Wanting to plant green beans. Could use some growing tips.?

There are Bush Beans and Pole Beans, also called String Beans because they are a vine that climb poles or strings. The bush beans grow as a low bush and bear all their beans within a couple of weeks, then the plants die. Bush beans are preferred by people who can because you get a lot of beans all at once to can.

Pole beans will start producing beans early in the summer and keep producing all summer long until fall frost kills the vines. You will get many pickings from Pole Beans.

Beans require the soil to be warmer than most other vegetables. Plant late in the spring so the ground will be warm enough. If you plant too soon, don't worry, just plant again. Planting beans is almost error proof. All you need is to cover them with about 1/2 inch of soil, and then apply water.

When beans are small, they do need a small amount of nitrogen to grow. Once they get plenty of foliage, they can provide their own nitrogen needs from the air and will leave nitrogen in the soil if you don't pull the roots at the end of the growing season.

Your biggest problem will be Bean Beatles and Snails. They both love to eat Beans. Place Slug / Snail bait about two inches from your bean row, so the bait does not touch your plants, but will stop the slugs and snails from reaching the plants.

I have a fence post set in my garden for growing beans. This makes my bean crop grow straight up instead of spreading out and saves space in my garden. I plant a dozen beans around the bottom of the post and they climb the post. By July the bean post is providing enough green beans for my family of four to have beans every other day.

Planting String Beans

In my area (Texas), green beans are one of the EASIEST veggies to grow. It's almost as easy as growing Yellow Squash. I use Blue Lake (a bush-type) beans and have also planted some Contender, Burgundy, and Wax Beans. (The burgundy is pretty, but it doesn't hold its color when canning, so I don't plant it as much.) I have also planted some Kentucky Wonder climbing beans. Check with your local Extension Agent or gardening club to see what kinds grow best in your area. I think that's the real key.

We use organic manure (mixture of goat, rabbit, cow, and horse), and usually about 4 rows of bush-beans will give me PLENTY to can. I didn't plant last year because of the extremely wet weather, and I still have a huge number of jars from the year before. Note: you have have to harvest the beans regularly in order to get the most out of the crop. Also be wary of snakes, if they are a problem in your area; snakes will hide under the bush-beans sometimes and, even if non-poisonous, will give you a good scare.

Beans like warm soil & are hard to transplant. Start some beans in manure pots. once the ground is warm enough to plant you bean seeds outside. Place the manure pots with beans up in them in a pan with 1/4 inch water in it. Overnight. Take this out to were you will plant the beans in the suny location warmest soil. Dig a small whole remove just the soaked bottom of the manure pot. Place in whole fill whole. This will give you a 2 week head start on planting some beans ahead of the bean seeds. You must be gental here. As I said beans are hard to transplant but this worked for me.. Just removing the bottom of the pot & not disturbing the rest of the root. This was string beans Kentucky wonder mostly. Also you can transplant snow peas early were you will plant beans. Then plant beans between them. Peas once hot out die. But by then the beans are getting up so you get peas edible pod then beans of the same row. Nothing like a bunch of early peas.

Plant them in the ground in LATE spring - when the ground is thoroughly warm. I usually plant about 2 weeks AFTER my last frost date.

Well-drained soil, full sun.

If you choose pole beans, you'll need something for them to climb on. A simple teepee of bamboo poles, or twine up the side of a fence...

The French filet beans are better tasting than the string beans, but tend to curl up on you. For the string beans, plant when the days get to 80 degrees for a stretch. one bean every two inches.