When do you harvest pole beans

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? 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! 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. 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 hours of direct sun each day depending on the window. So that will make quite a bit of difference. 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. 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.

Let them grow and see what happens. Gardening is a glorious experiment! Thanks for asking, too. I planted 4 bush beans tendergreen improved on April 1st. 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. 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. 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. Have you got four more seeds to try again a little later?

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 mulch, or peat moss??????????????!!!!!!!!!!?????????????????????????????????????????? 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.

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. Beans are self-pollinating, so each blossom contains both female and male parts of the plant.

This means that they have the capability to pollinate themselves before the blossom even opens and forms a bean. If you're experiencing daytime temperatures of 90 degrees Fahrenheit or even higher for more than a few days at a time, that's usually the reason that your blossoms are not forming fruits.

Depending on where you live, August can bring high temperatures that can stunt bean harvests. Once those daytime temperatures start to fall, you will see new blossoms form and your harvest can begin. If you live in a really hot southern climate, you may want to adjust your planting time and try to use your beans and pea plants as a fall crop so they're not going through the extreme heat of summer.

Of course, this will definitely depend on your gardening zone and when you get frost. Where I live, beans are a warm weather plant because they are not going to survive any type of frost.

As soon as you have a hard frost, it will wipe them out. But if you live in warmer areas where you don't really get a frost, you may consider growing pole beans in the milder fall and winter months. This is a great practical question. When you are harvesting pole beans as a fresh eating bean, you want the bean to still be fairly smooth. Eating beans should snap right in two, without stringing them first. If they snap right away, without being rubbery or limp, they are perfect to eat fresh.

Of course, this means that the bean inside is more mature and is larger. To check the beans, remove the string and open the pod. As you look at the bean inside, check it for size and color. Good shelling beans will typically be more white in color, as opposed to pale green. A small or greenish bean means they are still early and should be left to mature a little longer. As the beans mature, they move from bright green to pale green, yellow, and finally white.

Once the beans are large and white, they are ideal for shelling and using like any other white bean such as navy beans. If you want pole beans for seed-saving, let them develop on the vine until they're even more bloated than for shelling.

Plant seeds one to two inches deep in rows that are six to eight inches apart. Space the rows 30 to 48 inches apart. Avoid crowding plants and allow for adequate air circulation. Pole beans can grow to be 10 feet or taller. Account for the space requirements of the staking support structures.

Germination requires temperatures of 70 degrees to 80 degrees. Seedlings emerge in eight to 10 days. Depending on the variety, pole beans take 65 to 80 days to mature. Poles are the most common, and roughened poles help the vines grow upward. Bean teepees are made from bamboo poles or saplings. Lash them together at one end and spread the untied ends out a few feet apart on the ground.

Trellises are another simple way to support bean vines. Watering Water early in the day and avoid getting the foliage wet. Pole beans require consistent moisture of about one inch per week, particularly during flowering and pod development. More watering is necessary during extremely hot and dry weather.

Harvesting Pole beans are ready to harvest one to two weeks after flowering. Harvest them when the pods are firm, smooth and crisp, but before the seed in the pod has developed fully.

Be careful, though, not to break the brittle stems and branches. You can simply push them into the soil an inch deep or make holes with a stick or something similar and drop them in. Make sure seeds are completely covered with soil. Bean seeds are quick to germinate and sprout up out of the soil. Their main requirement is that the soil be warm enough and they get enough water in the ground.

If you want more of a farm-like garden or a big harvest, plant in rows that are spaced feet apart from each other. To keep your harvest going all summer, stagger your plantings by sowing seeds every two weeks for a month or two. Water seeds and keep the soil damp while they germinate. Germination should take about days. Starting seeds indoors is generally a good way to get a headstart on the growing season.

But because beans grow quickly and are sensitive to being transplanted, the recommended method is to start them outdoors. However, if you live somewhere with a very short growing season like the far north , you can start bean seeds indoors.

Once plants flower, they start to set fruit and will continue to do so for months. To reduce transplant shock, use peat pots or some other kind of biodegradable containers.

Sow seeds only weeks before planting, since the beans will quickly outgrow their small pots. Be sure that the soil has warmed up enough outside before planting the bean seedlings in your garden, and harden the plants off for a few days to get them used to outdoor weather.

You can put a light layer of mulch or straw down around the plants to keep weeds down and moisture in. Beans have shallow root systems and will appreciate the coolness mulch will provide in hot weather. Avoid using fertilizers high in nitrogen because they will give you lots of foliage and few beans.

If you want to fertilize, a side dressing of compost after plants start blooming is the best option. The biggest maintenance required for pole beans is putting in a support system and helping vines to climb up it. Here are a few ideas for support options:. For a unique garden design, you can grow your bean plants up a low arbor like this one. Harvesting poles beans is mainly about timing. They can be picked at different stages depending on what kind of beans you want. Any time you pick beans, snap or cut them off right at their stem, and try not to rip the plant itself.