dry. Beans may not germinate well if they are kept too wet so we cannot overemphasize the importance of good drainage. Where soil insects have been troublesome-damaging roots or stems before they emerge-you may have to apply an approved granular or water-mixed garden soil insecticide, mixed or used according to directions, to protect the seeds as they germinate. Make a three-pole teepee tied at the top, or individual drive poles securely into the ground in each hill. You may need to help pole beans get started on their supports-they twine counterclockwise. Sow seeds of pole beans 6 inches apart in rows along a fence or trellis, or sow them in hills of 6 seeds around poles set 3 feet apart then cover the seeds with 1 inch of soil. Sow seeds of bush beans 2 to 3 inches apart, and cover them with 1 inch of soil. Garden stores or garden catalogs list them as legume innoculants. Beneficial bacteria are necessary for nitrogen fixation, and if beans have never been grown in the garden, you may need to add beneficial bacteria to the soil. Giving them a full-sun location (8 to 10 hours will suffice) will make them even happier.

Planting seeds every 3 weeks until the beginning of August will assure a continuous supply of fresh snap beans (NOTE: late summer-planted beans, like other summer vegetables, are more susceptible to insect damage and drought.Ī location with at least 6 hours of sunlight a day and well-drained soil will produce healthy beans for you. Sow seeds about 2 weeks before the latest date of last frost these tender plants cannot tolerate a freeze. The runners are called pole beans they may be allowed to vine along the ground, but gardeners usually grow them on supports. Bean plants may be either bush types or runners. Dry beans are grown for the seeds, which are allowed to mature before harvest and are shelled from the pods for use. Shell beans, such as limas, are harvested before maturity, and the seeds are removed, or shelled.

Snap beans may be green or yellow (wax beans). The tender pods, which are used before the seeds mature, are called snap beans because the pods snap easily when bent. Most beans are grown for their seeds and pods. More detailed information can be found in The Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Book by Walter Reeves and Felder RushingĪll beans are members of the legume family, Leguminosae,which can extract and use nitrogen from the air.Common beans are probably native to South America and were grown there for centuries before Europeans began growing them. Beans may be the most diverse garden vegetables, ranking second only to tomatoes in popularity.

Cherokee wax beans pole or bush