Growing Tasty Beans for Your Table

Most vegetable gardens are planted in rows about five apart. Make a six inch tall ridge along the row by raking soil from the center, first from one side then the other. Make a furrow along the top of the ridge with the edge of hole. The furrow should be three inches deep.

Beans are planted in a furrow,; three seeds in each spot about eight inches apart so that you can hoe in between each plant. After the seeds are planted, rake an inch of soil over the beans covering the furrow. If the soil is dry, you can improve germination by watering.

The beans will absorb moisture and swell, cracking the skin and causing the two halves of the bean to split. The embryo bean plant is between the two halves. Gravity will cause the root to grow downward. As the root plunges downward, it lifts the bean to the surface.

If a crust has formed at the soil surface due to hard rain, it can be difficult for the bean to poke through. Be gentle if you need to help the sprout get through the crust by lifting it away.

Plant the first beans after the last date frost is expected. You can prolong the season by planting more rows of beans every three weeks until July.

The two halves of the bean turn green after they break the surface. Just above them are the seed leaves or dicotyledons. And above those will be the first two true leaves. Sprouting beans can sometimes be purchased as six packs at garden centers, but the beans develop so quickly that planting the seeds is usually the best choice.

Pole beans supports to grow up.

Snap beans or pole beans are long narrow beans up to 8 inches long that can be easily snapped in two, some grow stringy fibers along top and bottom of the beans that will need to be removed when harvested. Butter beans are four inches long and have two flat sides. Butter beans have to be removed from their shells.

As the vines grow, weeds need to removed and water supplied during dry spells. When the bean plants are four inches tall, soil should be raked against them from each side, buttressing the plants.

Butter beans need no support and will grow about 20 inches tall. Pole beans, of course, need supports to grow, traditionally slender saplings were formed into tepee shapes by stripping their branches and sticking the butts in the ground along the rows and tied four at time near the top. They should be stuck in the ground four or five feet apart and at least five feet high. But bean vines can also grow up wire fencing, strings, tomato cages, trellises, or other similar objects.

Pole beans will naturally twine their way up the supports though you can help any vines that miss finding the supports and try to twirl around each other. Gently wrap them around the supports. To give them an extra boost, apply manure tea or other liquid fertilizer diluted to half strength every four to six weeks.

When the plants have grown for six to eight weeks short stalks with multiple blooms will appear. Insects such as bees and butterflies will probe them for nectar, carrying the pollen needed for fertilization from bloom to bloom. Some types of beans self fertilize.

Blooms that receive pollen will soon have a swelling at their base. The swelling elongates into a pod as the old bloom falls away. The beans take several weeks to develop and fill out the pod.

Pick beans when the pods feel plump.

Pole beans will have many of their pod clusters hanging from the supports as well as some along the sides of the rows. Butter bean pods are formed in a similar manner but more will be hidden by the leaves.

The bean pods gradually fill. They should be picked when the beans inside feel plump and you can plainly feel the bulge of each bean, three or four per pod.

Pole bean pods also fill out and are picked when the beans can be easily felt inside the pod.