Beans & peas
Bush beans (snap)
Direct sow late May; succession every 2 to 3 wk through early Aug.
- Outside
- Direct after frost, late May
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Every 3 to 4 days in summer; deep soak, more once pods set
- Harvest
- 50 to 60 days, pick young
Care
- Water
- Every 3 to 4 days through the summer, daily in a real heat wave once nights stay warm. A long soak at the base until the top few inches are wet, then let it dry before the next. Step it up once flowers and pods set, and keep the water off the leaves.
- Sow
- Direct sow late May once soil holds 60F, one inch deep, 2 to 4 inches apart in rows about two feet apart. No thinning; beans go in at final spacing. Resow a short row on a 2 to 3 week cadence into early August.
- Feed
- A shovel of compost or castings worked in at planting is all it needs; the plants fix their own nitrogen from there. Skip any extra feed, since too much nitrogen buys leaves at the expense of pods.
- Ready
- Pick every other day at pencil size in the July heat; a pod left to swell tells the plant to stop setting. Snap or pinch from the stem rather than tug.
- Trouble
- Skeletonized leaves: Mexican bean beetle, crush the yellow egg clusters and larvae on the undersides. Brown spots with yellow halos: bacterial blight in wet weather, water the soil and rotate out of beans for 3 years. Wilt in dense rows: white mold, space wider for airflow.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 7–10 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily through July and August; a bag dries far faster than a bed. About 45 to 60 sec on the shower dial until it runs from the seams.
- Feed
- Top-dress with compost monthly; every watering leaches the bag.
- Sow
- Eight or nine plants fill a 7 to 10 gal bag.
Snap beans run on succession here, a fresh short row every two or three weeks from late May to early August. Each round bears hard for a couple of weeks, then hands off to the next.
Growing
Direct sow once soil is warm in late May, an inch deep and a few inches apart; beans resent transplanting and never need it. A 7 to 10 gallon bag holds eight or nine plants and yields a legitimate picking. Resow every 2 to 3 weeks through early August; the last round comes in at the end of September, racing the cold. Pick at pencil size every other day, because pods left to lump up tell the plant to quit. From first flower on, keep the rows evenly watered; a dry spell at bloom makes the stringy pods the variety gets blamed for.
Varieties
Provider germinates in cooler soil than the rest and opens the season; Jade carries the summer; Royal Burgundy is easier to spot against the leaves.
Pests
Mexican bean beetles, which look like ladybugs gone over to the other side, skeletonize leaves from midsummer; crush the yellow egg clusters and spiny larvae on the undersides during picking rounds. Succession itself is a defense, since each new planting outruns the buildup on the old one. Japanese beetles chew flowers and leaves in July; knock them into soapy water in the cool of the morning while they are slow.
In the kitchen
Steamed or charred whole while truly young. The surplus gets the dilly bean treatment in pint jars, garlic and a chile in each.