Green beans are a staple of so many vegetable gardens because they are so easy to grow—even in limited space—and incredibly productive! Here’s how to plant, grow, and harvest green beans—both the pole and bush types.
All green beans (also called “string beans” or “snap beans”) are tender annuals. Though most green beans are indeed green, they also come in purple, red, yellow, and streaked varieties.
What’s the Difference Between Bush Beans and Pole Beans?
The main difference between the many types of green beans is whether their growing style is classified as “bush” or “pole.”
- Bush beans grow compactly (reaching about two-feet tall) and do not require extra support from a structure like a trellis.
- Pole beans grow as climbing vines that may reach 10 to 15 feet tall. Therefore, pole beans require a trellis or staking.
- Watch this video to learn how to support beans properly.
There are upsides and downsides to both types, of course:
- Bush beans generally require less maintenance and are easier to grow, but pole beans typically yield more beans for longer and are mostly disease-resistant.
- Bush beans produce in about 50 to 55 days; pole beans will take 55 to 65 days.
- Bush beans often come in all at once, so stagger your plantings every two weeks to get a continuous harvest. Pole beans need their vines to grow and will produce for a month or two if you keep harvesting.
Reader Comments
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Pole beans
Hi there.
Your articles have helped me with my garden so much. Thank you.
My pole beans are growing on their trellis and flowering and looking great. The problem is that the first part of June i started getting a handful of beans then we left for vacation for 10 days. We got back and the plants had grown a great deal but have had zero beans since then :(. I see the bees pollinating them and they are looking good and vibrant but no beans. Can you help?
Fava Bean planting
Need advice on planting depth and spacing of Fava beans (aka broad beans) in garden.
Garden in on Long Island, NY and gets full sun. This will be my first attempt at growing these beans. Thanks for all your suggestions!
Flat Green Beans
My Blue Lake green beans are flat instead of round and are a light green. Any suggestions?
Pole beans
I planted pole beans last month and they have yet to come above ground. Should I be patient or replant? I have yellow, black eye, and peans which are growing well. Please advise.
Are my bush bean sprouts too tall?
I thought about what you said and have finally figured it out. I thought I had a lot of sun but now realize it's mostly indirect sun with only 1-6 hours of direct sun each day depending on the window. So that will make quite a bit of difference. Thanks!
Are my bush bean sprouts too tall?
Thank you for your quick reply. I'd say however, it's the opposite. The beans are in a south facing window in Toronto with a great deal of light (maybe too much light) and my place on average is 75 degrees F.
I do have more seeds to try again, but are you sure I should throw these out as the plants look very healthy; just very tall.
Thanks again,
Michele
New gardener & 1st time bean grower
tendergreen improved beans
We never said throw them out! Just asked if you had seeds to try again, ideally outdoors. The conditions you describe suggest that the seedlings are reaching for the sunlight, while the (warm) room temp is conducive to growth, too. They may be/become spindly—not strong enough to bear the weight of more leaves and later, beans. Let them grow and see what happens. Gardening is a glorious experiment! Thanks for asking, too.
Are my bush bean sprouts too tall?
Hi,
I planted 4 bush beans (tendergreen improved) on April 1st. Now on April 17th, they are 11” high! They have one set of tiny leaves at 6” high and another set at the top. They look so tall and spindly that I wonder if they want to be pole beans and if I should tie them to stakes.
For details, I planted them in a 10" round by 8.5" high terra cotta clay pot. I planted them in Pro Mix (Premium Organic Vegetable & Herb) with 1/3 vermiculite. They are in a sunny window inside and I water them daily.
Should I pinch them, stake them or something else? Or is this what they should look like and I should leave them grow as they wish? I hope you can help with my dilemma.
Thanks,
Michele
New gardener & 1st time bean grower
tendergreen improved beans
By all accounts these are a good variety of bean, good to grow, good to eat, good to keep. However they do sound like they are reaching…for light. or warmth. You would have best results if you sow when the soil is above 60*F; below that means poor results. Have you got four more seeds to try again a little later?
BTW, the soil should be 60°F or so when the air is, consistently.
If ur confused about Mulch:
Mulch. Peat moss shouldn't be used as a mulch for your flowerbed. Mulches such as compost and pine straw add vital nutrients to the soil as they decompose, but peat moss doesn't. ... It's ability to hold water makes it an excellent soil additive, but not a good mulch.
So, which is better, regular
So, which is better, regular mulch, or peat moss??????????????!!!!!!!!!!??????????????????????????????????????????
Raised bed planting questions
For the background information... I am in Virginia near the coast, apparently near the edge of zone 8A and 7B depending on which source you ask. I just harvested pods that an ex had planted but not taken care of well once she realized they weren't green beans. What I see from these dried pods they were a very small black bean and another that varies between light grey / tan to light brown and visually appear to be like Kidney beans but paler in color. These beans were planted in a 9" tall planter that did ok for tomatoes and another that did incredibly well for sweet and jalepeno peppers. So now that I have pulled these beans I am looking at trying my hand at growing them next year but I have a few questions. My plan is to put the beans in a raised bed that will see both morning and afternoon sun, more afternoon than morning. Because of this I am considering planting on both sides of a trellis, one side will see more morning and one side more afternoon. I have heard the rule of about 6 hours of sun but I wasn't sure if it matters on the time of day since I have heard one is stronger than the other. I plan a raised bed since the area I want to use cannot be dug, cables underground. I would like to do 1 ft high by 7ft long by 1ft deep, it appears to be the root ball of these plants are not wide or deep, but I wonder if I should do 2ft by 6ft? It sounds like the rule is planting about every 3 inches for vine plants? And would that mean I should go every 6 inches on each side of the trellis so the plants do not crowd each other or can I plan 4 inches on each side? Essentially I think that question is focusing on is the space requirement more for the roots or the plant spacing as each side of the trellis would place the seeds about 3 inches apart with every 4 inches on each side but the plants sharing the same trellis would really be about 2 inches apart as they grow up. Is it bad to plant two beans in a hole to increase the chances of a successful growth? I am uncertain if a stronger one will take hold or if I would end up with two plants fighting for growth by doing that. My last question is just a curiosity about a previous response to a comment. It was mentioned that varieties do not grow true from parent to future seedlings, I think it was said only heirloom plants stay true. Does that mean the plant will revert to one of the original parent species over generations or will they just change from year to year. Also would it be possible given that previous statement that over generations you could end up with two very different types of bean as they revert to true form?
Trellis not tall enough
This is my 3rd year growing pole beans (Kentucky & Blue Lake varietals). I didn't add anything extra for them to climb because I thought I built my teepee tall enough. However, the runners are climbing just into the sky and wrapping around one another. I've harvested a couple nice crops already from them, and they are healthy and happy... but should I pinch the tips of the runners so that new sprouts will be the focus of the plant down below?
Pinching back Beans
Yes, pinching back the vines will encourage them to grow bushier below.
Planted Bush Beans in doors
I should have read this site first but did not.I planted Bush Beans with a grow light indoors, planning to transplant after frost outdoors. I planted them the last week in March 2018 and have now put them in separate containers with plenty of light. They are about 12" tall. What should I do are they lost with a lesson learned. I live in South East Michigan.
planting transplants
Above it says only that the plants “may not survive transplanting”—which means they may not…or they may. What to do? First do not give up. Plan to transplant these seedlings as you set out to do and see what happens. Be sure to harden them off first, so their entry into the outdoors is not a shock: give them a couple/few hours outdoors, easing into sunlight, in the weeks before transplanting. Second, which you may or may not choose to do: Buy some more seeds, even if they are not the type you planned to grow. Don’t let the season get away from you! Have a backup plan…and possibly (with the new seeds) a second harvest!
First Time Pole Beans
Hi Everyone,
My first time growing pole beans and done a lot of research. Live on the coast of SC upper-middle..I have my beans growing in a big container and I have built a teepee trellis.. Right now my plant is about 3-4" high I plan on putting my plant outside next month ..on my balcony (the only place I can garden) which is a screened in porch. I have read u can not transplant from indoors to outdoors, but I'm thinking it will be ok to move the container outdoors. My porch does not get full sun, but the heat here feels like full sun and they will get plenty of light, I hope they grow great. Will I be able to bring my plant indoors after final harvest and care for it during the winter season and if doing so, will they grow another crop next year?
Happy Growing...Ty!
Growing Pole Beans
Hi Jojo,
Yes, you can move your growing container outside without any problems. Unfortunately, your plant will not grow another harvest next year if you care for the plant over the winter. They only have the one crop in them. We hope this helps!
growing beans over the winter
Some pole beans type can over winter I think it can't freeze, no pooling water around the roots, the root part can get very large. So I would say yes you can, more research
Ripe
I am a new gardener and am wondering, how do i know when my beans are ripe! Thank You!
how do i know when my beans are ripe?
Your beans are ripe when they are about as thick as a pencil. You must continually harvest the ripe beans thru out the season, at least every 3 days or the bean plant will use all it's energy for seed production and new beans will not form on the plant.
Pioneer beans
I planted Pioneer beans in an area where I previously grew garlic. Beans have grown well to approx 8cm and then a few of them have looked sick and died from the ground up. I can’t find any culprit(s).
Sprayed beans with rogor
I sprayed my beans and 2 days later it rained all day heavily can I pick them and eat them still
Yellow Beans
So my mom decided she wants to grow some bean plants. They seem to be doing alright, they have a good amount of beans, but they're living in a window sill and they need more room to grow. Where should I plants them? Can I transplant them to outside or will they not survive? My family is very new to trying to grow things and any advice would be great!
beans on the sill
Where are you? In season (summer) there is more sunlight than in winter (the Sun is higher in the sky for longer), and plants need sunlight. And warmth. Depending on where you are you can transplant them: In the southernmost US or further south, you may have suitable conditions. Ideally, growing lights and summer temperatures would produce the best results. See more about growing beans here: https://www.almanac.com/plant/beans
THE PLANT HEIGHT OF BEANS
I would love to know the plant height of beans on weekly basis
Harvesting seeds then re growing them
Hi, i am planning on making more plants from my pole beans, if you need the variety its " kentucky blue" so can you please tell me how to get seeds then store them to grow later? thanks
Good idea! You should have no
Good idea! You should have no trouble saving your seeds. Read the advice here (and click through to the first link in this page, as well): https://www.almanac.com/content/how-save-vegetable-seeds-seed-saving-guide
For a visual how-to, here’s a video: https://www.almanac.com/video/saving-seed-how-save-your-own-seed-tomatoe...
We hope this helps!
Bush beans
All I read tells me that bush beans don't need support, but every year we get a day of high winds that beat down the beans & crack some of the plants. Do you have any suggestions for some sort of support that might work?
bush bean support?
It’s true that sometimes bush beans might lean, if as you suggest the wind blows or (in my experience) the plant are too crowded. You could try a couple of things: mulch to give the plant stems more support. We’ve seen pencil-thin bamboo sticks attached to stems with tomato ties. You might put light rope/string snug (but not tight) to the stems of several plants in a row (tie the string to a stake at either end). If you can count on the wind coming every year, you might also try wind breaks—a wall of something that will allow wind to pass through but as a structure will break the force of it, such as lattice or a wattle fence.
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