Green Beans

My beans are grown & flowered. They have baby beans, & I have even picked a cup of nice long beans. Now what do I do. Do I need to wait until they flower again,make more beans? What do I need to do in the mean time? Do I water, & start the cycle over. The reason I ask is because in the past, they only make l crop. I hear people talking about all season all crops. How many times will the beans flower & fruit in a season.?

Depends on what type of beans you planted...

If you planted bush beans, they will pretty much produce their crop all at once and they are done. Pole beans, if you keep them picked, will keep producing until frost...

Thanks so much. Am I the only one that didn't know that. My beans are unfortunely bush type. Can I plant another crop or is it too late. I live in South Texas.

It's too late here - zone 9a - so depends on your zone. Hopefully one of the Texas folks (Linda, Steph - where are you?!?!) will chime in...

Bush beans are good beans - I plant a lot of them. But if you want continued harvest, you need the pole beans and give them something to climb... You'll have beans coming out your ears...

I planted bush beans last summer that pretty much produced all summer. I picked the beans as soon as they were ready; as with most plants if you let them get ready to seed or close to it they have done their job and are pretty much done. I did harvest a lot more at the beginning and was able to give away plenty to family/friends; by the end of the season I only had enough for our dinner- but that was good enough for me.

I used to plant bush beans, but now that I'm "older" all that bending is hard on the back, so I grow pole beans, and pick standing up!

As a child we grew scarlet runner beans. I had never seen bush beans until I came to America.

My Fortex Pole beans are starting to climb the twine, I can't wait to taste them. Gardeners here at DG say they have a great flavor.

We only have bush beans right now. We missed the opportunity to plant pole beans this spring, so maybe I'll try some in the fall.

Kelly, are your beans setting beans yet? Mine are slow. I checked them tonight and half my row is the wide flat beans and the other half is the kind I sent you. Planted the same day and the wide ones have beans and the others don't.

Steph - I seem to have better luck with beans in the fall. Probably a timimg thing on my part - lol...

Quyen - Yard Long Beans do well in the heat. My friend planted them here last summer and they grew like gangbusters.

Jim - they are full of blossoms - all my beans are - but just a few beans here and there on the bush beans. None on the pole beans yet:o(

May be that I'm just in a hurry for the first mess. Maybe the flat ones come off earlier. Oh well, I'll just have to be content with squash and cucumbers.

Oh, squash I have... Practically coming out my ears - lol... And lots of peppers and 'maters though few blushing yet except the cherries and Bloody Butcher. Oh, and I got 1 ripe one today off Steak Sandwich. That was the first fruit to set, so I hope to have a steady ripening from here on out. With our mild spring I think this will be a bumper tomato year. Most years it gets so hot so early that they stop setting fruit.

I've got great tomatos but none will ripen. Just keep getting bigger and bigger. Got my seed started for the black tomatoes, giant belgium and muckovich. They are about a foot high. Didn't plant any of the rutgers, just ran out of room. I finally got 1 seed of the Yolo Wonder up and it is in the garden. Finally started growing this week.

Maybe you have green tomatoes! LOL

We have tons of maters, too, and none are getting ripe. Of course, I have no idea what kind of maters these are as these are volunteers.

I finally got a ripe one today, stephanietx. My wife was so happy. She has been wanting to fry some green ones but our deal is "after the first ripe one."

LOL Jim -that's pretty funny... Now it's on, huh? Fried green tomatoes for everyone!

It is on for her. Only two things I don't like to eat, hominy and fried green tomatoes.

And you're from the South? LOL!

That would be like me saying I don't like refried beans and carne asada - lol...

You are definitly right. Maybe I ought to move to your area because I love refried beans and carne asada. Don't really know what the carne asada is but I bet I like it.

If you like meat you'll like carne asada...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carne_asada

The last two years I've done a few bush beans, contender type. Last year I planted late (closer to the end of April) and had poor results. This year planted them in March (only seven plants) and they did fairly well and produced enough for four servings. Two of the plants are still flowering and some more beans are growing so I'm hoping for two more serverings worth (but I'm feeling doubtful).

I really don't have anywhere for pole beans or I would definitely try those.

So - the lesson I learned - next year plant again in early March but do at least twice as many.

I also have a question for anyone knowledgeable about saving bean seeds:

Since last years crop was a failure I haven't saved bean seeds before - I always let a few plants go to seed to store them for next year.

I have three individual pods that are over 6" at this point that I intend to use as seeds for next year. How long do I leave them on the plants? We ate some of the beans for dinner last night, and they were very tasty, but I noted that even the longer 5" pods didn't have viable seed yet.

Should I wait until the pods are opening up on their own?

Thanks!

I let mine dry on the stalk. Then I put them inside to storage building and forget them for about a month. Then I shell them and put them in the freezer.

Jim41 - What kind of container do you use to store your beans in the freezer? I've tried asking my hubby to save some bean seeds for next year, but he always ends up eating them!

I usually just put them in a zip lock freezer bag.

I'm surprised to hear that you 'freeze' the bean seeds..??.. I would've thought that it would kill any growing capability..??..

I always keep my seeds in the freezer. They will keep forever. Been doing it for years.

I keep my seeds in a zip lock bag in a screw top container (like old peanut butter tub and such) and in and storage tub with locking lid in the stouage shed all year round seed keep for 2 to 4 year but we plant quite a bit and save every few every few years or when we have an unusual big crop with large seed base . it is what my grand pappy did for years .

Thanks for the bean-keeping tips :)

My Fortex beans are nearly as tall as I am, but have yet to bloom. I hope they don't get much taller or I won't be able to reach them! It will also be hard to get at the Japanese Beetles when they arrive!

Jim - finally getting a few bush beans and dragon tongue, but the Kentucky Wonder and the ones you sent me are so far just full of blossoms. Hope that means beans galore soon!

Hi Kelly, I had ordered seed to the real wide green bean (can't think of what you call them) we have had 2 small messes from them and picked 2 gal. today. The ones like I sent you are just now putting on beans and blooming like crazy. I believe we are in for a bumper crop with them. Hope yours do well and you like the flavor.

Another plant of my contender bush type has started to flower again. So...three out of seven re-flowering. We've had a good bit of rain and not quite as hot this last week, so maybe that has something to do with it.

Only one of the three long (six inch plus) pods looks like it's drying. It's much closer to white now than green. I guess I plan on leaving it on the plant until it looks like it's going to split open.

Maybe we'll get a total of six servings afterall. (that's for two people- three servings each off seven plants).

~

It does make sense to keep them in the freezer, ya'll know about the giant seed bank in Norway right?

newoleansdude - Yep, I've heard/read about the giant seed bank in Norway. That place came to mind immediately Jim said he froze his bean seeds. However, I sometimes wonder if that seed bank will really work. Do they ever try planting some of the seeds to see if they are still viable?

I've got Contender bean babies!!

hay honey bee; here is a site you and others might love .save it its out of print and is worth it's weight in gole for seed growing .

http://www.backyardgardener.com/tm.html


It was given to me .

Congratulations, stephanie! That's a nice photo ^_^

Thanks for the link Sqt Yates.

When I order seed and they come in, I put them straight in the freezer. I've been doing it all my life and my dad before me. I never have any problem with them coming up. I freeze all my seeds including tomato.

Hay Jim did you have the site i posted ?

Nope I didn't have it. Thanks for sending it.

By the way, when you take seed out of the freezer, be ready to plant them and only take out what you can plant. Thawing and refreezing will ruin the germination.

thats true i think it on there it's a good bit of information to read i have printed in Lg print so i can read it LOL I dont like wearing my glasses all the time .

Make sure they are completly dry before freezing them. When completely dormant they will last for years in the freezer, versus 3- 4 in normal storage. Picked two bushels of Contender, Valentino and Hialeah yesterday. Poles beans are not ready yet. In this area bush beans are several weeks earlier and with succession planting produce more per unit of land.