BEANS – High Country Living

BUSH BEANS

I’m quite fond of bush green beans, and when we moved up in elevation I was hopeful I’d be able to grow them here. Most gardening books/resources suggest that beans need warmth to germinate and should be planted 1-2 weeks after last frost. They also suggest that beans do not transplant well, and should always be sown directly in the ground; therefore giving them a head start indoors didn’t seem feasible. My short season here is even shorter if seeds can’t go into the ground until after last frost, and the nights are still cool at that time which may hinder germination. Sounded like beans may be iffy, at best.

HIGH ELEVATION GROWING TIP: BEANS

Start beans in soil blocks about 6 days prior to average frost date. Transplant them out just after your last expected frost. (Watch your forecast!)

The good news for beans is that using the soil-block system for starting seeds allows me to start seeds indoors that are resistant to transplanting, since they won’t be disrupted much in the process. I DO start bean seeds indoors in the mini (2″) soil blocks, and this has worked very well. When I do this, I start the seeds about 6-10 days before I intend to transplant them outside (which is generally on the average last frost date, due to conditions). I don’t want them to get too much growth in the blocks so they won’t be disturbed too much during transplanting. They will send down a long taproot right at first, and you don’t want to disturb this too much. As soon as the beans sprout they are transplanted out. The seeds sprout well in the blocks, all at about the same time, and gives me the advantage of planting the sprouts in nice, neat rows without empty spots where beans had not sprouted. Beans are generally covered with our plastic sheeting over hoops for the first week or two, to prevent them from getting too cold. If it’s really cold on a given night, frost cloth is placed on top of the beans as well.

Bush Beans are my go-to favorite. Because of our raised beds with hoops 3-4′ over the top, taller pole beans are not feasible in my garden. Since they do need to be covered, the shorter bush beans are my choice. Each season I dedicate at least one bed to bush beans. I have grown both French filet beans and snap green beans. I have grown dry beans, but with limited space and the availability of good, organic dry beans at a low price, I don’t give them space in this garden.

BEAN COMPANIONS
I generally grow bush beans in rows alongside either carrots, parsnips or beets. All are known as good companions and have worked well in my garden.

BEAN TRIALS: SPEEDY (OP)

One year I thought I would try seeding some beans directly in the garden bed rather than starting them indoors, Speedy OP. I don’t know what came over me, and I will not do this again. Many of these seeds did not sprout. I later put a few of these seeds in soil blocks and started them indoors to fill in the empty spots where there were no sprouts. Fortunately they were able to be harvested before frost. Those that sprouted and grew were very nice beans.

I’ve grown Speedy beans every year since, always starting them in blocks indoors. They do very well in my garden, except for the year the pack rats destroyed most of those that had not previously been harvested. Had I been able to harvest the remaining beans, I would have had a huge harvest of those beans.

In 2023 I tried some yellow Gold Rush Bush Wax Beans for the first time. They did very well and I plan to do them again & again.

GREENHOUSE BEANS

2019: I hadn’t thought I would want to use up too much space in the greenhouse for a crop like beans, thinking I would need to use too much space for them, but in April 2019 I dedicated an area about 30” x 8o” for beans. I had some leftover Mascotte seeds from the previous summer to plant. I knew they were compact plants, so I planted them pretty close together (maybe 6-8” apart). There were 40-50 plants in that spot. The description says that these plants will be 16-18” tall, but they hadn’t been that tall in my outdoor garden, and in the greenhouse they grew to maybe 10-12”. These little plants were PACKED with nice, tender, stringless beans. I harvested about 4.5 lbs of beans off these little plants. The beans should have nourished the soil, too. These were started 4/20 and harvested from 7/15 to about 8/4, 87 days from direct seeding to first harvest.

The following year I tried these beans again in the greenhouse, starting 1/23. Starting them this early meant it took a lot longer for them to grow to harvest. The first few beans were nice, but having started them earlier with less natural light in the winter, it took them a LOT longer to reach maturity. 136 days from direct seeding to first harvest around 6/6. After the first harvest, the remaining beans did not do well for some reason, and many shriveled up on the plants. I wanted the space for other things and lost patience waiting for more nice beans, so I ripped out the remaining plants and repurposed the area. I am not sure if I will grow beans in the greenhouse in the future. If I do, I won’t plan to start them until at least April 1.

DRY BEANS

One year I decided to grow some dry beans, “Hutterite” beans, to see how well they might do. Generally, since this garden is smaller than our previous one, I thought I wouldn’t want to use up space with dry beans since they are so inexpensive and easy to buy. But, I wanted to give these beans a try. As it turned out, I got about 1 ½ cups of beans out of one bed. These beans grew well, but were slow to reach harvest, and were barely ready when freezing temperatures arrived. All plants were pulled up and hung in our crawl space until well dried.

A few years later I thought I’d try another variety of dry beans, “Cranberry” beans. I just wanted to give the dry beans another try. These turned out okay, but due to an early frost I think I lost quite a few that could have grown to maturity. The final harvest was just less than one pound. Not worth giving up one of my raised beds!