How to Grow Healthy Beans

There is nothing nicer than home grown beans. A fresh bean with that snappy crunch when you are eating them raw is priceless. You can’t get that crunch from shop bought beans, as they have been off the bush for too long. They are a warm season crop and are perfect for putting into summer salads. Beans(Phaseolus vulgaris are in the Fabacaeae family along with many other common plants. There are many different types of beans, runner, scarlet, board, french and more. Most beans are annuals. This means that they live between 6-12months. But Runner/Scarlet beans (Phaseolus coccineus are perennial beans and die back over autumn/winter to re-emerge in spring. They are also known as the Seven year bean because that is how long they live. Like all climbing plants, beans need support, even the dwarf varieties. However, the climbing varieties produce more beans than the dwarf (bush) ones. In warm climates, beans can be grown all year round, which gives you an excellent supply of fresh vegetables.

Cultivation Notes.

As with all vegetables, beans need a full sun position which gets 6-8 hours of sunlight each day. Beans along with other legumes such as wattles and green manure crops are able to fix nitrogen gas from the atmosphere. There is a symbiotic relationship between the roots and a bacteria called Rhizobium. The nitrogen is stored in the roots in swellings called nodules. The nitrogen is released into the soil when the plant dies and decomposes. Green manure crops such as russel lupins are often grown to about 50cm, then dug into the soil to refresh the nitrogen content of the soil. Beans are a great vegetable to plant after cool season broccoli and cauliflower which use up all the nitrogen present in the soil.

Beans like a pH of between 6-7 and if it is slightly on the alkaline side that is fine with them. Remember to lower your pH you add sulfur and to raise your pH you apply lime. In readiness for your planting beans whether seed or seedling, the soil needs to be open, friable and well drained. As with peas, bean seeds will rot if the soil is too moist. I recommend incorporating blood and bone, compost and cow or sheep manure. Another secret in the soil preparation is too add some potash. Once the beans have germinated you can apply a small amount of pelleted chicken manure. Liquid feeding regularly also helps to keep the plants healthy. But remember, too much nitrogen will prevent them from flowering and cause soft sappy growth which is prone to insect attack and fungal disease.

Hint: It is a good idea when they first start flowering to side dress the plants with a high potassium fertilizer.

For growing beans I think the ridge and furrow style is best as it makes picking and watering the beans much easier. To create a furrow, with your spade dig a trench on one side and pile the soil on top of the already existing soil. Then on the otherside do the same thing, piling the soil on top of the already existing soil. Using the back of a metal rake flatten the top of the ridge. This is where the beans are planted. The benefits of this method are that the soil drains really well, it is easy to walk along the furrows and they allow the moisture to slowly seep into the soil.

Seeds Versus Seedlings

I prefer to grow beans from seeds and sow directly into the veggie patch. I would only recommend sowing seeds in punnets to start them off is if your area prone to frosts. Beans hate frosts and it is important to know when frost finish in your area, so you can plan when to plant your seeds. I also find as beans seeds are big, that planting them in pots isn’t satisfactory. Often small pots are used and the beans pop out. This especially applies broad beans which have a large seed. It is also the fuss that you need to bestow on the punnets, making sure the soil doesn’t dry out or the cat decide it is a lovely place to sleep.

To ensure the seeds germinate, the soil temperature needs to be between 15C – 24C and the air temperature needs to be at least over 15C. Once the temperature goes over 30C for long periods, the plants will shut down and stop growing. Of course we can’t control the weather, but this is handy information because it explains why some years the yields are poor.

Staking

Beans as with any climbing plant need some sort of structure to climb on. Some bean varieties can grow as tall as 2 meters. Pole beans which are excellent for small gardens and need a pole with some sort of chicken wire wrapped around them, so the beans can climb up. Dwarf beans only grow about 30cm high and will also benefit from having a least one wire to twine around. For ordinary beans there are several options. One is to put some tomato stakes at each end of the row and run twine or wire the entire length. Wrungs need to be about 30cm apart with the lowest one between only about 5cm -10cm from the soil. This allows the bean tendrils to attach to the wire and start climbing.

Or you can make your own obelisks out of bamboo or cane stakes. There are also metal ones available. From personal experience I have discovered if using obelisks to only put 1 plant per structure. There needs to be at least 50cm between each obelisk to prevent fungal diseases developing. The secret of growing beans is space which allows between plants. This allows good air circulation and sunlight to penetrate to the leaves. Space also helps stop the spreading of disease.

One thing I have learnt that the obelisk system doesn’t work for broad beans. The best trellising method is the old stake in the ground with string or wire running the length of the bed. I found with the obelisk that the broad beans got powerdery mildew, it wasn’t easy to pick the beans and the structure obscured the air flow. That year, I didn’t get many beans.

For perennial beans such as scarlet runners trellis and chicken wire are excellent supports especially if they are up against the fence or the shed. Another interesting trick is to mix them in with other plants over an arbor, as the flowers are gorgeous and they are quite an attractive garden feature!

Flowering

Climbing beans takes between 10-12 weeks before the beans are ready to harvest and dwarf beans take between 8-10 weeks. It is a good idea to pick the beans daily as this will encourage the bush to produce more.

Beans are self-pollinating flowers so theoretically you only need one plant. However, you won’t have many beans, it is better to have a row of them. Cross pollination by insects is possible but is rare because pollination occurs before the flower opens. Inside the petals, the anthers are pushed up against the stigma which promotes automatic pollination when the anthers open. Because beans rarely cross pollinate each other, no hybridization occurs between different varieties, so you can plant different varieties close together.

Watering

Beans with other large seed plants are prone to rotting and the leaves are prone to fungal diseases. It is recommended once you have planted the seeds only water them once. Begin watering again when you see the first leaves appearing. For all your vegetables, I recommend you water them early in the morning. This allows all day for the leaves to dry. If you water them in the evening, the leaves don’t dry and mildew develops. Another trick is to water at ground level as overhead watering causes the fungal spores to be splashed up onto the foliage.

Hint: It is important when the beans are forming, that you keep the water up to the plants.

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Pests and Diseases

I don’t have much trouble with pests, except when the seedlings are young. Snails and slugs love young plants, so it important to protect them. You can try picking them off by hand, especially after rain or use a snail trap of beer in a glass jar 1/2 sunken into the ground. They crawl in, get drunk and drown. There is also the finely crushed egg shells circle, that you put around each plant which they hate crawling over. There is a new product for pots, which is a copper strip that you attach around the pot. There is also a spray to repel them with but I haven’t tried it.

If you are having trouble with caterpillars, then I suggest using an organic spray called Dipel which the active ingredient is Bacillus thuringiensis. It won’t harm you, your children, pets or other beneficial insects. Longlife pyrethrum is also good for sap sucking insects such as white fly and aphids, but also kills caterpillars earwigs.

I have more trouble with diseases, especially powdery mildew. It has a dramatic effect on the plants, causing the beans to taste bitter and horrible. It also reduces the amount of beans you will harvest. To try and control this disease you can mix one level teaspoon of bicarb soda into one litre of water. Add one litre of skim milk and a pinch of Condy’s Crystals which you can get from a produce agent (someone that supplies fed etc to horse owners). Spray it on the leaves every two weeks. Remember, only make a small amount, as this type of spray does not keep – the skim milk will go bad and smell disgusting. There is also a good lady bird which can be identified by yellow and black bands. She eats the mildew, so don’t kill them.

If your plants get rust, which usually presents itself under the leaves and is the colour orange, stop watering over head and try increase the air circulation. There are chemicals that will control it, but won’t get rid of it completely. They are strong chemicals I don’t like using them.

Hint: To help control the build up of pests and diseases, I recommend practicing crop rotation.

Harvesting and Saving your own seed

To tell if the bean are ready to pick they should be about 8-15cm long, a nice colour green and be firm to touch. The best way to tell if they are ready is to harvest one and eat it. Harvesting time varieties from season to season and from temperature zone to temperature zone. It depends on how warm or cold it has been while the flowers and pods are developing.

If you decide to save your own seed, leave some of the pods on the bush and let them ripen. The pods will turn brown and start splitting. This means they are ready to harvest. Take the seeds out of the pods and store them into a clean glass jar or brown paper bag, label them with what variety they are and the date. Place them in a dark, dry and cool place. Don’t store any that are soft or have mildew on them.

Growing Broad Beans

I am not a big fan of the taste of broad beans, but have discovered that I like eating them (pods and all) straight from the bush when they are very tiny. They taste great. Broad beans are a winter crop and do well in temperate and tropical areas over the colder months. They do best where the soil temperature is between 6C and 24C but don’t like frost prone areas. If flowers form they won’t set pods if there has been frosts. They are best planted directly into the soil about 5-10cm deep with about 15cm-20cm apart. Rows need to be about 70cm apart. This spacing allows the air to circulate freely and helps keep them free from fungal disease. You can start harvesting from 12 weeks on, depending on how cold it is.

Hint: To encourage broad beans to flower laterally, pinch the apical merristem out (this is the tip of each vertical stem)

Growing Runner/Scarlet Beans

These beans are perennial. I recommend you plant them somewhere where there is a structure for them to twine around and when you see you new growth popping up that you apply a small amount of blood and bone, compost and animal manure to help them getting going again. A handful of potash around each plant will also encourage them to develop healthy flowers. Picking the beans daily will encourage a higher yield. In autumn when the plant is dying down, don’t cut off the foliage until it is brown and dead.

Beans are a good summer crop and will produce a high yield per plant if you look after them and provide them with their cultural requirements. Lots of space, sunlight, air and not too much nitrogen. A climbing frame of some sort is also essential, even for the dwarf variety. You can’t beat fresh beans from the garden.

Sandra Pullman B.App.Sc. (Hort) Hons. Burnley-Uni Melb. Horticulturalist to ABC TV’s Gardening Australia Viewers Emails.

Have a look at my other articles for advice on general garden and how to grow a range of vegetables

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