Beans in Florida

[Avonnow]

I live in Florida and since the spring have tried unsuccessfully to grow pole beans. Either too hot, or not enought sun. Anyhow I got rattlesnake beans, someone suggested them for warmer climates. This is going to sound stupid, but... The flowers turn into the bean - right, do these flowers need pollination like other plants, the plant gets tons of flowers, but I have only now seen a scattering of beans, and unless there magic there will not be enough for even a meal. I am not sure why I have such bad luck with them. Do you think I can try again now in the fall and they will do better, or are they primarly summer plants (beans) I am in Florida and we probably have a good two months of warm weather, maybe a day or two cooler. Should I cut these down or will they still produce more flowers and maybe produce in a few more weeks. Thanks - I love beans and squash and I have no luck growing them, so I hope I can gleam some info to get better at these crops.

[ACW]

Sherry ,
up here a bit further North and way across the Atlantic my beans a re coming to the end of their season , 5-6 weeks before the frost but short damp days and long cool damp nights ,beans like sunshine like most veggies .
If you have lots of flowers and some beans you should get more if enough plants you should get a meal or 5 .Thats as long as you have some pollinators ,bees are best but there are others like moths and hoverflies
tomorrow promises to be dryish so should have 3 portions of my 7 blue lake beans ,with a little luck my late planting of french beans should give me a small crop before winter sets in !

[gumbo2176]

Avon, give japanese yard long beans a try. They are also pole type beans, grow their vines incredibly fast and are a big producer. I only have half my 25 ft. trellis in them and the other half in sugar snaps. I find the yard longs are best picked between 18-24 inches or so, and if you only pick 30 of them, it's more than enough for a good size pot for a family of 5.

I know you grow okra and they are a good producer----yard longs make okra look slow in comparison.

My vines are starting to play out a bit now and I'll not likely put more of them into the ground till spring----but they will definitely have a place then.

[applestar]

Pole beans keep producing until first frost kills the vines, so while that is not so far off for us -- may be in 2~3 weeks, you're probably going to see your beans take off now that the worst of the heat is over. Don't give up!

Also, even if you absolutely don't have enough to harvest for a meal, I would leave a few pods to mature and dry for next year's seeds.

[Avonnow]

Maybe I will do that keep the few I have and try again with those seeds, the rattlesnake did the best of the ones I have tried, I also have purple pod about three weeks behind them, so not sure what they will do. They look great, but I didn't realize they needed bees as well. That may be a problem, they are scarce even with a few flowers around. They were great while my neighbors Crepe Myrtle were in Bloom, but it is starting to stop blooming. Maybe they will come back when the squash blooms. Thanks

[applestar]

Do you get hummingbirds in your garden? For some reason, most of my regular beans are not doing well this year -- California #5 Black-eyed peas are taking over the garden however -- but last year, the hummingbirds were ALL OVER the Purple Podded Pole beans and Scarlet Runner Bean flowers. It was kind of fun thinking we were eating hummingbird-pollinated beans. I think night-flying moths also use bean flowers as nectar source.

But actually, beans can self-pollinate themselves. DD grew some bush and pole beans indoors on the windowsill as an experiment over the winter and they made pods/beans without any help.

[lilcee]

I live in North Florida and I'm growing bush beans. I tried poll beans in the spring and they blossomed but didn't produce any beans. I've been picking beans for the last week and my plants are covered with blossoms. The problem I'm having is the worms. I kill a bunch of them everyday and can't seem to keep ahead of them. My plants look like swiss cheese with the holes in the leaves.
But as far as producing, they're doing good so far.
This is the first year in a long time I've tried to grow anything here. I grew up in NY and the soil is a lot different here.
I'm also growing squash and zucchini. The squash is producing lots but the zucchini doesn't seem to be doing very good.

The beans I'm growing are called Blue Lake.