Growing Bush Beans in the Home Garden

Bush beans are one of my favorite crops to grow. They are easy to grow, and you do not need a lot of plants to generate an abundance of beans. There are many varieties of bush beans available, and I like to grow different varieties to vary my meals.

Bush beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) are the compact form of the common bean: plants 1 to 2 feet tall that stand on their own, without the trellis that pole beans need. Most are grown as snap beans, eaten pod and all, in green, yellow (wax) and purple-podded varieties. Bush varieties of shelling and dry beans are grown the same way. They fit small beds and containers well.

The trade-off against pole beans: bush beans start bearing sooner, usually 50 to 60 days from sowing, but each planting produces most of its crop over two or three weeks. For a steady supply, sow a short row every two to three weeks.

Planting

Beans are killed by frost, and the seed rots in cold, wet soil. Sow after your last spring frost, once the soil is at least 60°F; at 70 to 80°F they come up fastest and most evenly. Find your frost dates with the zone and frost date lookup.

Depth and spacing: sow 1 inch deep and 2 to 4 inches apart, in rows 18 to 24 inches apart. In a square-foot bed, plant nine per square foot.
Sun and soil: full sun (at least 6 to 8 hours) and well-drained soil with a pH of 6.0 to 7.0. Work in compost before planting.
Inoculant: in a bed where beans have never grown, coating the seed with a bean inoculant (the nitrogen-fixing bacteria for beans) can help the roots form nodules.
Last sowing: a 55-day bean needs about 12 weeks before your first fall frost to give a worthwhile harvest. See the August planting guide for how to count back.

Care

Water: beans need about 1 inch of water a week, and steady moisture matters most during flowering and pod set. Drought then, or temperatures above about 90°F, makes the flowers drop. Water at the base of the plants, in the morning.
Mulch once the soil has warmed to hold moisture and keep pods off the ground.
Fertilizer: little is needed. A light application of a balanced fertilizer at planting is plenty in average soil. Extra nitrogen gives big, leafy plants with few pods.
Weeding: roots are shallow, so pull weeds by hand or hoe only the surface.
Stay out of wet plants. Bacterial blights spread on hands and tools when the leaves are wet, so pick and weed after the foliage dries.

Pests and diseases

Mexican bean beetle: a copper-colored relative of the lady beetle with 16 black spots. The adults and the yellow, spiny larvae feed on leaf undersides and leave the leaves lacy. Hand-pick adults and larvae, crush the yellow egg clusters on the undersides of leaves, and pull plants out once they finish bearing so the next generation has nowhere to go. Because beans pollinate themselves, you can keep a row cover over them the whole season.
Bean leaf beetle: chews round holes in leaves; seedlings are hit hardest.
Aphids and spider mites: knock aphids off with a strong spray of water or use insecticidal soap. Spider mites cause fine yellow speckling in hot, dry weather.
Japanese beetles and cutworms (which cut seedlings off at the soil line) also feed on beans.

The main diseases are bacterial blights (water-soaked spots that turn brown, sometimes with a yellow halo), rust (reddish-brown pustules on leaves), white mold in crowded, wet plantings, and mosaic viruses spread by aphids. Buy fresh seed, give plants room for air to move, rotate beans to a new spot each year, and pull badly infected plants. Many modern varieties resist bean mosaic virus.

Harvesting

Pick snap beans when the pods are firm, crisp and full length but before the seeds inside bulge. Check every two or three days at the peak; a pod left a few extra days gets tough and stringy, and leaving mature pods on the plant slows new flowering. Hold the stem with one hand and pull the pod with the other so you don't break branches or uproot the plant.

Storing

Refrigerate unwashed beans in a bag and use them within about a week. For longer storage, blanch them for 3 minutes, cool them in ice water, and freeze.

Green beans are a low-acid food, so plain canned beans must be processed in a pressure canner; a boiling-water bath is not safe for them because of the risk of botulism. Pickled beans (dilly beans) can be water-bath canned, but only with a tested recipe.

Varieties

Variety	Pods	Notes
'Provider'	Green	Early; sprouts in cooler soil than most; good disease resistance.
'Contender'	Green	Early and heat-tolerant.
'Blue Lake 274'	Green	The bush version of the Blue Lake pole bean; round, stringless pods. Check the packet, since "Blue Lake" is sold in both bush and pole forms.
'Royal Burgundy'	Purple	Turns green when cooked; purple pods are easy to spot when picking.