How to grow snap beans

Snap beans vary in growth habit, too. Pole-type beans such as asparagus bean need a sturdy tall trellis to hold the plants. Bush-type beans such as Blue Lake need less up-front set-up and are fast and easy to pick. They are good for spaces where you don’t have the height for a bean trellis.

Snap beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) are primarily warm-season crops that grow best at average temperatures between 60 and 75 ºF. Snap beans can be tall-growing pole-type beans, half-runners, or the low-growing bush-type varieties. They are rapid growers that can produce large yields while requiring little attention.

How to Harvest Green Beans. Bush beans are generally ready to harvest within 50–55 days, while pole beans can take 55 to 60 days. The bean pods are ready to harvest when they’re four to six inches long and slightly firm, and before the beans protrude through the skin.

If you have room, start runner beans off indoors on a windowsill or in a propagator, in late April or May. Sow one bean per small pot, 5cm (2in) deep. Harden off young plants, to acclimatise them to outdoor conditions, but wait to plant them out until all risk of frost has passed, usually in late May/early June.

Plant pole beans with carrots, celery, chard, corn, cucumber, eggplant, peas, potatoes, radish, and strawberries. Avoid planting near chives, garlic, leeks, and onions. Pole beans and beets may stunt each other’s growth.

Members such as chives, leeks, garlic, and onions exude an antibacterial that kills the bacteria on the roots of the beans and halts their nitrogen fixing. In the case of pole beans, avoid planting near beets or any of the Brassica family: kale, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower.

Bush & Pole beans – All beans fix nitrogen in the soil. Plant with Brassicas, carrots, celery, chard, corn, cucumber, eggplant, peas, potatoes, radish, and strawberries. Avoid planting near chives, garlic, leeks, and onions.

Tomatoes and beans are both warm season annual vegetables, allowing them to be planted during the same general time period in spring. Then, transplant them to a garden bed and plant the bean seeds at the same time.

Good Tomato Companion Plants

Plants recommended for companion planting with tomatoes include amaranth, asparagus, basil, bean, borage, calendula (pot marigold), carrots, celery, chive, cleome, cosmos, cucumber, garlic, lemon balm, lettuce, marigold, mint, nasturtium, onion, parsley, peas, sage, and squash.

Tomatoes

Although it’s usually recommended to not plant tomatoes and peppers right after each other in the same bed every year, they can be grown together in the same garden bed (and then rotated to another bed next season).