Tips on Green Bean gardening and varieties?

[imafan26]

I've heard good things about Fortex. Is it nematode and rust resistant?

[Peter1142]

I do not see any specific resistances listed for it. Mine last year were pumping out until frost and the bush beans were very rusty. I had maybe 10 plants growing up 4 poles and I was picking buckets of beans, and they never got tough.

[Gary350]

There are many varieties of beans you need to test several to find the ones you like best. Many years ago in TN I experimented by planting several rows of different beans about 6 varieties each time. I learned we like Blue Lake Bush Beans best they have NO strings, grow larger than most beans and still are NOT tough and they have a very good flavor. I still plant Blue Lake Bush Beans.

I plant 3 rows of beans about 25 foot long each 32" apart. Beans are ready to harvest in about 65 days. 65% of my bean crop comes from the first harvest, 25% from second harvest and 10% from third harvest so I pull all my bean plants up after the first harvest and plant a new crop of beans this gives me 30% more beans for the whole summer, much better than 1 crop of beans. This also gives me 65 pints of beans in Mason jars and we eat all the beans we can eat all summer along.

Bush beans make more beans than pole beans. Pole beans are easy on your back when picking but you have to, cut poles, put up poles, take down poles, clean poles, every year. I use a small chair, large hat, and 5 gallon bucket to pick my bush beans and I crawl around on my hands and knees in the dirt to pick beans.

When I lived in Phoenix Arizona area I planted beans in November and March. I had a homemade irrigation system. I watered my beans 15 minutes every day at sun down. The beans I planted in March did better than November beans probably because days were longer and it was much warmer weather and not very hot on harvest day.

I like to plant beans in between the tomato rows. 1,2,1,2,1,2,1 with 1 being tomatoes and 2 being beans. After the bean harvest I pull up the bean plants it makes more room for the tomato plants this makes it easy to harvest tomatoes too. I plant beans is a WIDE row sow the seeds like grass seeds 2" apart in 6" wide rows. This puts a lot of plants in a small space and gives me a larger harvest for a small space.

[Peter1142]

I would not agree that bush beans produce more than pole beans, my experience is that bush beans produce one fast crop, but over the season pole beans produce much, much more for the same real estate. It sounds like maybe you should try some better pole varities. The Fortex just did not slow down producing buckets all summer and fall long. I don't think it is physically possible for a bush patch to produce that much. Of course, there are other benefits to bush beans, like the short DTM and the small plant size.

I tried a summer planting of beans and they did poirly compared to the spring planting.

[Gary350]

I would not agree that bush beans produce more than pole beans, my experience is that bush beans produce one fast crop, but over the season pole beans produce much, much more for the same real estate. It sounds like maybe you should try some better pole varities. The Fortex just did not slow down producing buckets all summer and fall long. I don't think it is physically possible for a bush patch to produce that much. Of course, there are other benefits to bush beans, like the short DTM and the small plant size.

I tried a summer planting of beans and they did poirly compared to the spring planting.

Other things you need to consider are, do you want to be a slave to your garden every day all summer or would you like to take a week vacation 2 or 3 times this summer, go camping several times, take several weekend trips, etc. I like for all my beans to come quick so I can CAN 65 pints of beans and be finished for the year. Most of my tomatoes come in 4 weeks so I CAN 100 pints and 20 quarts of tomatoes. Beans are a 65 day crop you can actually grow 3 crops of bush beans if you want compared to 1 crop of pole beans that last all summer until frost kills them. I doing like Canning or Freezing vegetables every day all summer it interferes with all the other FUN things we like to do. Some plants like beans will die if you fail to harvest every single beans before it produces mature seeds in the pods this signals the plant it is finished for the year so I commits suicide. Blackberry plants do the same thing if you pick every single berry you can still be harvesting blackberries in Oct but you fail to pick 1 berry it stops making berries. It is also very nice to harvest enough FRESH vegetables every day for all the meals for that day all summer until frost kills your plants. You need to think ahead and PLAN for these things. Farmers go for 1 big cash crop but home gardeners usually like to have fresh vegetables every day for as long as their growing season allows and still put lots of fresh vegetables in mason jars or the freezer.

One thing I will do different this year is plant 4 rows of beans, pull up the plants after first harvest then plant corn. Beans add nitrogen to the soil something corn needs. I should be a better crop of corn.

[imafan26]

I planted Poamoho beans and got about 2 weeks worth of beans and now there are no flowers or beans coming. This is a local pole bean variety. The vines are still green but don't seem to be growing much, so do I just need to wait for another cycle or are they done? I have planted this variety before, but I did not pay attention to how long the beans produced. I did leave one bean on the vine for seed. I have 9 pole beans planted in my tomato pot. If this is all I am going to get, I have another cucumber to plant out.

[Peter1142]

I don't know anything about that variety, but I would definitely give them a chance.

[Taiji]

I like the Jade bush beans. Yes, you need to pick them when small and pick every two days. They can get too mature quickly.

I ordered some Jade beans today on your recommendation. Sounds like they are really special. I didn't want to go to the major seed companies to just order one package because of the high postage costs, so, I looked on ebay. I found some independent sellers who sells packets of stuff with reasonable postage costs. Of course, you never know for sure what you're getting, but some sellers advertise non GMO and organic and have good feedback. Thought it was worth it. I ordered 100 seeds; that should last me for 2 yrs. Thx.