Growing Green Beans in Zone 7b

When I was young, green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) were one of the few vegetables I would eat. I enjoyed when my mom would assign me the task of snapping off the ends. Today, while my kids wouldn’t eat them when they were little, now as teens they like them. And I’ve grown a respectable amount of them the past few years.

In recent times I’ve grown vining beans; in the past I’ve grown bush beans as well. The Ideal Market heirloom bean has done well for me of late. It’s a Romano-style bean, aka the pods are flat. Sometimes the pods get a purplish tinge or go full purple. For bush style, I like Cantare and Jade, which are both round beans (cylindrical, really). One year I grew scarlet runner beans (vining) (Phaseolus coccineus), which produce beautiful red and pink flowers. I didn’t get any actual beans til the fall, though. I believe the pods are tougher on those and we just ate the beans. If I’m being honest, I think I preserved them and we never actually ate them…

But regular green beans, we will eat!

Beans are planted directly outside, in mid-April. I’ve never tried to start them indoors and there doesn’t seem to be any reason to. I have read that you should do certain things first… inoculate the beans? Or the soil? I forget. I haven’t done it recently and it doesn’t seem to matter. They sprout pretty quickly. After that it’s mainly a matter of giving them support, if they are the vining type, and, once beans start forming, developing an eagle eye for finding them — they camouflage so well against the stems and leaves, they are easy to miss. Beans don’t need fertilizer and in fact are said to fix nitrogen in the soil. They do need full sun (at least six hours a day).

Beans have done well for me both in the ground and in containers, even relatively small containers.

Beans do not love temps in the ’90s, so any beans you pick during a heat wave may be tough or taste bitter.

It’s currently November 8 and I am still picking beans here and there (and buying them at the farmers market). And we will definitely be having some with dinner tomorrow night. Don’t let them get too big on the vine, or the pods will be tough. The pods should be swelling, but not bursting. If you miss some, just let them stay on the vine til they completely dry up, then harvest the seeds for planting next year.