When should beans be started?

Hi all!
I wanted to start some pole beans in pots to get a head start. When should I plant them( planning on using styrofoam cups)? Also, I wanted to set up a few plantings in the garden using the pole beans and morning glory together. Any tips on doing this?
Thanks,
Sue☺

Pole beans can grow pretty big in a short amount of time. With good heat and starting them indoors you'll could easily have germination in as little as 4-6 days or so. Once they declare and are growing they'll really take off. That being said, beans, especially pole beans, really love warm feet and the soil needs to be fairly warm for good growth. You would be best off to not only find out your last frost date but also plan on setting out your beans a good two weeks or so after that date. (Setting them out in cold soil will pretty much defeat the purpose of starting them indoors as they'll just sit there and sulk, wishing they had wool socks on their cold feet!) :>)

I'm not sure why you want to plant morning glories with your beans. I'd be concerned that you'd have two vining plants competing for the same trellis or fence. Down here morning glories grow like Jack's beanstalk and that would make it difficult to pick the beans.

Another alternative to having early beans would be to sow (or pre-start) some bush beans of the purple variety (Burgundy Bush, Purple-podded bush) as they will germinate in cooler soil temps than pole beans. Or heck, do both...bush beans in a row someplace and also your pole beans. The bush beans will produce an earlier crop, then fade away, and the pole beans will follow and keep producing until cold weather kills them.

Hope this is helpful.

Shoe

Thanks Shoe!
My aunt loves the purple variety-I may get a few seeds from her just to try out. The MGs came from reading Carrots Love Tomatoes. I think the authors were trying to get gardeners to add different visual interest to gardens. You've got a great point that they will impede w/ picking(possible the growth as well?) I'm more concerned w/ having great produce over a 'pretty' garden!

Sue

Well, you're right, some of those morning glories sure are beautificous! (Is that a real word!?) I have some of the wild ones that grow in the corn fields and they are beautiful, some yellow, some blue, some violet with yellow throats. They sure can take over though unless thinned out from time to time.

Wishing you a great garden this year. Keep us posted on how things go for ya, okay?

Shoe

Thanks-I will! I'm going to try and document w/ pictures.(sometimes things get too hectic!!)
Hoping you have great gardening weather and lots of produce!
Sue☺

I planted MGs with my pole beans and the beans are growing a lot faster than the MGs. I did it for the same reason -- Carrots Love Tomatos says they're mutually beneficial, and to my recollection it was more than the beautificous factor. I hope so!

My beans had a very slow start as I planted them before the ground was over 65 degrees. Shoe is right about the warm feet.

I am much like a bean in that respect.

brigidlily, methinks we all must be descendent's of the bean family, that's why we're referred to as "human beans" (and somewhere along the way somebody mis-spelled the second word?).

Happy Day to All!
Shoe :>)

So when I was a kid and thought it really was human beans, I was right? YAY!!! That'll show my mother for correcting me!

Ahhh, warm feet! Can't wait-woke up to 29º this morn!

Ouch! I have knee-high tomato plants, with little green ones the size of my thumb! I bet you're REALLY getting antsy for spring, sandy! (I still reserve the right to gripe about the heat come July and August when the garden has keeled over from it.)

Oh I'm a little green myself(w/ envy!!). Please post pics when you are ready to pick!! This way I can dream!
I was talking to my DH the other day and we were saying how lucky you all are down south being able to start your gardens so much earlier. But we don't always realize how hot it gets and that must put a stop to the garden. Do you do two gardens: one in spring and one in the fall? Hope this doesn't sound silly!!

sandy, I'd post pics if I'd brought my camera today. I do plan to put in a fall veggie garden this year; I did it too early last year and the heat killed it. (Picture Christmas in shorts and a t-shirt.) When temps AND humidity are constantly in the 90s, everything suffers except the mosquitos! So there are advantages and disadvantages wherever you go. RI is so very beautiful; I was there many years ago.

LOl! I too do Christmas in shorts & a t-shirt: My picture is: Blazing hot woodstove-30º outside, 80º inside!
I have the same problem w/ starting things too early(frost has killed seedlings many times!). I guess it doesn't matter where we live; we are always chomping on the bit to get out and in the dirt!
RI is a very pretty state. I've always wanted to go to Texas. My DH and I always watch the rodeos on tv, if we ever get the chance we'd head down to Texas and while there catch one in person.

Our spring gardening time, especially tomatoes, is a very short season. Plants go in mid-March and by mid-July, everything is shutting down.

Y'all come on down -- we'll throw a barbecue. If I were going to visit Texas, I think I'd chose San Antonio, go see the Alamo.

brigidlily, hope to see you at the SETTFest ( http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/829891/ ). :)

I guess i'm going to have to replant mine, my seed is old, but it's the kentucky wonder with the white bean inside the green bean, and I love that bean. Seeds didn't germinate, but we've had tons and tons of rain and 28 temps too. so I'll replant, Ihope my old seed is still good.

Beans, more than most warm-season crops, absolutely need a warm soil to germinate. In cold, wet soil they will do nothing and if conditions don't improve within a couple of weeks, they'll rot. Before throwing out your seed, do a germination test inside in a warmer environment to find out if the seed is really not viable or if it was just the weather conditions responsible for the lack of germination. In my experience, bean seed stays viable for at least 5 years with no special storage conditions. I have 2 rows of Jade from Johnny's that was 5 years old and germinated at around 90%. Paul P.S. GO, SPURS,GO!!!!

This message was edited Apr 19, 2008 11:34 AM

Didn't someone find some beans in a storage pot in the Anasazi ruins, and they got some to sprout, after ??? hundreds of years?

Morning glories are wonderful, except for the zillions of seeds they sow that all come up! I knew someone who had old, unproducing apple trees that were covered by Heavenly Blues, absolutely breathtaking!

Oh, and my grand daddy had us planting them on their edge, with the eye down.