Growing Green Beans In The Spring

Hello Everyone! I hope you are having a great week. Today, I have an article for you written by my husband, David, of David's Garden Seeds® that talks about planting green beans in your spring and fall gardens. I hope you enjoy it.

Don’t let the word “Green” in green beans fool you. Green beans come in several colors. There is green, yellow, usually called wax, purple and a mix of several other colors. Fresh, home-grown green beans have the best taste. You can only get one type of bush bean in the store. It is the green one, about six inches long. You will not find purple or yellow. You will not find the 12-to-32-inch beans either. Beans are either bush or pole. If growing pole beans, they will need to have some sort of trellis to grow on. Some people will plant them with corn or grey stripe sunflowers so that the beans can grow up them instead of on a trellis. While growing green beans are easy, there are some things that must be done correctly. First of all it has to be warm, at least 65 to 70 degrees for the soil temperature. Do not confuse this with the ambient temperature. Green beans do not like cool temperatures below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. But beans do not like temperatures above 90 degrees. If the beans are too cold or too hot, they produce, but the beans will have a woody texture to taste. Here in South Texas you can get an early spring crop and a fall crop. If planned just right, you can harvest beans on Thanksgiving Day so you have fresh beans to make green bean casserole. But, a time or two we have lost our gamble, as it froze before Thanksgiving. We have also tried covering them. They did not freeze but they have the woody texture and taste. Green beans are not recommended for transplanting. They are fast growers so gardeners really do not save anything when transplanting. We had a customer complain that the bean seeds they planted did not come up. I asked how deep they planted. They said two inches. Honestly, ¾ of an inch to one inch is more than deep enough for beans. Seeds have enough energy to germinate, and break surface where photosynthesis takes place and allows the plant to grow. If planted too deep, the seed runs out of energy and dies before breaking the surface. The grower does not know this so he says the seed was not any good. The beans can be planted two inches by two inches apart in a raised bed that is four feet wide. If planting more than four foot wide, leave a 3-foot wide walkway between the raised beds. See our germination guide for more information and tips. When the beans are at pencil width, they are ready to pick. This is the point where you get the best taste. Bush beans will all ripen in about two weeks. Pole beans will continue to produce until it gets to about 60 degrees. Some sellers of bean seeds say you should inoculate them for better germination. I have not noticed any difference one way or the other. When the season is done the plants can be pulled up and chopped up for compost or to refresh the soil for the next vegetable. Beans can be canned and will last for years. We had a jar that sat on the shelf for 30 years. When we opened it there was no smell and they tasted great. They can be blanched and frozen for about six months. They can be freeze dried and will last for years. Some beans may develop powdery mildew. If this is a problem in your area, pretreat with an organic fungicide. Most insects that eat beans can be controlled with an organic insecticide like Pyrethrin or Spinosad. I grow Provider green beans in the fall. I prefer to grow Contender and Blue Lake 274 green beans in the spring.

Right now, we are having a 10% off sale when you spend at least $15 on single seed packs from us. That includes vegetable seeds, fruit seeds, herb seeds, and flower seeds. Happy planting!

Here is the link to the website to purchase seeds that are on sale now: David's Garden Seeds.

We're Expecting!

The other animals are doing well. We are getting lots of eggs from our hens now and if you are in the area and you want farm fresh eggs, ours are $6 a dozen currently.

In our area, our last frost date is March 3 which is this coming Monday so we are excited to finally be able to plant.