Growing Green Beans

Growing Green Beans is my favorite right after tomatoes. The bean is easy to grow and when grown at home, I can pick it when it is at a young tender age.

The secret to growing green beans is to pick just as the seed starts to form. Left unpicked, the seeds will mature and they will not be worth eating.

Once they flower, and if all conditions are met, the bean will be ready in less than five days. I use to plant one row fifty feet long and pick every other day. This would give me enough to can about six quarts.

We would pick the beans, snap them and have them canned within twelve hours. This left the bean with a great taste. You can freeze them, but they do not taste as good.

Growing green beans can be eaten fresh. They just melt in your moth. We picked some bulk beans at Wal-Mart the other day, snapped them and ate them. They were good, but nothing like growing and picking your own.

As good as green beans are, if I am short of space, I will pass these up because I can get them in bulk and get a fairly good taste. And they are cheap.

When my space is short, I will focus on the expensive stuff like peppers. But this year, I will plant some so we can record their growth.

Because we need a lot of plants to produce a lot of beans quickly, it usually does not make sense to try to start green beans inside the house and transplant them. But if this is what you want to do then give it a try.

Once the danger of all frost has passed, the seeds can be planted. These guys do not like the cold at all. Plant them 1 too 2 inches deep, about 1 every three inches apart. Then thin to six inches. Green beans will sprout in about seven days or less.

When working with the mature plants and picking the beans, try to do so when they plants are dry. Working with them wet tends to cause them to have diseases.

When growing green beans, keep the soil moist. A good rule of thumb is to put a finger in the dirt and if the dirt is dry up to the first knuckle, then it needs about an inch of water.

Beans will do really good in temps of 70 to about 90F. Once the temps get about this, they will still produce and grow, but they will be stringy and taste awful. Nurse your plants during the hot season and by late early/late fall they will continue to put out more of the tender, young beans.

I am talking about San Antonio. Where you are it may be different. Once the first frost takes them out, pull them up and put them on your compost pile if you have one.

If not, chop them up and put them on your garden, or put them on your lawn and run over them with a mulching lawnmower.

When fertilizing, I like to use Miracle Grow. I do not hook it up to my hose and apply it since I do not know how much my plants are getting.

Instead I mix it in a two gallon container and apply it. This way I know how much the plants are getting.

If you are doing organic, check with your local nursery to find out what they recommend.

If they get too much nitrogen, we will have all plant and no bean. Be careful in apply fertilizer. One year I planted some pole beans and I had some 10-12 foot tall plants. But all I had was tall plants. Once I cut back on the Miracle Grow, they started producing.

When growing green beans there are many types of green beans or stringless beans as I have heard them called before, to grow. There are even some yellow and purple ones. I have tried both and to me they just did not have the taste of the green ones.

They also come in pole and bush type. The pole beans have to be grow on a pole or lattice of some sort. They can get up to twelve feet tall depending on the variety. The bush one will get up to about two feet in height.

If you want to make your own seeds, then let a non-hybrid grow until it starts to dry out on the plant. Once this is done pick them and let them dry out in the sun. Once they are dry, put them in a dry, airless bag until ready to plant.

Keep in mind that this only works with non-hybrids.

When are growing green beans ready pick?

Generally the green beans are ready to pick in about 50-60 days. Pick the when they are about as thick as a pencil, smaller if you want a better, tender taste. Length is determined by the type you plant, but usually they will be at least four to six inches long.

We will post video when out plants start to grow. We will follow their growth.

The type I am going to plant this year is the "Contender." It is a bush bean, stringless and has a great flavor. I have had a lot of success with these in the past.

More to come on growing green beans as they grow.

When my plants start growing, I will pay close attention to any fungus or insects that seem to be attacking my plants.

6-21-09

My green beans did not do well at all. I am not sure why, but it probably has to do with the unusually high temperatures we have had. I may try some this fall to see if they will produce since we should not have any freezing weather until December.

Thank you for visiting this site.

For more on green beans go to Bush Beans, How to Grow Green Beans and Growing Pole Beans.

Your Garden Story

Do you have a garden story to share with us?

Go to Home Page from Growing Green Beans.