Vegetable Garden - Tips on Growing Bush Bean Seeds

Bush beans include our favorites as they are listed above. Unlike Pole Beans, these are determinate, which means they grow to a certain size, blossom, produce the fruit and then stop growing. Because Bush Beans harvest will only last about 2 weeks, you can enjoy more if you make small individual plantings every 10 days or so.

Before setting out the plants,  I would mix a 1-inch layer of compost and a light application of an organic or timed-release fertilizer into the soil. When given a little starter fertilizer and biologically active compost, beans usually need no further feeding. Once the bean seedling is in the ground and teams up with bacteria in the soil, beans will start to create their own nitrogen – which is the most important nutrient plants require to make strong new growth.

 Sowing Seeds

• Bush Bean Seeds Depth: 1" (2.5 cm), 6-8 seeds per hill
• Germination soil temperature: 75-85ºF (24-29ºC)
• Days for Germination: 7-10
• Sow indoors: Not recommended
• Sow outdoors: When soil temperature reaches 60ºF (16ºC)

 Growing

• Watering: Low at planting, medium at flowering and then heavy through harvest.
• Light:  Full Sun
• Nutrient requirements: N=low, P=moderate, K=moderate.

Rotation and Companion Planting for Bush Bean Seeds

• Rotation considerations: Because they get along with just about all vegetables except members of the onion family, bush beans can go almost anywhere and be followed by just about anything.
• Good companions: Beet, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, celery, corn, cucumber, eggplant, leek, marigold, pea, radish, rosemary and sunflower.
• Bad companions: Basil, fennel, kohlrabi, onion family.

Beans, may it be Bush type, Pole, Wax or any Green Beans are easy to grow in any warm, well-drained soil, but they must have warmth. Wait until after your last frost has passed to set out transplants, 8 to 10 inches apart ought to do it. A double row, in which 2 rows of plants are grown with 12 inches between the rows, will produce the highest yields of beans per square foot. For a steady bountiful harvest all summer, set out a second set of plants 3 to 4 weeks after your first planting.

USDA Hardiness Zone -First Frost Date- Last Frost Date

• Zone 1  -July 15th -June 15th
• Zone 2  -August 15th- May 15th
• Zone 3  -September 15th May 15th
• Zone 4  -September 15th May 15th
• Zone 5  -October 15th April 15th
• Zone 6  -October 15th April 15th
• Zone 7  -October 15th April 15th
• Zone 8  -November 15th March 15th
• Zone 9  -December 15th February 15th
• Zone 10 -December 15th January 31st (sometimes earlier)
• Zone 11 -No frost. No frost.

Bean pods that dangle to the ground can rot, but mulch helps prevent this.

For your information, you will see the initials below after the name of our Beans. This guide is to inform you of the disease resistance or tolerance to common Bean problems.

Bean Disease Tolerance Codes:

• BCMV- Bean Common Mosaic Virus
• HB- Halo Blight
• A- Anthracnose
• ALS- Angular Leaf Spot
• BBS- Bacterial Brown Spot
• R- Rust

Blanching and freezing are the easiest way to store your summer or fall crop of Bush Beans. You can blanch them in boiling water for 1 minute and then quickly cool them in ice water for about 20 minutes. This process will brighten and stabilize their color and flavor while preserving the crisp texture of the pods.

If you have just developed a new garden bed from areas that were previously covered with grass, this will often host a hidden danger for Beans, that is the cutworm. These earth-colored caterpillars are very active at night, and will often kill seedlings by cutting and eating their main stems, making them look almost dead. The easiest way to prevent the damage from a cutworm is to prevent the worm from getting to the plant to start with, do so by encircling each plant with a rigid "collar" as soon as it is transplanted. To make your homemade cutworm collars, cut an 8- to 10-ounce plastic cup or a similar size container into 3-inch-tall rings. Pop them around the plants, making sure you push them into the soil about an inch deep. I like this easy way to prevent cutworm damage, and that is to use small strips of aluminum foil to cover the base of each stem. After your Bush Beans or Snap Beans have been growing in your garden for a couple of weeks, their stems become so tough that cutworms can no longer damage them.

Slugs and snails like to make holes in bean leaves, and Japanese beetles like to eat the leaves as well. Slugs are easily trapped in shallow containers filled with beer or a mixture of sugar water and yeast, or you can treat the area with a slug bait approved for food gardens in order to bring serious infestations under control. Products that use iron phosphate as their active ingredient are considered organic. Use row covers to protect plants from Japanese beetles.