Beans (french bush, climbing & soy)

Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris)

Sds/g: 3-5                                Feed Requirements: Low                  Opt Germ. Range: 15-19 oC

Planting & Harvesting Guide:

Cultural Notes:
- Bean seed needs a soil temperature of at least 15 ºC to sprout happily, cold soil slows germination and makes seedling very unhappy. Plant your bush and climbing bean seed at the same time. Bush beans start producing once broad beans have finished being harvested, once the bush beans are finished you can start harvesting climbing beans and runner beans. Climbing beans crop over a longer period and yiled a much larger quantity than bush beans.
- Too much nitrogen results in excess foliage, poor pod set and delayed maturity- so while some fertiliser and compost should be dug into the bed a couple of weeks before planting - go easy. Sow seed 3-4cm deep and 5-10cm apart in rows 60-70cm apart and thin seedlings once well established to 15-20cm apart. If you prefer bush beans to the climbing varieties then sow a succession of short rows every 3 weeks for fresh eating. Excess beans can always be blanched and frozen.
- Many people believe that climbing beans are tastier than bush beans, we love ours raw or steamed with butter, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice. For climbing beans set up a trellis, poles, strings or some sort of system to 2m that allows the beans to climb up before sowing seed 3-4 cm deep and 10-15 cm apart in rows 90-100cm apart, thinning established seedlings to 25-30cm.

-Soybeans are frost tender and need to be sown after final frost and when soil temperature has reached >13 degC. For faster germination sow at >20degC. In southern NSW, Vic, Tas and SA sow no later than mid November. Queensland can be sown up to mid Jan.

Problems:
- No real worries here except if your soil is not up to scratch or you were hit by some foul wet weather early on and the plants did not recover so well.
- Climbing beans loathe wind!!

Harvest:
- Best picked before the beans reach full size as they have a firmer and crisper flesh than you will find in any supermarket. Once they get more mature and the seeds start forming they tend to get more fibrous. Continually pick to increase the yield and extend harvest, although a bush beans will tend to produce all at once. Once the bush beans start to get fibrous we tend to pull them out as the climbing beans have started producing. It is essential to continually harvest climbing beans to keep the plant vigorous and producing.