Growing Green Beans: Bush Beans and Pole Beans

Learning how to grow green beans is both easy and fun! Green beans are a great beginner gardening vegetable and a perfect addition to your garden this season.

Planting a vegetable garden can be a wonderful way to get tons of fresh produce. Green beans are a great option for beginner gardeners and those with little experience. Growing green beans is easy and takes little space, making it an optimal choice for small space gardening too.

A Beginner’s Guide to Growing Green Beans

I love growing green beans because they are easy and everyone in my family likes to eat them. To me, this vegetable is a must have in the garden plot. Although growing green beans is pretty straightforward, there are a few things to consider before planting.

Pole Beans vs Bush Beans

The two most popular types of green beans are pole beans and bush beans. All beans require a bit of support, however pole beans require a trellis to grow well and to get a successful harvest. While bush beans only require minimal support from a tomato cage or sometimes nothing at all.

Bush beans are more compact and grow only a few feet high. They prefer hot weather and full sun.

Pole beans can grow up to 15 feet high (although they usually grow to about 6 feet high) with the help of a trellis. They prefer cooler summers and can handle partial shade.

Soaking Your Seeds

Beans are one of the seeds that benefit from soaking prior to planting. Soak your bean seeds overnight in warm water and plant immediately the morning after. This help with your germination rate, in both how many germinate and how quickly your seeds germinate.

Soil Preparation and Planting

Beans need to be planted directly into the soil as they do not like to be transplanted. Plant your bean seeds 1-3 inches deep and about 6 inches apart.

Both bush beans and pole beans are warm-weather vegetables and cannot handle the frost. They do well in full sun locations and should not be planted until the last frost has passed. Beans do best with rich, well-drained soil. The soil pH should be between 6.0 to 6.8. You can add lime to the soil if the pH is below 5.8 (too acidic), or, add peat moss if your soil pH is above 7.0 (too alkaline).

Germination Rate

On average, beans tend to take about 6-10 days to germinate. Soaking your seeds will speed this up a bit. Beans like the soil temperature to be between 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit. If soil temperature are too low, it can take up to two weeks to germinate. Germination rates for bush beans and pole beans are pretty high, but it’s always smart to plant extra seeds.

How Long Does It Take For Your Green Beans to Grow?

Green beans grow quickly and it can take anywhere from 50-65 days to grow to maturity. Beans will continue to produce vegetables as long as the weather remains warm.

✅ These are our FAVORITE green beans! We always get a ton of green beans per plant!

How Much Sun do Green Beans Need?

Bush Beans require direct sunlight and summer heat. Pole beans can handle cooler summers and partial shade. However, neither variety can handle frost as they are summer plants. Although you can plant beans in any zone, cooler climates do better with pole beans, and warmer climates do better with bush beans.

Companion Planting with Green Beans

Many plants do well planted near green beans, that’s because beans boost nitrogen levels in the soil. The best companion plants include: corn, cucumber, eggplant, radish, and potatoes. However, beans tend to do well near almost any vegetable and most herbs.

Do not plant beans near: beets, onions, peppers and sunflowers

Pests and Disease

Growing green beans is a great choice for beginners because there are very few problems with pests. However, it’s always important to know about potential issues.

The most common diseases include: bacterial brown spot, halo blight and common blight. All three leave brown spots on the leaves.

The most common pests include: bean weevils, darkling beetles, cucumber beetles and stinkbugs.

When to Harvest Green Beans

Beans mature within 60 days (some sooner) and should be producing green beans at that point. Green beans should be harvested when the beans are still soft, and the inside seed it small. Beans should be about 3-4 inches long.

The more green beans you pick the more green beans you’ll get. At the height of production, be sure to pick your green beans every 2-3 days. The plant should produce well into the fall.

How to Preserve Green Beans

Green beans are delicious fresh but they are also a great option for preserving. Beans can be frozen as long as they are blanched before freezing. I freeze them in large batches and cook them throughout the winter.

Green beans can also be canned. When canning green beans, be sure to use a pressure canner as green beans are not acidic enough for water bath canning. However, you can always pickle your green beans and then use the water bath canning method.

Finally, if you want to save the bean seeds for planting the following year, allow the beans to mature fully and dry out on the vine. Then store these seeds in a dark, cool and dry location for planting the following year.

Growing green beans is a great option for beginner gardeners. Although this information may seem daunting, they really are easy to grow, mature quickly and produce a lot of food. If you’re growing a vegetable garden this year, consider green beans as a wonderful addition.

Need More Gardening Ideas: You may like Fast Growing Vegetables to Start Today. Be sure to also check out Growing Tomatoes From Seed to Harvest.

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