We just purchased a new seeder for our Tulsa Master Gardener Seed to Supper Farm…and so far, it’s great. It’s a device called a Poly Planter Jr. At our farm we grow food to donate to area food pantries and we typically grow green beans.

For us, growing green beans at scale comes with a few challenges. First of all, we typically plant our warm season crops in plastic mulch, so when planting green beans, we need to make a hole in the plastic, did a small hole, place the seed, cover it up, and move on to the next one. When planting two rows of green beans in each mulched row (each row is 100 feet long) that’s a time consuming, back breaking project. Except now, with this new seeder, we were able to plant about 800 green bean seeds in about 5 minutes. Yes, 5 minutes. This will be a game changer for us at our farm. This week we’ll be planting okra, cantaloupe, and squash using the same system and our new seeder should make quick work of that task as well. I mentioned we planted green beans so let’s talk about growing green beans in your garden.

We tend to plant Blue Lake and Jade varieties of bush beans in our garden, but there are quite a few varieties to choose from. I mentioned that we planted about 800 seeds in our first pass. In a couple of weeks, we’ll plant some more. We do this so that we don’t get all of the beans at once giving us a longer harvest of beams. Then, when the current crop of beans is done, we’ll come back and replant. Doing this enables us to have green beans throughout most of the growing season.

For the home gardener, you’ll need to decide if you are going to grow bush beans or pole beans. Both of these are exactly what they sound like. Bush beans grow on small bush-like plants while pole beans are a vine that likes to climb up a trellis of some sort. I have grown both but tend to lean more toward the bush bean varieties at home and the farm due to space issues.

Like I said, we grow Blue Lake and Jade at our farm but OSU also recommends Contender and Derby in the bush bean category and Kentucky Blue, Kentucky Wonder, Pinto, and Meralda as pole bean varieties.

When you are planting bush beans, OSU recommends planting your beans at a rate of about 7 to 9 seeds per row. The closest our seeder allows us to plant is every 5 inches so that is what we did, but then again, we planted 800 seeds…

When growing pole beans, you will need something like a 4-to-5-foot tripod for the beans to grow up. When planting pole beans, plant 2 to 3 seeds around the base of each leg of the tripod.

Beans will do best when they are well fertilized. Let’s say you have a 10’ by 10” area where you grow beans. In this space you would sprinkle about 2-3 pounds of 10-20-10 fertilizer when you plant. Then after the plants start to flower, add about 1/2 cup of fertilizer for every 10 feet of plant/rows.

Bean plants don’t like to dry out so be sure to keep moisture in the soil for them. We have a lot of water now, but that will change in the not-too-distant future. You can tell your plants are too dry if the flowers just drop off the plant.

Beans take about 60 days to reach harvest with pole beans taking a little longer. With a 60-day harvest interval you can see how with we can get 3 crops of beans when we pull and plant again at the end of each harvest.

You can harvest your beans when they are about the size of a small pencil. You want the beans to snap when you bend them. If they just bend, you probably waited too long to harvest, and the beans will tend to be tough and stringy.

Another good thing about growing beans is that they don’t have many disease or insect issues. However, they can still fall victim to cabbage loopers, thrips, and aphids. Bacillus thuringiensis is an organic pesticide that works well on cabbage loopers, and insecticidal soap can work on aphids and thrips.

When harvesting, be gentle with your plants since you will likely be able to get several harvests from the plant. See you in the garden!

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org. Photo: OSU Ag. Comm.