Hi welcome to asiangarden2table.
How to grow long bean is one of my earliest videos I posted on YouTube
Till today it has received more than 130 000 views
I want to thank you who ever watched that video and contribute a click on it.
If you haven't watched that video, I would recommend you take a look.
You will find some very useful information there
After watching that video, a lot of gardeners try to grow long bean.
I got some very good feedback from them.
They all love that texture and flavor of long bean.
So it worthes a try
Today in this video I will teach you hand by hand
how to direct long bean vines and how to prune them
Pruning is very important especially for the vegetables that grow vines.
If you prune the vegetable well, it will produce a lot of fruits in a small space.
As you know the trellis I use to grow my climbing vegetable is two bars trellis.
I have a video introduce it and another video about how to build it
If you are interested you can take a look.
This is really useful trellis
It is very simple.. I have a top bar and a middle bar
Tie a string to the top bar, pull it to the middle and tie a single knot.
And extent it to the plant
At the end of the string, I usually tie a very loose single knot to the plant
Tangle the vine with the string
I usually tie up all the strings first
So I can keep certain distance that I want them to be
For example, long bean I like to keep them about half foot apart
usually two or three vines on one string
You don't want to keep more than three
Because it will be too crowded for the vines
so when you direct the vines it is also a very good time to prune your long bean
If you look down here at the bottom of the plant
You will notice that there are some side vines growing
there are also some sprouts
The sprouts can grow into side vines or flowers
I would recommend to remove the sprouts (1 foot from ground)
Usually main vine is the strongest vine
It will produce the best fruits
Sure you want to keep the main vine
But the side vines if you have enough space on the trellis,
you can keep the strong side vines
this string i only have one vine
so I will have space for another vine
But I don't have other main vine here
So I use one of the strong side vine from this plant
Treat it as a main vine and direct it onto the string
Depending on your space, you may keep one or two side vines
I don't recommend you to keep more than two side vines
Because that means that a plant will have more than 3 fruiting vines
The more vines a plant grows the weaker the vines will be
You should direct your vines onto trellis as soon as you see the vines growing
If you do not do that early enough,the vines will tangle together
It will be a big mess
After the vines are directed onto trellis, they will grow really fast
It usually takes less than a week to climb from the bottom all the way to the top
After the vine reach the top of trellis, you will need to the tip
After you remove the tip, the plant will focus on nutrients on the flowers
And also the side vines will grow out from each leaf
About couple weeks later the leaves will grow bigger
you will notice that there are flowers grow out from each leaf
together with the flowers you will also notice that there is a new vine growing
Usually I keep 2~3 leaves on side vine and remove the tip
In this way, the side vine will grow bigger and also
will grow some flowers out from the leaves
Long bean is very productive bean
From the bottom to the top at every leaf you will see a set of flowers
Every leaf you should see a set of flowers
Usually a set of flowers can grow 2~4 beans
By properly pruning your long bean
You can have your long bean produce more beans than leaves
like here you can see there are not many leaves
But there are flowers everywhere
I'm sure I will be able to harvest a lot of beans in the next couples weeks
Usually it can keep on producing for at least four weeks
If you have any question or suggestion please leave me a message
or visit our website @ asiangarden2table.com
Thank you very much. I will see you next time!