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Growing beans

Bush or pole, why beans need no nitrogen, and how to keep a row picking for weeks instead of days.

Quick facts

Spacing between plants
4 in (10 cm)
Spacing between rows
24 in (61 cm)
Plants per square foot
9 per square4 per square, square foot gardening method
Sun
8+ hours a day
Water
1 in a week (25 mm)
Soil pH
6 to 7
Days to maturity
50 to 65 days
Yield per plant
0.25 to 0.5 lb (0.11 kg to 0.23 kg)
Start seeds indoors
Not started indoors — beans grow fast and dislike root disturbance.
Transplant out
Not transplanted — sow where it will grow.
Direct sow
1 week after last frost
  • Pole beans are a different plant to space: roughly 4 to 6 in apart in rows 30 to 36 in, climbing a support. The figures here are for bush beans.

Square foot gardening figures come from Mel Bartholomew’s method and assume an intensive bed of amended soil. Spacing-derived figures assume conventional rows.

Scientific name: Phaseolus vulgaris. Spacing and planting dates checked against University of Illinois Extension. Yields, days to maturity and companion lists were never systematically checked — see how this data is checked.

Work it out for your garden

How many bush bean plants fit in your bed?

48 plants — 2 rows of 24, at 4 in apart with 24 in between rows.

The spacing divides evenly into both dimensions, so the bed is fully used. Try staggered rows

Sowing dates for bush bean

Enter your frost date for bush bean sowing dates, or use the full planting date calculator for a whole season.

What will you harvest?

1.5–3 lb over the season, from 0.25–0.5 lb per plant. Add other crops

This page has the numbers for bush beans: 4 inches between plants with 24 inches between rows, nine to a square foot, direct sown a week after your last frost, an inch of water a week, and a quarter to half a pound per plant in 50 to 65 days.

One number is deliberately absent. Beans need no nitrogen fertilizer at all — they fix their own, and feeding them gives foliage instead of pods. The page also covers the choice between bush and pole, which changes both the spacing above and how long the crop lasts.

Bush or pole

This choice shapes everything else.

Bush beans grow knee-high, need no support, and produce most of their crop in a two or three week burst. That concentration is useful if you are freezing or canning, and awkward if you want beans for dinner through the summer. Sow them in succession every two or three weeks.

Pole beans climb six to eight feet, take a few weeks longer to start, and then crop steadily until frost. From the same square footage they give considerably more over a season, and picking at standing height is kinder on the back. They need a tepee, a trellis or strings.

Sowing

Direct sow about a week after your last frost date, into properly warm soil. Beans dislike transplanting and grow fast enough that there is nothing to gain from starting them indoors.

Sow an inch deep, and resist watering heavily until they are up — a bean seed sitting in cold wet soil rots. Two seeds per station, thinned to one, covers the losses.

Space bush beans four inches apart with 24 inches between rows; nine to a square foot works in a bed. Pole beans want four to six inches along the base of their support.

Why you should not feed them

Beans host bacteria in root nodules that convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form the plant can use. Given nitrogen fertilizer, the plant takes the easy route: lots of leaf, few pods, and the nodules do not form properly.

So skip the nitrogen entirely. If a soil test shows phosphorus or potassium are low, address those. Otherwise a bean bed needs nothing beyond reasonable soil, and the crop leaves the bed slightly better than it found it — which is why beans are a useful thing to rotate through a bed before a hungry crop like brassicas.

Water

An inch a week, with particular attention during flowering and pod set. A dry spell at flowering costs pods directly. Water the soil rather than the foliage: wet leaves spread rust and anthracnose, both of which show up on beans given the chance.

Mulching helps, and so does spacing that lets air move between plants.

Picking

Every two or three days, and pick young. A pod picked while the seeds inside are still small is tender; one left to bulge is stringy, and worse, signals the plant to stop. This is the whole technique of getting a long harvest out of beans.

Pick with two hands — one holding the vine, one pulling the pod — or you will pull whole stems off a pole bean.

If a row gets ahead of you, let the remaining pods fill out completely and dry on the plant, and use them as shelling or dried beans instead. A crop that has gone past its best for fresh eating has simply become a different crop.

Common trouble

Mexican bean beetle larvae skeletonise leaves from underneath. Hand-picking the yellow egg clusters early is the effective response.

Rust and anthracnose both appear as spots on leaves and pods in humid weather. Space generously, keep foliage dry, and do not work among wet plants.

Nothing setting in a heat wave is temporary rather than a problem to solve.

Growing alongside bush bean

Good neighbours

Corn, Cucumber, Squash, Marigold

Keep apart from

Onion, Garlic, Fennel

Watch out for

  • Rotting seed in cold soil
  • Mexican bean beetle
  • Rust
  • Anthracnose

Companion planting pairings are traditional garden practice rather than settled science. Spacing, sun and water do far more for a crop than its neighbours do.

Bush bean questions

Should I grow bush beans or pole beans?
Bush beans crop heavily over two or three weeks and need no support, which suits freezing and preserving. Pole beans take longer to start but then produce steadily until frost from a fraction of the ground area, which suits fresh eating from a small bed. If you have anything to climb up, pole beans give more food per square foot.
Do beans need fertilizer?
Not nitrogen. Beans fix their own from the air through bacteria on their roots, and a nitrogen feed gives you a large leafy plant with few pods. Phosphorus and potassium are useful if a soil test shows they are low. This is the most common mistake made with beans, and it is made by people trying to be helpful.
Why did my bean seed rot instead of coming up?
Cold, wet soil. Beans are one of the crops most likely to rot rather than germinate if sown too early, and no amount of care compensates. Wait until a week after your last frost date and until the soil is properly warm. A sowing made two weeks later will usually overtake one made too early.
How often should I pick beans?
Every two or three days once they start. A pod left to fill with seed tells the plant its work is done and production drops off sharply. Regular picking is the single thing that turns a fortnight's crop into a month's. Pick in the morning when the pods are crisp.
Why are my bean flowers dropping without setting pods?
Heat, usually — beans set poorly when days are consistently above about 90F. Dry soil during flowering makes it worse. The plant is not damaged and will set again when the weather moderates, so keep it watered and wait rather than pulling it out.
Can I sow beans more than once in a season?
Yes, and for bush beans you should. A sowing every two or three weeks until about ten weeks before your first fall frost keeps beans coming continuously rather than in one overwhelming flush. Pole beans need only one sowing, since they carry on all season by themselves.

Other crop guides

Calculators for this crop

Last updated

Written by Muzamil Ali. The figures in the quick-facts table are typical published ranges that have not yet been checked against a primary source, so treat them as a starting point and defer to your local extension service. See the disclaimer and how these pages are made.