How to grow beans: Beans farming guide for beginners from planting to harvest.
Learning how to grow green beans or dry beans from seed is not hard.
Just a few simple steps and you’ll be eating fresh green beans in no time.
There are several varieties of green beans or dry beans that can be grown on the homestead
or in the backyard vegetable garden.
The dry bean is an important field crop because of its high protein content and dietary benefits.
Fortunately, it’s not necessary to start seeds indoors when you grow green beans or
dry beans.
They prefer to be planted directly into garden soil since they don’t transplant well, although
soaking the beans first for 24 hours will help speed up germination by two to three
days.
All beans can be grouped into one of two categories depending on how they grow.
Beans can be eaten in the young, green pod stage, called snap beans, or in the mature
dry stage called dry beans.
These terms can be used to describe any variety or species of bean.
The first type of green bean is a bush bean.
Bush beans are shorter beans that only grow to be about 2-feet or 60cm in height.
However, they don’t require any trellises because if planted correctly they basically
stretch out and lean on one another for support.
Also, bush beans have many popular varieties such as Sugar beans which are closely related
to pinto beans, Contender, Blue Lake, Provider, and Tendergreen.
The second type of bean is pole beans.
Now, these beans grow to be about 8 to 10 feet (2.4 metres to 3 metres) in height.
Even so, these beans certainly need a trellis because of how tall they grow.
However, most people grow these beans on teepees.
They are obviously going to be much easier to harvest because they grow so tall, and
they are also great producers as well.
The varieties of these beans available are Butter beans, Rattlesnake, Fortex, and Kentucky
Wonder.
There are several other species of beans, including runner beans, lima beans, cowpeas,
and soybeans.
The bottom line is what you are going to learn in this tutorial is going to work on any type
of beans that you are going to grow.
Although varieties and species are different, the growing concept remains the same across
the beans farming world.
In this tutorial you will learn how to do land preparation before planting the beans,
how to sow bean seeds, whether to use previously harvested beans or buy new seeds from the
store, how to fertilize the beans using compost or animal manure or how much synthetic fertilizer
to use if you don't have organic manure, how to irrigate your bean plants, when to harvest
and diseases and pests to watch out for.
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Beans grow best in full sun, planted in well-drained and warm soil.
Prepare soil ahead of time.
When planting, use animal mature or aged compost and this should be all the fertilizer you
need if you have healthy soil.
A clever technique to boost growth is to create a compost trench.
Dig out a trench or holes about a foot (30cm) deep where your beans are to grow.
Fill the holes up with animal manure.
Personally I use chicken manure when growing beans.
If you use this technique your beans will thrive as you will see in this tutorial.
Where animal manure is not available, synthetic fertilizers can be used, but personally I
don't use store fertilizers at all at my homestead.
Whatever I grow, I always use chicken manure, duck manure or rabbit droppings.
However, pig manure, goat manure or even compost will also help you get a good harvest even
if you decide to do away with synthetic fertilizers.
Beans produce nitrogen so it is important not to use too much fertilizer.
Sugar beans or pinto beans should be planted in well-drained soil as they are sensitive
to acid soils.
Bean growers are advised to plant fresh seed from farmers’ markets, although dry seed
is fine provided it is not too old.
If you are going to use synthetic fertilizers, then apply the fertilizer accordingly at a
rate of 250kg per hectare of Compound D fertilizer drilled in with the planter, or broadcast
with a Vicon before the final discing before planting your dry beans or sugar beans.
About a month after sowing the seeds, apply Calcium Sulfate (Gypsum) at a rate of 250kg
per hectare as a top dressing just prior to flowering as this will help with pod set.
If a previous crop's residue has been ploughed or disced in, then extra nitrogen will be
needed to help with the composting or breaking down of the material.
If you are going to use organic manure, then you don't need any synthetic fertilizers throughout
the season.
Beans will do best with a soil pH of 5.5 to 5.8.
Beans are very sensitive to acidic soils.
If the pH is not at these levels then apply lime as per soil sample recommendations.
Soil temperatures need to be at least 60-70°F (15.5°C to 21.1°C).
If not, germination will be slower.
Another way to speed germination of seeds is to wait until soil is at least 70°F (or
21.1°C).
Green beans and dry beans are not frost tolerant so they need to be planted after threat of
frost has passed.
As this is an international tutorial, I will not mention the specific months to plant beans
since they vary from one country to another, depending on when they have their winter.
However, the bottom line is plant your beans anytime between 14-28 days before the last
frost date and 80-133 days before the first frost date.
Sow beans where they are to grow, against their supports if you are growing pole beans.
Bush beans varieties do not need supporting.
The spacing to work with when sowing your bean seeds is four to six inches apart (10-15cm
apart) with 18 inches (45cm) spacing between rows.
Bush beans should be planted in linear rows to support each other.
Use a hoe to scratch out rows or dig individual planting holes with a trowel.
Drop in two to three seeds per hole and these two or three seeds should fall about one inch
(2.5cm) apart, and are one to two inches (2.5cm to 5cm) deep within the same hole.
You can build bamboo trellises for pole beans before planting the seeds.
If your home is barricaded with fence, you can plant your pole beans or butter beans
next to the fence, so that you use the fence as a trellising system for the beans.
Garden spacing is the same whether growing for seed or to eat.
Growing pole beans gives you the advantage of maximizing your space, and the beans grow
straighter and are easier to pick.
Bush-type bean plants need no support, require little care, and can be picked whenever you
are ready to cook or freeze them.
They typically produce an earlier crop too, so successive plantings may be necessary for
a continual harvest.
Water in the morning so the plants can dry rapidly and avoid fungal disease.
Water moderately to half an inch of water per week, which is about 13mm per week, and
avoid watering the plant tops.
Beans require a minimum of 400mm to 500mm rain fall during its growing season but totals
of 600mm to 650mm is considered ideal.
Irrigation is also required where the crop is growing before or after the rainy season,
however, the best time to grow beans is just before the rains have started.
In most African countries, they plant beans and maize or corn together, so that when it
rains the maize helps protect bean flowers from being destroyed by heavy rain drops.
The critical growth stage requiring rainfall or irrigation is during flowering and pod
set.
Irrigation should stop when roughly 25 percent of the bean pods have turned yellow.
When flowering starts, that is the time to apply top dressing fertilizer Calcium Sulfate
(Gypsum) at a rate of 250kg per hectare.
If you use animal manure or compost or any other organic manure, then you don't need
to apply top dressing at this stage, but if you add extra manure to your beans you would
have done extremely well, and they will reward you with more flowers and a subsequent better
harvest.
Continue watering your beans 2 to 3 times a week.
The maximum temperature during the flowering period should not exceed 30°C (or 80°F)
as high temperatures will cause flower drop and thus low pod set, resulting in depressed
yields.
Any weeds that do peek through should be removed by hand to avoid disturbing the bean plant’s
roots.
Give the weeds to your ducks or backyard chickens.
Weeds and garden waste are ducks' favourite food.
Beans can be harvested in the snap/green stage, the shelling stage, or the dry stage.
Snap or green beans are ready for harvest when the pods are still tender, before the
seeds start to swell.
Shelling beans are ready for harvest after the pod has changed color and the beans have
plumped, but before the pods and seeds have dried.
Dry beans are ready for harvest when the pods are dry and brittle and the seeds inside are
hard.
Beans can be stored dry for months or years.
They last in the refrigerator for about a week.
Common problems beans farmers face include: Bean weevil, stem nematodes, downy mildew,
leaf and pod spot, chocolate spot, black bean aphid, bean seed beetle, bean rust, sclerotinia,
cutworms, white mold and mosaic viruses.
Most fungal diseases can be prevented or treated if spotted early by simply applying Neem oil
or copper oxychloride.
Apply once in two weeks or when necessary.
For cutworms, white grubs that eat your beans roots and other pests, apply lambda twice
a month or when necessary.
Common beans can be affected by a number of diseases.
Some of these diseases can remain in the soil for several years, so grow your beans in different
areas of the garden each year.
To prevent the spread of fungal and bacterial diseases among plants, avoid working in your
bean patch when the foliage is wet.
The best way to get rid of beetles and bugs that might eat the leaves of your plants is
to pick them off and toss them into a jar of soapy water.
If you see a white film on the leaves, pull them off and throw them away.
Dilute one part powdered milk in nine parts water and spray plants once a week.
This neutralises the infection at the early stages and prevents further infestation.
Diseases such as rust, angular leaf spot, anthracnose and viral diseases should be kept
under check with fungicides such as neem oil and copper oxychloride or mancozeb.
The farmer should constantly check for pests such as bean fly maggot, aphids, thrips and
bollworms.
Towards the end of the season it’s worth leaving a few pods of open-pollinated or heirloom
varieties to dry out on the plant.
Shell the dried pods then bring the beans inside to dry further in an airy location.
Store the beans in paper envelopes, labeled with the variety and date, then use them for
next year’s crop.
After harvesting your beans, plant your cabbages on the same field, as beans leave a lot of
nitrogen in the soil and that nitrogen will help you harvest healthy and big cabbages.
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