How To Plant & Grow Green Beans: Tips & Gardening Advice

This ultimate guide on how to plant and grow green beans will help you in growing beans from sowing of seed to harvesting of green beans. Beans are one of the easy annual vegetable to grow.

And even if you are a beginner in gardening then too you can grow green beans with the help of this article.

Introduction

Green beans or Phaseolus vulgaris is an annual vegetable plant that can grow nearly through out the year depending on cultivar. However the best season to grow green beans is spring season. There are mainly two types of variety of green beans.

One is pole variety that grows long and the other is bush variety that is dwarf. You can grow any one among them depending on your location and choice.

Green beans have lot of health benefits. They are good source of Vitamin-K, and helps in maintaining healthy bones. Green beans are also known for reducing depression if consumed on a regular basis.

Therefore growing such an important and healthy vegetable crop is really beneficial. Let’s now learn the growing technique of this nutritional vegetable crop.

How To Grow Green Beans?

Growing Season

Green beans can grow well in USDA plant hardiness zones 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. You can sow green bean seeds either during spring or early fall season.

Potting Mix

Well unlike other vegetables such as bottle gourds, okra, etc. that grow well in sandy loam soil, green beans loves clay to silt loam soil. Therefore you do not need to add river sand for preparing potting mix for beans.

I love them growing in potting mix prepared by adding 40% garden soil + 40% bulky organic manure + 20% cocopeat. You can also add two to three handful of neem cake fertilizer along with two table spoon bone meal.

Avoid growing beans in soil that is too drained or too soggy.

Selection Of Pot

You can grow beans directly in the ground soil for best results. However if you want to grow them in pots then select any pot that is bigger than 20 inches diameter and 2 feet deep.

Make sure that your pot has at least 2 to 4 drainage holes at the bottom to remove excess water from the pot.

Propagation

Propagating green bean is quite easy. But they don’t love to be transplanted. Therefore sow seeds one inches deep and at distance of 3 feet from each other if growing bush variety beans or 3 inches from each other if growing pole variety beans.

Cover seeds with thin layer or potting mix and water immediately after sowing seeds. Keep watering when the top layer of soil seems dry. After few days you will notice growth of seedlings, thin out weak plants and only keep healthy ones.

Sunlight

Green beans love to grow well when they receive 6 to 8 hours of bright, direct sunlight daily. Sunlight is necessary for the good growth of bean plants and protection from pests and diseases. However during extreme hot weather condition bean plants stop flowering.

During this period apply good amount of water in the soil. Once the weather will cool then the plant will again resume flowering.

Watering

Green beans grow well when the soil remains moist, but this doesn’t mean to overwater. Both over watering and under watering can harm bean plants. Therefore apply water around the base of the plant when the top layer of soil seems dry.

Apply water gently and avoid splashing of water on plant parts as it can attract soil borne diseases.

Fertilizers

Green bean is a leguminous plant, hence it can fix its own nitrogen. There you do not need to add nitrogen rich fertilizers. You can add half teaspoon NPK in the ratio of 10:20:10 around the base of the plant or spray after mixing it in a litre of water.

If you want to grow green beans organically then you can add two to four handful of any bulky organic manure once after every 20 days. I prefer adding vermicompost or dry cow dung manure for this purpose.

You can also use biofertilizers such as waste decomposer or jeevamrut once after every 10 days to enhance leaf size, fruiting, and root growth.

During flowering phase add banana or onion peel fertilizers to boost flowering and fruiting.

Pests & Diseases

Pests such as spider mites, Mexican or Japanese beetles, Slugs & Snails, can damage your green bean crop. You can use yellow sticky traps and spray organic neem oil to avoid these pests.

In severe cases your plant can get affected by Alternaria leaf spot, Anthracnose, Bacterial blight, Mosaic virus, etc. Avoid splashing of water on the plant parts while watering to avoid risk of fungal diseases.

Harvesting

Start harvesting green beans when they are still young and tender. You can start harvesting pole beans in about 60 to 70 days after plantation and bush beans in about 50 to 60 days after plantation. However harvesting of beans is done in stages.

That means they will keep flowering and fruiting up to several days and you can harvest again and again according to your needs.

Author’s Note

I guess you are now clear on growing and caring for green beans. If you have any ideas, queries, or suggestions then you can comment below. You can also connect with Agriculture Review on Facebook, Instagram, and Koo.