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Growing Green Beans

Green beans ask for almost nothing and give back a lot, no transplanting, no heavy feeding, just a warm bed and something to climb if you pick the right kind.

Planting

Direct-sow after all frost danger has passed and soil has warmed, beans resent having their roots disturbed, so there’s no starting these indoors. Bush beans give one concentrated harvest over a couple of weeks; pole beans take longer to get going but keep producing all summer if you give them something to climb. We grow both: bush beans for canning and freezing, pole beans strung up a trellis for the fresh eating that just keeps coming.

Watering & feeding

Water at the base and keep soil evenly moist, especially while the plants are flowering and setting pods, dry spells during that window are the main reason for a light harvest. Beans fix their own nitrogen from the air, so skip the high-nitrogen fertilizer; it’ll just grow you a jungle of leaves and precious few beans.

Harvest

Pick when pods are firm and snap cleanly, before you can see the beans bulging inside. Check plants every couple of days once they start; beans left too long toughen up and tell the plant to stop flowering altogether. For bush beans, sow a new round every 2–3 weeks through early July to keep a steady harvest instead of one big flush. Watch for Mexican bean beetles (they look like a copper-colored ladybug) and a light dusting of orange-brown rust on the leaves in our humid summers; good airflow and watering at the base instead of overhead go a long way toward keeping both in check.

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